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You don't go into academia and expect to live in the place you grew up or your whole family is. A career in academia means moving around and hoping for tenure somewhere. This is one of those situations where extreme smarts and common sense are in inverse proportions to each other.
By the way, according to Wikipedia, the median income for a family in Bayville (where the OP's brother lives) is $77,838, which is even less than $85,000. If half of the people living in Bayville are able to get by on less than $77,838, then why do you say I wouldn't be able to get by on slightly more than $85,000? Again, I know nothing about Bayville, so I don't know whether or not it's a place I would want to live, but you get my point.
First of all, median income includes many people who bought their homes decades ago, meaning they paid nowhere near current market prices for their home. If someone paid $150K for a home twenty years ago, of course they can afford their mortgage on $77K. There's no question that someone making that kind of salary can comfortably afford a mortgage of $200K or less. The thing you can't seem to get through your thick skull is that houses in the places you want to live are selling for twice that much or more. Google "how much house can I afford," plug in your income, debts, and available down payment, and the calculator will tell you what size mortgage you're likely to be approved for. If a house costs the same or less than that amount, you can afford it. If it costs more, you can't. It's really that simple.
(And Bayville is north of Glen Cove. It has no train station of its own, and it's at least a 25 minute drive to the nearest highway. There are exactly 2 roads in and out, both of which are one lane in each direction. It's right on the Sound and is lovely, but I doubt it meets your hypothetical future commuting needs. The whole reason Bayville is even mildly affordable is because it is EXTREMELY remote.)
By the way, according to Wikipedia, the median income for a family in Bayville (where the OP's brother lives) is $77,838, which is even less than $85,000. If half of the people living in Bayville are able to get by on less than $77,838, then why do you say I wouldn't be able to get by on slightly more than $85,000? Again, I know nothing about Bayville, so I don't know whether or not it's a place I would want to live, but you get my point.
I don't understand. You are asking a question and getting answers - real answers from real people who are doing what you say you want to be doing and you keep re-asking the same question, hoping for someone to tell you it can be done.
I described my situation to you already - but I have a suggestion. Why don't you find a house in the area you're looking for, that has all the things you require, figure out the mortgage payment including PITI, factor in some extra costs that are associated with home ownership and PRACTICE living with that budget? We did this for a year while we were renting and quickly figure out the number we would be comfortbale with and where we were no loger comfortable.
People have given you concrete budgeting examples to illustrate why buying a house in 2013 in nassau with an $85k salary would be borerline undoable. It all depends on how much you're willing to live without with a budget like that.
I wish it were realistic to live here with one salary on $85k. I can tell you that at just over $100k, with a $2600/month mortgage payment, I'm too scared to have kids. I wont even consider it until our income changes, but i'm fiscally conservative.
I see postings for adjunct poli sci positions all the time. I know because I forward them to my husband. He has a masters in poli sci and works full time but will teach a class or two as an adjunct to make extra $$. I can't believe your wife hasn't found anything that could at least give her part-time teaching experience.
Totally agree. Every school in the country is adding courses online to distance learning and adjunct spots are available (and can be done from almost anywhere...hence "distance" in the title).
Also, civil service jobs are offered based on order of test scores. If you have the minimum qualifications you get selected based on score. Apparently a PhD can't score as high as an admin/clerk/steno/typist which pays $35k and up w great benefits to start. Proves the point about book smarts. A PhD and unemployable. There's always Starbucks. Plenty of actors, singers, lawyers, psychology and polisci student debt holders. A PhD and can't find work anywhere?! I call BS. It's clearly desire and attitude. Unfortunately there aren't many $85k jobs carrying a candidate's briefcase. Those gigs go to interns for free.
Really? A PhD in poli sci (9 YEARS OF STUDY) and she didn't make a single decent contact in either the academic or political world?! Your stories get more and more bizarre every day.
I don't make anywhere near $85k, but I'm in IT myself. My husband is a public employee in the mental health sector and makes less than I do. Combined, we make just over $100k.
Does your husband's public service employment provide health insurance and a pension? Those of us who aren't publicly employed have to save for retirement as well as pay for our own health insurance.
$85K or $100K and getting benefits (such as I indicated) vs. $85K or $100K and not getting benefits makes a big difference.
The previous poster's point was that you relocate for her job ONLY AFTER she gets HIRED. You don't just randomly move somewhere and hope she gets a professorship there. For someone who is married to a PhD, you seem terribly ignorant of what an academic's life entails.
My sis in law lost her dream job as primate director of a large Midwest zoo in the post Madoff endowment debacle where funding was slashed. PhD in zoology/animal behavior. Within 4 months she was bumped to the top of the list of candidates at a new program near Buffalo based on a contact from grad school. The whole family including 2 teens who spent their entire lives in that house upped and moved from the big city to Buffalo to accommodate her career. They eliminated debt. The kids went to a great nationally ranked school. The niece hightailed it out to a college 3 states away as soon as she could. Nephew is playing baseball and doing great.
Morals: 1) A PhD is almost certain to have to search NATIONALLY for work. Especially in an area as weak academically as Long Island. 2) Family values mean doing what's best for your family. Some think Sunday supper and free babysitting is more important than helping with college. Some don't.
Morals: 1) A PhD is almost certain to have to search NATIONALLY for work. Especially in an area as weak academically as Long Island.
My spouse studied for her masters in economics in Michigan. All her classmates who were on the PhD track moved elsewhere to get to the next stages of their careers. Some went to Oregon, others NY, one even went to New Zealand. 7 years later they are still living in a suitcase pursuing the next grant. One of her friends who was in the V-Tech PhD program had to transfer to Clemson in SC after not scoring high enough in the competitive exams. mits supposedly went to grad school in MIT (tsk tsk) and the spouse has a PhD so not understanding the need to be mobile is quite surprising.
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