Little context:
I moved from MCOL area to HCOL area for personal reasons, but also knowing that the HCOL area had much better opportunities for my career that surpass the COL increase. Moved with no job opportunity on the line.
Worked as freelancer for 5 months until I land on a job with a salary that was 2x my previous formal job.
When I went to the HCOL area with no job I moved into a shared home were you could rent rooms but shared kitchen and bathroom. My room was 6mē. It was actually good, clean, safe, silent, kinda cheap and next to public transportation, but without the same privacy of an apartment of course. When I landed the job, instead of moving immediately, lived there for other 7 months while saving +- 35% of my salary for an emergency fund (not huge for mustachian levels, but it was the first time I was able to do it).
1 year after moving with good emergency fund, I felt it was time to move to an apartment by myself (but still cheaper than my income would allow), and drop my savings to 17% for me to be able to take the increase in cost of housing and pay for all furniture and appliances (I had 0 house stuff, moved cities with only clothes and personal stuff).
Of all things, I'm mostly happy that by moving cities for personal reasons also increased my salary and boost my career :)