One software engineer for the online storage company Dropbox in San Francisco is saving money on rent by living in Hawaii.
Aleksei Gribov moved to the Bay Area from Russia about two years ago, and he initially paid $2,500 a month for a studio apartment. However, his salary did not keep up with increasing housing prices, despite the fact that he was promoted twice during this time period.
Aleksei said, “I just realized I was paying more than 60% of my salary on rent! That’s just stupid. I did not move to California for this. On top of that, Dropbox postponed their IPO, which means I’m pretty much screwed up financially.”
During a two week vacation to Hawaii, Aleksei decided that he would save money by living in the island state. Additionally, the move came with other perks besides simply saving some cash.
“The flight is just a 5-hour long. They have Wi-Fi on the planes these days, so I can even do some work during the trip. Hawaii is fantastic. Everyone knows that! Unlike San Francisco, the streets there don’t smell like pee and weed and the weather is amazing. In addition to that, as opposed to the Bay Area, there are no homeless people in Hawaii and the best part is that there are lots of hot girls, who don’t (care) about diversity in tech companies,” he explained.
Aleksei only commutes twice a week. The software engineer sleeps at the office one night every week, and he typically spends that night working the entire time. He works from home during the two days a week when he doesn’t have meetings.
Now Aleksei only spends about 20% of his total income, allowing him to save massive amounts of money. Plus, he’s clearly happier with Hawaii than he was with San Francisco.
So if you’re stuck working in the Bay Area, maybe a move to Hawaii is in order.
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