So this doesn't exactly answer your question, but its marginally on topic. Right now I work for a software company in an area with a relatively low cost of living. I make ~70k per year plus whatever bonus I end up getting, but I literally just started there so that is my entry level starting salary. For my role (not a developer, I'm high end customer support/technical advisor) I can probably expect 100k in 2 or 3 years, and there are lots of people with my same job at the company that have been there for 5+ years and are making over 100k per year easy. The developers start off making about 100K per year with minimal experience.

So what do I think about the experience? Well, I can pretty much do whatever I want, live in a nice apartment, and could buy a great house cheap if I decide to stick with it, or even buy land and build a new house since land is cheap and easy to come by. I've lived in big cities and hated it for various reasons. I think that the low cost of living is worth it because I'm putting 10% of my paycheck in my 401k and still don't even come close to spending the rest of it, so it's just piling up in my savings account for a rainy day or whatever I want.