<prompt> Human: One year ago I moved to Manhattan from a suburb of DC for my dream job. A lot of commenters on this subreddit frequently warn against moving to areas with high costs of living, so I figure Id share my data culled from Mint to give a good example of what such a move looks like, and exactly how much more expensive Ive found NYC to be. Ive been using Mint pretty exhaustively to track my spending for the last several years, and while I may have missed a cash expense here or there I try to enter them all using the mobile app, its probably accurate to within 1-2 of my total spending figures.So here is a comparison of my total expenditures for the 12-month period before I moved to NYC to the first 12 months after having moved here. There are no moving costs because my employer paid to move me here, but thats a relatively common perk. All figures are in annual post-tax USD; divide by 12 to get a monthly figure.Category Pre-NYC NYC Comments------------HOUSING 836 17,972Rent -- 17,972 I rented out rooms in my house before I moved here, which provided enough to cover mortgage and maintenance. Rent in Manhattan is obviously expensive, and includes a brokers fee.Utilities 836 -- Powerwaterheat have been included in every apartment Ive lived in in NYC. We dont pay for cable TV, and my work pays for home Internet.FOODDRINK 4,115 3,610Groceries 2,202 523 My new job feeds me for free every meal Monday through Friday, hence the much lower grocery expenses. I know that this is far from typical and wont apply for most people.Restaurants 1,044 1,259 No surprise here that Ive gone out more in NYC.Bars 552 1,117 Going out drinking is a way of life in NYC.Fast Food 593 481 Surprisingly this went down, even though I get fast food more often in NYC, especially on weekends. I blame dollar pizza.Liquorbeer 132 134 Bought at stores, not at bars. Uncannily consistent.Coffee shops 30 94 Almost irrelevant.TRANSPORTATION 8,361 593Car loan 5,824 -- Huge savings right here.Subway 1,000 180 The prior amount is a guess I was using pre-tax dollars to pay for my daily work commute, so this is that figure expressed in post-tax dollars.Car insurance 981 -- And the savings continue.Gasoline 454 90 Surprisingly not zero even though I dont have a car now; I usually pay for gas when on a road trip in someone elses car.Miscellaneous 102 80 Licenseregistration fees, parking, etc.Bike share -- 95 Citibike is the best deal ever. It amounts to 20 cents per ride or so based on how often I use it, and of course I dont have to even own a bike or pay to maintain one.Traffic tickets -- 82 Somewhat ironically, I got my first traffic ticket in a decade only after Id sold my car.Taxis -- 66 I almost never take taxis. Id rather bike or take the subway. Taxis are reserved for the end of a night when a date has gone very well.SHOPPING 616 2,127Computers -- 1,351 I bought a new Macbook Pro to use in NYC because I didnt have a laptop, and my existing desktops were not compatible with a small bedroom lifestyle.Miscellaneous 294 259 Hard-to-categorize shopping stuff, much from Amazon. NYC figure includes a Craigslisted barely-used 140 bed.Electronicssoftware 207 265 Stuff like computer hardware, Steam games, etc. is included in this.Clothingshoes 115 252 I seriously think I spend way less on clothing than the average person. The previous years figure is probably undercounted somehow though.Personal care e.g. haircuts 68 132 I must have undercounted the prior number or changed my categorization usage somehow.TRAVEL 1,019 791 Mostly plane, train, and bus tickets, and hotels and rental cars. Travel costs went down because I dont feel as much of a need to go elsewhere in my first year in NYC.MOBILE PHONE 720 -- My job pays for my mobile phone now part of being on-call.GYMSPORTS 452 289 Actual gym expenses this past year were 949, but work reimbursed most of them.DOCTORPHARMACY 25 186 I got sick a lot more often in my first winter in NYC. It must be all the people in close proximity.ENTERTAINMENT 218 229 Includes movies, shows, and events.GIFTS 220 218 Uncannily consistent.LAUNDRY -- 185 It sucks not having my own washerdryer anymore.TOTAL 16,582 26,200So it looks like NYC is almost 10K more expensive per year, and if I hadnt lucked out with an awesome employer that pays for most of my food, my home Internet, my mobile phone, and most of my gym, Id be looking at something close to a 15K difference in spending between DC and NYC. Thats in post-tax dollars. Its obviously a very significant amount. But wait, theres a missing piece. I still own the house I was living in before, and am now renting it out. That has to be factored in as well otherwise the free rent before I moved here is cheating:Category Comments---------Rental income 28,800Mortgage payments -18,469 This includes principal, but I was making some back in principal before moving here too, so we can ignore it for both. It factors into the overall net worth calculation.Maintenancerepair -1,995 It was a rough year. I had to replace a major appliance and have some plumbingdrywall repair done.Total 8,336 This is still in pre-tax dollars though, so we want to convert it to post-tax:Post-tax total 5,000 Assuming 40 total effective tax.So add that figure in and NYC is only about 4,600 in post-tax dollars more expensive per year. Not bad. The increase in housing costs is mostly offset by the near total lack of transportation costs, and its amazing to get eight hours of my life back every week that I dont have to spend commuting. So Id be willing to pay that 4,600 extra per year just to live in NYC even if I hadnt gotten a pay increase. But, uhh, I did. A big one:Income Category Pre-NYC NYC Comments------------Salary 100,000 122,677Equity -- 44,800 My previous job didnt give me stock at all.Bonus 500 19,750 The bonus at my last job was a joke, just a holiday bonus.Oncall bonus -- 8,389 I get this for being oncall periodically if issues arise.401k contributions 1,000 9,000 The previous jobs matching was a joke.HSA contributions -- 1,000 Didnt have an HSA at my previous jobTOTAL101,500205,616My total compensation for next year is on track to hit 230K, and once I get a promotion, hopefully at around that time, it should rise to 300K the following year. I was pretty much topped out at my previous job, and couldve expected to maybe reach 120K in another 2-3 years with steady raises or even a promotion. I have most of my money invested in boring Vanguard index funds, and my net worth increased from 492K to 649K over the past 12 months, some due to stock market gains but most due simply to investing the majority of my income rather than spending it. Im on track to max out my 401k to the tune of 53K this year my employer offers after-tax contributions with Roth conversions, my backdoor Roth IRA with 5.5K, and my HSA with 3,350. So Ive been able to save nicely and accumulate wealth even in the highest cost of living area in the nation, and who knows, I might eventually even be able to buy a condo here.So anyway, thats why I dont think that worrying over high cost of living areas to the exclusion of all else is useful. Yes, costs are more expensive. Its still worth it if you get paid a lot more too, and that the average person is getting paid more is exactly what drives the cost of living of a city like NYC higher. I doubled my compensation within a year and also have way more upside to grow into. The job Im doing here is not available at anything close to the same pay where Im from. Its more than about the money though; if you want to be at the top of a profession, you need to go to the center of it. If youre a software engineer like me, go to San Francisco, New York City, or maybe Seattle. Thats where the good jobs are. Salary gains comes from changing jobs frequently and being willing to move to wherever the best-paying jobs are. Even if its a wash in the short term, if youve created more future upside for your salary trajectory, then its worth it. Note: This calculus may be substantially different for people with kids, or for those unwilling to live with roommates and who dont have a similarly-high-earning partner.And to forestall the inevitable chorus of But youre not telling me anything; your solution is just to make a shit-ton of money as a software engineer and then you can afford NYC!, let me point out that most career-track jobs here pay significantly more than elsewhere. Obviously dont move here if you dont have a high quality job lined up; youre going to get eaten alive by expensive rents if so. But if you come here for a good career job, its probably going to be worth the higher costs. I have many friends who arent software engineers who are also getting paid way more than they would elsewhere. Lawyers, bankers, traders, project managers, media people, other sorts of engineers, and more are all making absolute bank in NYC. And yes, I am paying a higher effective tax rate now, but its only about 5 higher than where Im from. It doesnt come close to eating away most of the salary increase.Oh, and as a final thought, I was shocked by how little money it turns out that Im spending as a total percentage of my income. I should probably be spending more. Youre only young once, right? I need to go on more vacations, go visit more foreign countries, go see more plays and concerts, that kind of thing.Assistant: Thanks for this. Im considering moving to a major city DCSFNYC and its nice to have the costs broken down because some things are more important to me than others. The generic cost of living adjustment isnt always so accurate. Human: If you dont mind living in the suburbs somewhere on a Metro line, DC is actually quite affordable. Thats where I moved from. You can do the same in NYC if you dont mind living an hour away in far-off Brooklyn. Depending on the profession though, jobs in NYC probably pay a bit more on average. Theres certainly better opportunities for software engineers here, anyway.  <response>: Maybe DC proper, but pretty much every major tech company has an office in the DCMDVA area.Also, quite affordable is very subjective in this case. If you make less than 50k a year, DC and the surrounding suburbs are very expensive places to live. 