It was a rhetorical question but thanks for the details. I lived in the

Bay Area for over 30 years. California is great in many ways, but if you really want to do well financially, you might consider living somewhere else. When you compare the state income tax, sales tax, property tax, cost of housing, and cost of gasoline with other states, you can see how much more money you could stash away. Of course, working in software limits your options. I live in Pennsylvania now and, although not as cheap as say Texas, it is refreshingly affordable. Where I am, I can get to either NYC or Philadelphia in less than an hour and a half, the Poconos in under an hour, and the Catskills in two. The best part is, it's refreshingly affordable. The house we bought here has more square footage, it's brick with a slate roof (lasts about 100 years) and double the size lot. We paid less for it three years ago than we did for our California bungalow in 1988.