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Most of my family lives in a rural area (I don't understand why, I hate it, it's harder to get a job and it's boring, the quietness at night is actually kind of creepy to me) and has given me the impression that living in a CITY is expensive. Well rural living is also expensive. You most likely have to drive AND own a car in a rural area because of the lack of transit. I can't imagine myself being able to afford both a car AND a house anytime in the near future. However, I don't even want to drive, so no car, and an apartment is good enough, even a small studio apartment.
Rural living really isn't that cheap, harder to get a job, you most likely have to drive and OWN a car and OWN (OR RENT) A HOUSE. That's so expensive. My mom couldn't even find a house in the rural area for less than $1,200 a month. She couldn't afford it by herself. The best job in town she could get pays less than $20,000 a year. My parents are divorced, but my dad only makes about $40,000 a year. I don't want to end up that way! I want to be more successful. Please don't say go to college, because many people who didn't even finish high school have become millionaires. I did graduate high school, I don't want to go to college now though, not like it's affordable anyway, plus I don't know if I'd ever be able to choose a major. I want to become self employed.
www.walkscore.com/apartments is a good place to do some pricing research. It really really really depends on the city, but in general, no, it's does not have to be expensive to live in any US city (other than like Manhattan/Brooklyn, San Francisco, Boston, etc).
www.walkscore.com/apartments is a good place to do some pricing research. It really really really depends on the city, but in general, no, it's does not have to be expensive to live in any US city (other than like Manhattan/Brooklyn, San Francisco, Boston, etc).
What about Chicago, Illinois and Seattle, Washington and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?
You would like to be self employed at what ? Skilled tradesman do not need college degress but they do needs lots of training. They also drive trucks/vans, etc. to get to clients homes, even if they live in a city. Tools have to go with them.
You could be self employed in some sort of endeavor where you work from home remotely over a computer, but then again, you'll need the training.
I would start by looking up cost of living calculators on the internet for any city that might interest you. It will give you a good idea of things will cost. City data itself has tons of information on every town and city in the country. Just type in, for example, " city data- philadelphia" and browse through the info provided.
Then you have to figure your area of self employment and what skills you'll have to learn to achieve that.
Most of my family lives in a rural area (I don't understand why, I hate it, it's harder to get a job and it's boring, the quietness at night is actually kind of creepy to me) and has given me the impression that living in a CITY is expensive. Well rural living is also expensive. You most likely have to drive AND own a car in a rural area because of the lack of transit. I can't imagine myself being able to afford both a car AND a house anytime in the near future. However, I don't even want to drive, so no car, and an apartment is good enough, even a small studio apartment.
Rural living really isn't that cheap, harder to get a job, you most likely have to drive and OWN a car and OWN (OR RENT) A HOUSE. That's so expensive. My mom couldn't even find a house in the rural area for less than $1,200 a month. She couldn't afford it by herself. The best job in town she could get pays less than $20,000 a year. My parents are divorced, but my dad only makes about $40,000 a year. I don't want to end up that way! I want to be more successful. Please don't say go to college, because many people who didn't even finish high school have become millionaires. I did graduate high school, I don't want to go to college now though, not like it's affordable anyway, plus I don't know if I'd ever be able to choose a major. I want to become self employed.
I grew up in an urban area, and moved out to an isolated town of 25K when I was 20 years old (circa 10 years ago). I graduated high school, and dropped out of three different community colleges.
In the 25K town, it took me a month to find a minimum wage job, in a grocery store. Instead of accepting 40/hr a week of minimum wage as my future, I found a second job, delivering pizza. I made about double minimum wage doing that (incl. tips). I found myself working an insane amount of hours per week, but the cash was quickly piling up (I only paid $200/mo for my room in an apartment, and only had a phone bill and car costs beyond that). I ended up quitting that grocery store job, found my future wife (HS dropout) at the pizza joint, and spent the next couple of years trying to convince her to move to an urban area with me (she was a 25K town townie). The social life there was great once I was broken in, and I still have lifelong friends there/from there.
It worked, we've been in the urban area for 8 years, and we make 5+x more than your mother now. The good thing about life here is that there's always something exciting to do that is easily accessible. Income/income potential is obviously great. We own a house. Traffic can be bad, but we live in an area of town where it's less of an issue. Our area also has excellent access to nature, albeit crowded nature.
The things I miss about the 25K town are the simpler life, the better social climate, and the less need/temptation to work tons of hours. I miss the stars. I don't miss the smaller minds, the isolation, nor the feeling of hopelessness for the future.
I'd be curious to know what area you live in, because the rent prices you describe are outrageous for anywhere that is not a resort or oil industry area. It's not expensive to live rural in 95% of situations, unless you're doing it wrong. Urban can be done on the cheap as well, it just takes more concession.
Of course not. Millions of Americans, even in big cities, live with dignity on their Social Security, often about a thousand dollars a month for those who were non-professional wage-earners in their working life.
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