You can check out any time you like, but you can never come back

My job search continues, and I've got some prospects outside Northern California, where I currently live. I haven't lived outside of California for 25 years, so I'm just becoming familiar with the real cost of living differences between this state and most of the country. (I've always known that there are big differences, I just never had to deal with them.) Depending on where I'd move, the differences can be enormous: Using CNNMoney.com's Cost of Living calculator, I'd have the same standard of living on a $72,000 salary in Chicago that I'd have on a $100,000 salary in San Jose, CA. In Denver, $68,000 would go as far as $100,000 in San Jose; in Austin, TX, a little over $61,000 would go as far as $100,000 in San Jose. About the only place in the country where I'd have to make more money to maintain the same standard of living is the New York City area.

That's great; my money will go a lot further, almost no matter where I go. But let's flip the situation around, and say that at some point in the future, I want to return to Silicon Valley. I'd have to make as much as 64% more to maintain the same standard of living. It's almost unheard of to get a 64% raise by changing jobs; in fact, many Silicon Valley start-ups actually pay less, and make it up with stock options. That's why the only people who can afford to move to California are recent college graduates already living on low incomes, immigrants that live incredibly frugally, and people who are already wealthy. In just about every other case, your standard of living will drop dramatically when you move to California. So, once you're gone, you're gone.