And that's your problem. I was the same way, though I live in NYC. With every pay raise I upgraded my lifestyle. Whether I was making $50k/year or $100k/year

And that's your problem. I was the same way, though I live in NYC. With every pay raise I upgraded my lifestyle. Whether I was making $50k/year or $100k/year, I wasn't saving anything more besides the shit I was contributing to my 401k. My savings actually grew smaller over the years, until I made a conscious effort to save money. An effort so simple, I kick myself for not realizing it sooner. Several simple ways I found to save money living in NYC (not SF, but close enough). Note these figures are on a per-year basis. - Scrap web hosting, move to AWS and S3 (~120 saved) - Get rid of cable, stick with cheap Internet (~1000 saved, Internet ~40/mo) - One night less at the bar each week (~2500 saved, that's just for a $40 tab) - Skip buying coffee every day (~500 saved) - Get a cheaper phone package (~120 saved) In the end, I think a good rule of thumb is to keep your daily expenses under $20. You want to dress well? Wait for Banana Republic to have a 40% off everything sale, and buy clothes then. Buy clothes you're actually going to wear more than once (this is easy for guys, women have it harder). I don't know your lifestyle or actually care what you spend money on, but complaining you can't save money is a bullshit excuse. I was bullshitting myself too, and I think everyone's got spending habits they can curb without impacting their lifestyle.