What are my options if that is my goal? Which cities provide those options?
You mean you want to make 250k+ outside of those three cities?
Bolder, Austin, Portland? Edit: forgot about Boston/Cambridge
Chicago hedge funds are the best option, and it's all cash. I'd move to Colorado too, but don't actually know how good the pay is there.
San Diego?
Get hired in Bay Area and negotiate a generous initial stock grant, then transfer to a low CoL area internally, keeping the original stock package. Profit.
You’d have to do that every 4 years
Northern Virginia
Which companies? Amazon isn't exactly rest and vest
Google out here. Salesforce.
Chicago is a hot bed for food tech right now. Colorado for start-up scene. And Seattle for no Amazon / Microsoft or Portland for more hip scene
Austin
People need to stay away from my city. Go to Idaho or Denver or something for the cheap COL 😒
Austin is overbought already