Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
thats right, im judging by this title to get basted with negative comments about having no higher education (maybe kids but i doubt it) but i wanted to be up front.
So we have lived in oregon for close to 2 years now (portland area) and while we love it here. the cost of living vs income is dreadful, we both work full time and get above minimum wage (im an administrative aid and she does inventory management at a hardware store).
Our 1 bedroom apartment is 750 square feet and is almost 1200 dollars a month if you include water/sewer/gass. This is standard for the area.
average housing is 370-390k, and my realestate agent informed me that 350k is a "very competitive offer"
I dont see us ever making enough money to afford at a house at 350k.
The economy is ok here, lot better than michigan (where we are from), but we are not hugely social/party type people. we go into Portland maybe twice a year and we live just 7 miles from it. We are frugal bordering on "cheap" as our nights out are once a month and rarely exceed 40 dollars.
Why boise? few reasons.
1-we can drive there easily, its about 7-8 hour drive, meaning we dont have to sell our belongings and do not have to spend 2 grand on u-haul.
2-the company i work for has a building in boise, small chance i can get a transfer there at some point.
3-i have a cousin who is director of sales at another company in boise, he could possibly hook me up with a floor level factory gig that pays decently and gives me good hours.
4-i hear it has a strong economy
5-last i checked its average housing is a little over 200k and 1 bedrooms average 790...far better. Yet i know the minimum wage is also much lower. My expectation is that at least for me...id be getting more then min wage to start out with.
last thing is a bit of a repeat, as i said, we are not super social, we rarely drink (not that i do not enjoy a new beer ive never tried before). At least partially right now, i feel like its because we have to struggle to make ends meet with the cost of living out here vs the income we can manage.
Im not a huge fan of snow (one of the reasons we left michigan, absolutely bitter cold winters) but at this point, i turned 30 years old last month and am really feeling the pressure/desire to find a place we can fesibly work towards a house and call it "home". Id love it to be where we are now...but it is simply too expensive.
There's lots to like about Boise for sure, I certainly like it more than Portland. A big reason the houses are cheaper here is that wages are generally lower than Portland. The housing market has heated up quite a bit but there are still lots of affordable houses (200k-ish) in the burbs.
I wouldn't recommend moving unless you have some certainty regarding whether you can make enough income to make it work.
Hello,
A while back, I remember the time of struggle in my own life - late 20s, married, no kids, earning $13/hour in Colorado ($8/hour in Wisconsin before that), can’t afford anything extra, paycheck to paycheck, growing credit debt (over $20K) and depression.. Then we decided its time to break this pattern. Both went thru school. Soon after I put my resume out and luckily got hired and negotiated my wage with one of California companies at $40/hour to start with! - a substantial financial shift. Ironically, moving to one of the most expensive places to live allowed us to buy a house, live and eat better, have kids, pay off the debt, etc..
For someone in their early 30s I would suggest:
1. Try to go to school regardless and get degree (preferably in tech field) before you have kids. 3-4 years of struggle but it will pay off. Trust me.
2. If going to school is a definite “no”, you or your wife (or both) could start your own business, like washing windows or provide some other services you can do well. You can probably pull $400-600/day depending on what you are doing.
Simply moving to Idaho will probably help a little but will it be enough long term?
Good luck!
Last edited by Novatoman; 11-12-2016 at 06:54 AM..
Hello,
A while back, I remember the time of struggle in my own life - late 20s, married, no kids, earning $13/hour in Colorado ($8/hour in Wisconsin before that), can’t afford anything extra, paycheck to paycheck, growing credit debt (over $20K) and depression.. Then we decided its time to break this pattern. Both went thru school. Soon after I put my resume out and luckily got hired and negotiated my wage with one of California companies at $40/hour to start with! - a substantial financial shift. Ironically, moving to one of the most expensive places to live allowed us to buy a house, live and eat better, have kids, pay off the debt, etc..
For someone in their early 30s I would suggest:
1. Try to go to school regardless and get degree (preferably in tech field) before you have kids. 3-4 years of struggle but it will pay off. Trust me.
2. If going to school is a definite “no”, you or your wife (or both) could start your own business, like washing windows or provide some other services you can do well. You can probably pull $400-600/day depending on what you are doing.
Simply moving to Idaho will probably help a little but will it be enough long term?
Good luck!
we do not have depression and we are actually slowly paying off our debt (under 2k at this point)
we are not going back to school, at least i am not. i dont feel like going 80k+ into debt to make 40k a year for a job that is marketable in places where cost of living is sky high.
again owning your own business costs a lot of money, we may not have a lot of debt, but we dont have a lot of money either...no interest in accruing debt.
general idea is that we are in a society that promotes higher education for jobs we do not have while the jobs we do have nobody wants so we wind up with a job market with a lack of skilled labor and high unemployment rate.
this isn't meant for me to discredit your accomplishments! im super happy for you and your wife. But i'm not going into excessive debt for a "chance".
I've been looking into various trades or jobs where you can get certifications. things like police officer (some areas), paramedic, fireman, etc. I can handle high stress situations quite well.
In the end its about finding a reasonable cost of living where we can buy a small house and establish ourselves.
looks like a bunch of people preparing for the end of the world
this applies to me how?
I was more curious as to the social, economical climates of boise, its easy for me to research things to do in boise, the others are a bit harder to find up to date stuff.
social, economical climates and how a couple with no kids and no college degrees can fare assuming they have strong work ethic and positive attitudes.
in less then a year i moved from a server to administrative assistant. she has moved from cashier to inventory management in roughly the same timeframe. we are not averse from hard work, its more about hard work resulting in being able to afford more then a single bedroom apartment.
Because a lot of them live in areas like this, and could describe it to you, among your other questions. Most are not preparing for the end of the world either, that's a misconception.
Many of them think just like you, they don't want accumulated debt, and are quite thrifty.
Because a lot of them live in areas like this, and could describe it to you, among your other questions. Most are not preparing for the end of the world either, that's a misconception.
sorry that is just the impression i got from looking at the first page
As I just edited my comment Clinton, most of them are very thrifty and don't like accumulating debt. It's worth a shot to ask them anyway. I also wish your luck with your move.
For the OP, it sounds like you're on the right track in considering switching careers to something that is more lucrative. I don't know about police and fire jobs in Oregon (or Idaho for that matter) but in CA, they are all public service jobs with a CalPERS retirement. And yes, you can make it starting as a cop at 30. Don't ask me how I know that.
If you switched to a more lucrative job, you could possibly afford to buy a house where you're living. That may or may not be something important to both of you. Good luck.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
