Amen. Every time I hear the "waily waily waily you can't live for less than $90k in California" I think "for God's sake you've interacted with several people today who are doing it -- think back to the last ten times you physically handed money to anyone, they're not making $90k".
This problem is not unique to California or Manhattan. I get the same from people who choose to live in Nagoya apartments which cost about my monthly salary, then whine how impossible it is to get ahead in this city. Hey, I work five minutes from where you work yet my rent is $450... considered a lifestyle change, maybe?
to be honest, i think minimum "comfortable" wage in SF is about 200k. i make in the 6figs (as most senior engineers around here), and why I live comfortably as bachelor, I still don't think I make enough for me to afford having a family in SF.
I rent and have a roomate, cook often at home (drink lot of coffee though), but still, when you substract taxes, 401k, medical stuff for the parents, when you add everything up the savings are about 2k a month at best.
Think about it, 24k a year, where the cheapest comfortable place to live go for about 700k+.
If you are conservative, and want to put 20% down, (that's about 140k) of savings you need in the bank.
To live in SF, you will have to have at least 200k, as a family to live comfortably.
About 100k if you are a bachelor.
Sure you can live with a lot less, but you are probably not saving much for your future.
It seems to me that the problem isn't so much that you're "not saving much for your future" as you're "not saving enough to buy a comfortable house located in San Fransisco". Which might be indicative of a problem in one's expectations more than indicative of the necessity to make six figures as a bachelor.
(Incidentally, in many other places, socking away $2k a month would be considered pretty damn good. The starting salary for an engineer in my neck of the woods is $2.2k a month. You look pretty darn rich compared to him, even considering his vastly lower cost of living.)
You don't really need a $100K salary to be comfortable as a bachelor in SF, but it helps. Raising a family here is a mixed bag. It helps to have a lot of money because the school system sucks. You'll either need the extra $100K for private school or drug rehab if you send your kids to public school. I love SF but if I had kids I'd move somewhere else. Oh, and buying a house here is insane unless you're mega loaded or you buy and sell houses professionally.
Still, the "buying a house" thing kind of got to me when I was fresh out of school. According to statistics, my salary was actually in the top 10% of salaries in Germany (it wasn't that much, just goes to show how little most people earn), yet buying a house or apartment with that salary seemed elusive. The only way to afford it would have been to inherit some money from the parents.
That was one of the major reasons why I became so critical of just being employed and "working for the man". I just didn't feel like I would ever be able to escape the rat race.
This problem is not unique to California or Manhattan. I get the same from people who choose to live in Nagoya apartments which cost about my monthly salary, then whine how impossible it is to get ahead in this city. Hey, I work five minutes from where you work yet my rent is $450... considered a lifestyle change, maybe?