Geo-Arbitrage Calculator
Same SF/NYC salary, half the cost of living. Numbeo-style COL index + tax delta = honest annual savings boost and 10-year wealth gap, including the reverse case where the move loses you money.
How geo-arbitrage actually works
The mechanism has three independent levers that compound:
- Tax rate delta. Moving from CA (~37% effective at $200K) to TX (~24%) instantly improves take-home by ~13 percentage points. No state income tax in TX/FL/WA/NV/TN/SD/AK/NH (interest+dividends only).
- Cost-of-living delta. SF housing is roughly 4× Austin housing on a square-foot basis, and 2× Austin on a small-apartment basis. The COL index aggregates housing + food + transport into one number; the dominant input for tech workers is housing.
- Compounding effect. A $30K/year savings boost invested at 7% real return becomes $415K over 10 years, $945K over 15 years, $2.0M over 20 years. The compounding is most of the value, not the year-1 number.
The honesty correction. COL index averages housing across the city — your specific lifestyle determines what fraction of the average applies to you. A SF software engineer paying $4K rent for 1BR has more headroom moving to Austin than a Mission-area family in a $7K rental that includes school district, walkable cafes, and proximity to friends. Add 10–20% to expected expenses in the new city to account for "still want to live like an SF person, just paying Austin prices."
Math runs locally. Inputs never leave your browser. Source on github.
Real-world scenarios
- $200K SF to Austin: $36K/year savings boost, $510K over 10 years — the real cost-of-living math, the SF tech employee archetype, and where the calculator misses real-life adjustments.
- Moving Cost Calculator — $5–20K one-time costs to factor in. Geo-arbitrage break-even on the move usually clears within 6–12 months.
- Remote Work Savings — complementary view: even staying in the same city, going remote saves on commute + lunch + wardrobe.