I have no interest in moving to SF mostly because of the rent. Spending 33%+ of your paycheck on rent is absurd. I'd rather get a remote job and live somewhere cheap enough to where I could potentially put a down payment on my own place.
The nicest, most expensive 1 bedroom apartment I can find in $my_medium_sized_city is $1200/mo. Brand new, great view, walking distance to everything...I don't even own a car anymore.
Any kind of six figures goes very, very far if you are willing to be away from the center of the universe. If living in SF to work at a startup with options is speculating in penny stocks, living in a second or third tier city and squirrelling away a nice chunk from $120k a year is buying bonds. Lower variance, lower maximum rate of return.
