Reply to WWYD: Move to Cali for career opp or stay in VA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Op here. One more stat - $900k HHI[/quote]

I was going to say no ... but at that HHI yes I might. You will need to plan on private school, high food and fuel costs, smaller house for the money. Eldercare issues / travel costs related to the grandparents. 
And yes, fire (including days of smoke from far away fires) and earthquake insurance or self insurance: when looking for housing, think about evacuation routes, fire-resistant construction, and also how reliable is your water source because drought - which has always been a consideration - is going to turn into a political issue.

I'm from the Bay Area and my family is there, so I have personal reasons to live there - but I live in VA, instead, because it offers me a better quality of life for my salary, which is much lower than yours. The fires scare me and the Bay Area has become more crowded, rich, and pretentious than when I was a kid there. You will need to keep an eye on your kids' mental health because their peers will be intense.

Also, if you move there and still call it Cali, they throw you back over the border to Nevada. That's just the rules. [/quote]

OP here - hilarious on the Cali point, I deserved that.

Do you think the pressure cooker environment for kids is more than in the DMV? I worry about my kids here with the high amounts of wealth they are exposed to and high pressure at school.

Do you think you'll ever go back to the Bay Area?[/quote]

The schools in California, even the "good" ones, are a mess.  The quality is surprisingly sub par, especially given all of the tech talent there.

Northern California is so beautiful, but the schools are universally terrible
[/quote]

OP I would take this with a grain of salt.  This is a massive exaggeration.  Public schools will be just fine where you are looking - Los Altos schools especially are just as good if not better than here.  Palo Alto school district nearby is one of the best districts in the country.  Look up the funding per pupil, you’ll see the schools in expensive zip codes have plenty of funding.  The problem is when people expect the public’s to be like privates given the insanely high cost of living.  [/quote]
Public schools in CA are funded by the state directly, not local, thanks to Prop 13.

However, local school districts will request a "donation" of like $1000 per child per year for "extras" - PE and art, etc.  I used to live on the Peninsula, and paid $750 per child per year. That was 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure the "donation" request is  a lot more now.

[quote] Our suggested donation amount is $1,500 per student, but every dollar makes a difference.[/quote]

https://papie.org/donate/

I mean, this won't break OP's bank account with a $900k HHI ,  but the only reason rich schools have decent funding is because the parents are "donating" and fundraising every year.

Our HHI was about $400K at the time, but we were also paying a lot in property taxes since the housing costs are so high, and the local town would pass a bond measure every year to add to the school funding.  I was annoyed that I was paying so much for so little.

Gunn HS is a huge pressure cooker. They've had several suicides over the year.  [/quote]

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