Yeah I feel bad for people living in places like CA or NY or Hong Kong. Your purchasing power is a fraction of what it would be here in Texas, for example.
http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/c.../?iid=TL_Links
$500k/year in Austin is more like $877k/year in San Francisco, or $1.2M/year in Manhattan.
Seriously guys, move to Texas. No state income tax here either.