Hacker News Reader

$85k adjusted for CPI is something like $113k today. Microsoft is in Redmond not Seattle. Hard is certainly relative but living in the suburbs of Seattle, fresh out of college making $113k is nearly objectively not hard.

Don't know about 2004, but Redmond housing is now more expensive than Seattle!

You can find a decent room in a share for $1500 in any city in the USA, and significantly less than that in most. When you're 22, that's pretty much 100% of your mandatory expenses, beyond maybe $200/mo in food and $100/mo for an unlimited transit pass or $10/mo to own/operate a bike.

Everything on top of that is gravy, especially when you're working at a tech company that pays for your healthcare and a lot of your food and coffee and maybe your commute.

No, I easily supported a family of 3 on that in 2016 in the Seattle area. For a single guy, he'd be living well.