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Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Minneapolis....and I wish for this to happen, because I don't want to necessarily quit this job until I'm ready to start my own business, and I don't see that happening within 3-5 years.
Previously, I would've added the SF Bay Area, but I live here now and find many of its people to be extremely unpleasant.
LOL. I'm from SoCal and never got a good vibe from the Bay Area, save its aesthetic appeal. Some SoCal people wanted to go to college and/or move up there. What is it about the people that makes them unpleasant?
You could live anywhere you wanted with that money, yes even manhattan. There are places that money is going to go farther but no place in the USA will that money afford you to be a king. You could move overseas, like China or Thailand or some place like that and live like a king.
LOL. I'm from SoCal and never got a good vibe from the Bay Area, save its aesthetic appeal. Some SoCal people wanted to go to college and/or move up there. What is it about the people that makes them unpleasant?
People from the bay tend to be more stuck up than people from socal. It's actually kinda funny but whenever I was up there they like to tally ways norcal > socal like I really care. People from socal don't tend to have much opinion about it except SF is a great city and those mountains are beautiful and great for skiing and snowboarding.
50-60k is not a measly amount unless you want to be living in a part of town that is out of your means or with a different social class of people.
Most people do very well with 50-60k and the ones who don't are simply the people who don't know how to budget their money.
To answer the OP, if I could go anywhere I'd go to Miami and live there. It is without a doubt my favorite city in USA. Lived there once and can't wait to move back.
If you have 800-1MM+ in cash maybe. You are not going to be able to afford the coast except maybe in Maine or somewhere that gets extremely cold in the winter. You could live in the North GA Mountains, Upstate South Carolina (foothills of the Blue Ridges), or some remote mountain area without a lot of amenities. Areas with a depressed economy like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or northern Maine are affordable and beautiful but you won't like the weather. Unless you have money saved up don't expect much in the way of a house in your price range unless it is remote, not quite as scenic as other areas, has rough weather, is a depressed economy, and/or doesn't have a lot of jobs or high paying jobs around (which is ok for you as a telecommuter). Just wait until you see the prices in coastal GA/SC or in even semi-desirable mountain towns in Colorado and/or Wyoming - you will be shocked and start looking for alternatives in a hurry!
Hey now, don't shut out the UP of Michigan! I grew up there and would love to go back. Of course, the depressed economy is the reason why I can't (so you are correct there). However, my Dad worked for over a decade telecommuting from the Copper Country making around that pay and he raised me just fine. You could easily get a great home for not very much at all. My Dad's house (early 1900s 4-level mining home with three lots in town) cost $47k back in 2001.
You could even get waterfront property on the Portage Canal for the amount you would pay for a cheaper home in some of the larger US cities. There are quite a few people who actually who telecommute from there who work for places like IBM, and I've met quite a few people who have done anything to find a way to make the UP their home. People who have grad degrees have come back to work jobs not even in their field (and paying much less) just to be here, and I even know of a guy who drives a taxi in Minneapolis and then drives back to the Yoop every couple of weeks.
As for the weather, it's to each their own. We get a lot of snow as my hometown is the 3rd snowiest in the US, and the 1st snowiest in a non-mountainous region (the first two snowiest are Alaskan towns), but compared to the bitter winds in Minnesota, it's great. The summers are pleasant as well as we have our Lake Superior and canal beaches (ex: White City). If you're an outdoorsy kind of person, you'd enjoy it here. Where else can you tie your boat up to a pier leading out to a lighthouse and get your sun on with no one to pester you?
50-60k is a good salary, it just isn't going to give someone a life of leisure or go very far in the most expensive markets. I think you would be comfortable on that salary in most places except for NYC, SF,DC, Boston, LA, etc.
Personally if I had that type of job lined up I'd probably go to New Orleans. I'm not sure about the COL of San Diego, but I've always thought it is a nice place.
As a single person I'd be perfectly fine in any of those metros. I have noticed people on city-data tend to live well beyond their means and the salaries people tout or money they should have saved up are greatly exaggerated. Then again, I don't have cable, don't have an expensive car, don't have an expensive cell phone contract, and any of that stuff. So, my costs are basically rent and food anywhere I go.
I have some friends who chose to telecommute from Chicago, because of the big-city entertainment options there and the ease of getting direct flights to their office when they needed to. It might not be affordable to live well in Chicago on the salary you listed.
That's a joke, I know people who live and go out all the time on Chicago making 30-40k. You guys need to redefine "living well"
Personally I would live somewhere in CA or FL, away from the cities. Why would I need to be there? Or just get subleases in a few cities and move around, why do you need a permanent residence?
I'm more of a book person for entertainment purpose anyhow.
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