Can a Software Engineer afford to live in San Jose?

Excellent61% of take-home left to save — you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Software Engineer · San Jose
$224,114
Income tax (~40% effective)
United States
– $90,521
Take-home pay
$11,133/mo
$133,593
Living costs (1 person)
$4,340/mo · derived
– $52,080
Savings potential
$6,793/mo · 61% of take-home
$81,513

Single professional, after-tax. Salary − tax − living costs = what you could save each year.

Full salary breakdown →Is this a good salary in San Jose? →Compare San Jose with another city →

How we calculated this

• Salary: BLS OES median for Software Engineer, adjusted for San Jose.

• Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~40%). Official calculator.

• Living costs: derived from cost-of-living index for a single professional.

Planning estimates, not financial or tax advice. Updated 2026. Your situation will differ.