conversation: User (__hrrr): "I've been using this COL calculator to try and determine where I should move. I don't know if my calculations add up. I know this calculator is from 2015 but let's consider that the general trends are similar. \n\n\nFor example, let's plug in:\n\n* Boston, MA\n* Current Salary: $60,000 \n\nmoving to \n\n* San Francisco CA\n* Comparable Salary $72,996\n\nI started to calculate based off annual expenses - groceries, housing, and utilities. \n\nFor example, my current housing is about $11,000 a year, utilities are about $1000 a year, and groceries are about $3600.\n\nWhen converting that to San Francisco differences it would be \n$18,000 housing, $700 utilities, and $4300 groceries. So about $23,000 a year on these expenses. So about $50,000 leftover. \n\nIn Boston I would have about $45,000 leftover. \n\nAssuming I live just as frugally as I am in Boston, would these numbers make sense? $5k isn't a huge difference but I'm feeling like my math is wrong. \n\nEDIT: To clarify, Boston and SF are both high COL areas. I was just playing around with SF numbers because everyone says it's so expensive and I was surprised there were savings leftover. I've been looking at lower COL areas like southern cities but it seems like I'd save less money overall.\n\n\nhttp://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html"
  Self: "At a high level, most people can find they can save a certain percentage of salary. Salaries tend to be tied to cost of living, and if you can save 10% in San Francisco, then that's better than saving 10% in Boston. Now if you never move, it's not going to make a difference: saving $72,000 in SF is going to last just as long as that $60,000 in Boston. So in that light, having $50k in SF is worse than saving $45k in Boston. But if you move, say you retire to Florida, then yeah, living in SF pays off because now it's just a straight $50k vs $45k. This is a big reason why people work in say, New York, and then retire to Florida. If you don't need to live in a high COL city, might as well stretch your retirement dollars.\n\nHaving said that, SF is so expensive, especially with housing, that it doesn't follow the nice normal cost of living curve. So I'd recheck those numbers (I guess you're getting them from a website?), check one or two other sites. "
  User (__hrrr): "Thanks for your response - that makes sense. I'm not planning to move to SF, I was just playing around with the numbers. I will definitely recheck to actual websites (craigslist rent, etc) before moving anywhere. Just looking at this calculator as a starting base. It's probably a bit outdated anyway."
  