We’ve been hearing for years that salaries for tech workers are robust and rising, particularly in the highly competitive, but pricey, San Francisco Bay Area. But are salaries high enough for particularly frugal tech workers to leave their job at age 40 or so and live off their retirement savings in a modest home in a less-expensive city?

Well… yes.

Depending on how thrifty the worker is during his or her career and retirement, it’s entirely possible that, thanks in part to the wonders of compound interest, their money may realistically never run out.

Consider this hypothetical tech worker: Fresh out of a computer science program and debt-free thanks to generous summer internships, our worker immediately lands a job at a leading company, making a generous starting salary compared to her peers in other entry-level jobs. Accustomed to the minimalist lifestyle she enjoyed in college, and spending very little each month (especially relative to a growing salary), her savings begin to compound quickly. Within five years, it is feasible this worker has saved more than $100,000.

Her peers encourage her to start looking at buying a house near the tech center where she works, but high local home values aren’t appealing. Instead, she starts to wonder: “How soon could I retire if I was willing to live in a cheaper city?”

The question’s not as crazy as it sounds.

It is no secret that home prices vary drastically across the country. In October, the median home in the tech-hub cities San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver was valued at $1,117,300, $521,400, and $328,100, respectively. But in Detroit, Akron and Kansas City, the median home was valued at $39,800, $61,800 and $107,000 in October, respectively, a relative bargain on a strict dollar-for-dollar comparison. Indeed, in any of these cities, one can find many homes listed for sale for less than $20,000.

Our young tech worker willing to live on a frugal budget, save money and purchase a home with cash upon retirement in one of these cheaper locations could likely accumulate enough in retirement savings to leave the workforce decades ahead of her peers – perhaps even before the age of 40!

The retirement savings tool below lets you explore some of these hypothetical scenarios. Here are the underlying assumptions:

• The worker exits college debt-free, lands a job with a good starting wage and receives regular annual raises
• The worker is able to stick to a small budget through their working years, increasing only with inflation
• Investments have reasonable and constant rates of return
• The worker is willing to buy a modest home with all cash in her or his first year of retirement
• The worker sticks to a reasonable budget in retirement, increasing only with inflation and an annual percentage increase in medical costs
• Capital gains are realized once per year when money is withdrawn for that year’s expenses
• No Social Security income

Could you live this kind of lifestyle? If so, you could soon be enjoying your retirement, too! Change the variables below to see how long your retirement savings might last.