In San Francisco, anyway, having &quot;a decent apartment to myself&quot; and &quot;a decent car&quot; already seems like a huge extravagance.  Median 1BR rent is $3,620, add $300&#x2F;mo for parking and let&#x27;s say $300&#x2F;mo for a car lease, you&#x27;re at $4,200ish before any sort of food, travel, etc.  Even if you&#x27;re making nominally $120k&#x2F;year, you need a lot of frugality to make that work.<p>I remember moving to SF and making ~$110k, and renting a ~$2500 studio in a mediocre part of town with no car (I got a motorcycle eventually) and it was difficult to save any money, even if I wasn&#x27;t bankrupting myself.