I have a hard time thinking of a likely scenario where you could only save 6K even though 1) you did it in a place with a low cost of living, and 2) you're a LWer and want to move to California (which implies the tech industry, which is a high-paying field--and otherwise, moving to California is stupid).

(If you can only save 3K a year in a place with a low cost of living, how much are you going to be able to save when living in California?)