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Comment by killjoywashere | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I read news in a way other people don't. Maybe I'm wrong? Here's the lessons I take:

* Prices are crazy in the City. Lesson: don't try moving to the Bay area without $1-2M in cash on hand.

* Student loans are predatory. Lesson: avoid student loans. Study hard, get scholarships if it's obvious that you can, and otherwise plan for community college for the first couple of years. No one cares where you did English 101.

* Government research grants are shrinking. Lesson: don't waste time seek research support from the government. There are plenty of other folks looking for ways to spend their money. My job is to show them a way.

The most valuable things you have are time and health. Focus on conserving those.

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I don't think "don't try moving to the Bay area without $1-2M in cash on hand" is true at all. If you have an offer for a job with a high income (what is a "high income" depends on a variety of things such as if you have kids, lots of debt, etc.), and they will pay you to relocate / you have enough cash to comfortably relocate, it can be absolutely be worth it.

Say you're single, no debt, and get an offer for $250k/year in CA and currently make like $160k in Seattle/NYC. It's very much worth it to relocate. I really think the bay area COL is overstated, the real pain point is in housing and childcare. Everything else costs about the same across the country (most commodities) or is only slightly more expensive in the bay area (eating out). If you are a skilled software engineer able to get jobs at high paying companies, you're probably financially best off at the Bay Area, with the exception of a small number of positions in NYC and Chicago.

> Prices are crazy in the City. Lesson: don't try moving to the Bay area without $1-2M in cash on hand.

This is not a reasonable expectation for 99% of the people in the country. If your answer to the housing crisis is “be rich”, you’re not thinking of solutions. Should only millionaires be able to live in San Francisco?

Of course not.

I don't think his numbers are super accurate in his comment, but of course he isn't proposing a solution to the housing crisis, he's offering advice to anyone thinking of moving to SF.

I offer similar advice to people who want to become commercial helicopter pilots.

Why would you need $1 million cash on hand? Lol. A $1.4m house only needs a 10% down payment, 20% at most.

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