> Come out far ahead how?

Check out levels.fyi. Moving to the Bay Area to work at a random startup makes little sense, but moving to one of the BigCos can be very financially rewarding.

> I'm almost 24 and if I continue to manage my finances correctly, I should have my own spacious home by 25

Check out this comment someone made complaining how high the CoL is in the Bay Area, even for someone making $300k. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22228756 Their analysis is flawed and overstates expenses, but even then this hypothetical tech employee saves > $110k/year (including a 401k and match). That's enough to put a down payment on a house in SC every year. If you're investing minded, you could own an apartment building in about 10 years and never have to worry about money again.

It really depends on what you want. I’m not trying to shit on your life choices, you may be optimizing for exactly the right things for you.

My point on “coming out far ahead” is limited to finances. Yes, you can buy a house in SC and be making $100k once you hit 2-3 years of experience. That’s a great outcome, full stop. Nothing wrong with it.

But someone with your equivalent experience working at a big tech company in SV is already making 2-3x as much as you. Cost of living increase eats up some of that, but not even close to all of it. Especially if they live with a roommate or two and avoid buying a new Tesla, they can save $50-100k per year fairly easily.

And the difference becomes even more stark in another 5-7 years. You’ll be making $150k in SC but the dev in SV will be making $400k - 600k. They’ll also have 100x as many job options should they desire a change or get laid off, and they’ll have a much easier time raising funds and making key hires if they want to start their own company. Or becoming a key hire at a friend’s company. Or investing in a friend’s company. Etc, etc.

Again, there are genuine downsides to living in SV, and you may have made the right choice for you, but I find a lot of devs outside of SV have a really inaccurate view of just what they’re giving up, and that skews their analysis.

Silicon Valley tech companies pay something like $400-$500k if you're good enough and have 10 years experience. It goes up from there as well but it's harder to get those promotions. I also know people who made that much at 25-ish due to good negotiation (at a pre-IPO late stage startup) or were in a hot field (ML). That's not counting the usual startup lottery.

That money can offset cost of living quiet easily.

It really depends on the career opportunities you have in SC and how they correspond to your career aspirations. There really is nothing wrong with not going to the the valley or another big tech hub, but if you want to say, become a specialist in some area of ML, then there will only be a few places to do that. It isn’t (just) about prestige.

If your goal is a comfortable life and financial stability, then you are completely right. If you want to become a millionaire or more, then you’ll have a better shot SV. If you are really focused on a specific technical topic, then SV, if you are a generalist and enjoy your work but don’t want to live it, then SC is fine.