[Annie]

If your salary is between $65K – $68K, would this be enough to live in SF California? Any tips? Also, I am a licensed CPA in a different state. Is it required to transfer my license to CA if I will be working in public (tax) there? I will not be signing any tax return. I will be just a staff person. I have seen a few people keeping their home state licenses even if they work and live in a different state. Thoughts? I appreciate any comments/feedback in advance!

[Anonymous]

Annie – it is possible to live in Campbell with that salary. I lived in Campbell for over 20 years and I must say it is not a bad place to be. It is a more smaller quiet area, but very comfortable, and if you enjoy hiking/ trails there's plenty around that area.

Let me know if you want any more info about that area. I might be a bit bias since that was my hometown. 😀

[MaLoTu]

I live in Hayward which is about 20 minutes from North SJ in relatively low traffic. Campbell is a much better area than where I am, but is on the more pricey side. SJ is a huge city. So, it really depends on where you are working. I am assuming it will be downtown SJ. If this is the case then it is San Francisco type parking situations, but some of the firms may provide parking. You may want to make sure about this before accepting an offer.

I am not sure where you are from, but there is tons of traffic here. During the commute a city that is 9 miles away can take well over 35 minutes to travel. I would recommend that you look into Milpitas, Fremont, and Sunnyvale. I am not sure that you will find anything around the South or East Bay that will be under $1500 for a 1 bedroom. Like I said, I am in an area that is less nice than Sunnyvale, but you cannot touch a 1 bedroom apartment here for less than that. On a side note- Hayward is huge (5 zip codes) and is 20 minutes without traffic to all the Bay Area metros (SJ, SF, Silicon Valley).

One other thing to note is that there are many public transportation options. SJ specifically has a train/trolly thing that is called VTA, I think.

Where are you moving from?

[Annie]

@Lilla

Thanks for the link! I did not realize there would be local tax in CA on top of state tax though…sigh.

[Annie]

@ddtspir06

That's good to hear! Did you commute from Campbell to San Jose downtown by car or train? Is there a train statin nearby? I hope to use public transportation instead if possible considering high traffic during rush hours.

[Annie]

@MaLoTu

I'm glad to hear there is public transportation available! I was told everyone just drives and train/bus is not as popular as it is in NYC or other cities. By the way, I will be moving from Chicago if I take the offer. It looks like the Big Four I got an offer from does provide parking in a building but I will have to pay for it – $120/month? If I want to use public transportation to commute instead, would it be fairly easy and convenient? My friend said it's such a hassle and not really cost effective. What do you think?

[taxycpa2be]

I think anyone living in CA can attest to the fact that it can be expensive to live here. There's definitely truth behind that, especially for us living in the larger metro areas with higher local sales taxes. I can't speak on the commuting up there, but the fact remains that we all would need higher salaries to feel financially comfortable AND have enough to put enough away for retirement.

@Annie – I hope you'll be able to find a place that will let you save on transportation costs!

@Lilla – thank you so much for that link! Great tool.

AUD: Pass (WTB)
BEC: Pass (Ninja/Becker)
REG: Pass (WTB)
FAR: Pass!!! (Becker/WTB/Ninja)

DONE!! 🙂 It's SO nice to be able to finally write this. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

[MaLoTu]

Public transportation in SJ is a little harder than SF. If it is downtown SJ I am not sure that you would have access by the VTA train.

i have a feeling that the living costs will be comparable to what you are use to coming from a major U.S. City. However, we have the best weather! I could not imagine living anywhere else.

Have you considered SF? Most the firms are in the financial district and there is good public transit in BART(our subwayish type train system). I live a ten minute walk from the station and it takes 40 minutes to get to SF. Most the offices are a short walk from there.

[Annie]

@taxycpa2be

I agree with you – with this high rent and living costs in CA, I say we all need higher salaries for sure…thanks for all of your tips and advices!

[Annie]

@MaLoTu

I have not considered SF but if I knew public transportation is way better in SF than SJ, I would have considered for sure.

You said you recommend Milpitas, Fremont, and Sunnyvale. I looked up a few places and it appears that rent in Fremont is the cheapest among the three. If Google map says the distance to the office/SJ downtown from an apartment in Fremont is about 30 minutes without traffic, would it during rush hours be almost twice or even more? I certainly don't want to have an hour commute every single day…

[MaLoTu]

Yeah, Honestly the commute can be horrible. I would say about an hour during peak hours. Those were just some suggestions in addition to Campbell. Have you looked in SJ? SJ had some pretty iffy areas, but many of them are good.

[Annie]

All places in SJ seem to be very expensive. Unless I don't get a roommate, it seems impossible to live there with my salary…

[Annie]

At this point, I seriously wonder if it's really worth moving there. As much as I want to have a Big Four experience, I certainly don't want to live a hard life being broke….

[MaLoTu]

Can I ask, are you coming in as a second year or senior or other?

I was born and raised here, I don't know too much else. My husband makes over 150k and we still don't have a ton of extras! It has been enough to raise my kids and stay home, but even I have noticed it is getting progressively more expensive. I am dying to get a job! Lol. someone else might want to correct me, but I feel that 45-60 minute commute is fairly average. When I worked at a huge plant in Fremont we had people commute 2-3 hours every day! Now that is crazy!

[Annie]

I am coming in as a second year staff. I heard CA is not cheap to live in but never really knew it would be this expensive. I am single with no student loan but still. I doubt if I can have a “life” there with my salary unless I find at least two roommates.

[Anonymous]

Survive? Yes. Live comfortably? Heck no. Cost of living out there is INSANE. And if you're thinking suburbs, which are also EXTREMELY expensive (my 1k SF, 2 BR apartment in San Jose, an hour away, cost $2k/month and that was 7 years ago), think unbearable, never-ending traffic and then substitute 20 cars for every 1 you were expecting. Rush hour out there is a roughly 3-4 hour block twice a day.

I miss the restaurants. I do not miss the 80 million people trying to get to the same restaurants. I miss Big Sur. I do not miss the 80 million people that also want to see Big Sur. Everywhere you want to go, everything you want to see, so does everyone else. Definitely a cool city, definitely NOT for people like me who do not like being surrounded by other people at all times.

[Author]

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