[surfsnowgirl]

I am a fairfield county gal, born and bred. I'd lived there my whole life so when the opportunity rose to leave I jumped on it. Not that fairfield and ct was a bad place, I'd just never lived anywhere else. I've been away for 16 years now, 3 boyfriends later with the latest one still wanting to see each other but wanting to live separately and have space. Whatever, I thinking thinking of moving back to the motherland of the US because after being away for so long and becoming since heavily addicted to the sopranos series, I miss the east coast so much, words cannot describe.

I moved away when I was 22, I'm now 38 so I never worked professionally in connecticut. I have family in Boston and fairfield county, CT. Salaries in Boston are lower than I'm making now so I am thinking the highest salaries are in New York city. I'm thinking of working there and living in fairfield county somewhere. I think I want to temp to see where specifically I want to work. I'm a corporate, securities and trademark paralegal so all of my experience is at the multi state and federal level so I'm a easy job placement I think.

Does anyone have any advice for me on how to do this, how much I might need $$. I don't even care if I waitress at first when I get there, I just want to come home. I'm working on putting a "business plan" if you will in place so I have a timeline. Any suggestions anyone has would be apprecaited.

Thank you.

[JViello]

So I understand, you are asking how to move back to CT and how much it will cost?

Does that about sum it up?

[surfsnowgirl]

Yes because when I left here, I left with my boyfriend at the time and he handled the logistics, all I had to do was "show up" per say. I have no idea how to move myself back to CT.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by surfsnowgirl

Yes because when I left here, I left with my boyfriend at the time and he handled the logistics, all I had to do was "show up" per say. I have no idea how to move myself back to CT.

Well I'm fairly young so I don't know if I'm in the best position to offer advice, but...

DON'T move without a job. That's probably one of the worst things you can do. A friend of mine moved to Richmond without a job and it wasn't a good situation (and Richmond is about 100x cheaper than FFC).

Also, be ready for the high cost of living. I'm not quite sure where you live now, but CT taxes you to death. There are some who don't mind paying it, and I don't as long as the services are up to par, but lately they have been lacking. Budget cuts in the schools, road work suspended, trains being taken off of Metro North, and I'm sure there is more to come. That's not to say CT is a bad place to live, because it has an excellent quality of life - IF you can afford it. You will be moving to one of the most expensive areas in the nation, as I'm sure you realize.

Apply for jobs and schedule interviews all in the same week if you can. That way you can come up for 5 days, interview for 3 and look at apartments for 2. Try to do it all at once so you can save time, money and stress.

It's hard to move back to CT once you moved away to a cheaper place. I hear this all the time from friends and folks on this board who moved away only to realize that the grass really isn't greener. It's doable, but a change in lifestyle would most likely be in order.

Good luck, keep posting to let us know how your search is going.

[surfsnowgirl]

You know what, I get some of the best advice ever from my younger sisters, I think they are wiser than I am .

I have these irrational thoughts of just quitting my job, loading the cats up and heading home to CT but I know that's not smart. I really would never do that as I'm too conversative and I like knowing when I will have a paycheck coming as independently wealthy I'm not. I am from fairfield county, connecticut so I'm aware of its expensiveness all too well but that's where my family is and if I'm working in New York, I don't want to live anywhere else otherwise I'll be livin on the train.

I currently live in southern california and its certainly not cheap here, housing was a premium and still is rather expensive depending on the area but I do apprecaite what you are saying because if I were coming from the midwest or somewhere else that's not expensive, I'm be in for total sticker shock. I don't seemyself buying anything anytime soon so at least I won't have to deal with property taxes. CT has been that way forever, I remember my boyfriend at the time I moved away complaining about all those things.

I will take your advice and apply for jobs and schedule interviews all in the same week so I can job hunt and look for a place at the same time. I'll concentrate on the job front first because I can always stay with my family if need be. I've got a sister in fairfield and the rest are spread all over fairfield county. So I'll do job first and then worry later where I'll live.

I know it will be pretty stressful. My sister already said I could use her address so I'll put that on my resume which will attract employers. I plan to visit in April so I'll see if I can line up one or two interviews that week, maybe more. I might talk to a temp agency or two because I'm a paralegal with 10 years of experiences so I think I'd be a viable candidate for temping; that way I can see which parts of the city I like best for employment, somewhere within easy distance of grand central I think would be ideal.

I'm used to much of my income in california going towards living expenses so I think that part of it will be ok for me, I'm used to high rents and such.

I did find this really cool hip apartment building in New Haven so I might try the urban living thing however, that would put working in NYC out of reach but I'll see. I don't do law firms and CT has a lot of corporations also
so I'll see what that offers. I was just thinking of NYC due to maximixing my earning potential.

Thank you for the advice. If anyone else has any advice, I'd love to hear it and I'll keep everyone posted too.

[Leigh13]

Call the ABF Shipping.. google it... they will drop a truck off to load up. Look in the local yellow pages for movers to load the truck. Find out the date when ABF will show up at your new residence in CT. Look in local phone book for movers again to unload. Work out the job when you get here. Or move it all into storage, live with a relative or mom until you find a place then find movers to get it out of storage. I'm in FL and am heading back to CT myself. Logistics are easy for me. Hell I could set it up for you.
Finding a job in Stamford or Greenwich shouldn't be a problem.