&gt; And start looking at jobs you think you might enjoy that are outside the Bay Area. Life is a lot less stressful if you&#x27;re in a situation where you can save some money without worrying about every single purchase you make. Even a $50k-60k salary which many here might scoff at can take you far in a much cheaper area of the country.<p>Generally good advice, but here&#x27;s the thing that often goes undiscussed when talking about cost of living: Many big expenses do not scale with the cost of living. If I have a $80K student loan. It&#x27;s $80K no matter where in the country I am living. So I&#x27;d rather go for the high salary&#x2F;high cost of living than the low salary&#x2F;low const of living, in order to maximize the ability to pay for these fixed costs. Cars are the same way.