It’s certainly not a cheap city, but IME expenses aren’t high proportional to tech salaries. (Side note: …which feeds the “techbros” criticism.) Yes, it costs more to live here than where we were in Nebraska. It also pays a much higher percent more than the average salaries there, so the number of hours I have to work to buy a thing is significantly less.

That aside, SF is a world city with an enormous amount of interesting and fun things to do. And if you get bored with that, it’s a short trip to see giant redwoods or hike through forests or climb mountains. There is a lot to see and do.