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.
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.
Persons per household, 2007-2011 2.66
Per capita money income in the past 12 months (2011 dollars), 2007-2011 $40,140
40,140 x 2.66 = $106,772.40 income per household
Quote:
Persons under 5 years, percent, 2010 4.2%
Persons under 18 years, percent, 2010 21.7%
Persons 65 years and over, percent, 2010 15.8%
Approximately 40% of the population is either under 18 (and if working earning very little) or is over 65 and could be retired, their retirement income being less than the median. The unskilled teens and the retirees are skewing the median downward.
Quote:
Housing units, 2010 2,651
Homeownership rate, 2007-2011 80.2%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011 $606,600
Given the median value of the owner-occupied homes, $85K sole income might be difficult to live on as a new homeowner in Bayville, unless you added an accessory apartment to generate more income.
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.
Next spring, seniors at about 200 U.S. colleges will take a new test that could prove more important to their future than final exams: an SAT-like assessment that aims to cut through grade-point averages and judge students' real value to employers.
This post is starting to confuse the heck out of me. If you're already making 85K, you should already know if you're getting by or not. What do you want from us?
It seems weird to me that your wife thought non-academic positions would be pointless. Making money is pointless? What employer would begrudge her that? When I was in law school, I taught SAT courses and tutored for Kaplan. I continued to tutor with Kaplan and privately during my first year as an attorney because starting salaries for LI attorneys, to put it nicely, are not as high as you'd expect. One of the other associates at my first job worked three nights a week as a waiter. People do what they have to do. My brother is finishing up his PhD...he actually worked at J.Crew for his first year or so until he was able to get a part-time teaching position and now works full time while he finishes his dissertation.
In terms of academia, if you want to make a living without relocation, you absolutely have to hustle. My father in law is a recently retired college professor. He didn't have a full-time professorship until my husband was nearly grown. Instead, he took 2 or 3 adjunct positions scattered throughout the city (they lived in the Bronx) and pieced together a full-time income that way. I have a friend who recently got her PhD and is doing the same thing -- one adjunct position in Jersey, one on LI. Another friend with a PhD is not interested in academia but is geographically limited because her husband (also a PhD) has a mindblowingly awesome job in Seattle. She works two part-time jobs, and recently got a very promising temporary consultant position. Your career is what you make of it in any profession, but that's particularly true in professions that are not exactly known for financial rewards.
And to whoever was asking...yes, cost of living is higher in Queens. I just moved to LI from Forest Hills. For what we paid for our house in Merrick, we could get a 2 br co-op in FH.
A PhD is almost certain to have to search NATIONALLY for work. Especially in an area as weak academically as Long Island.
When my wife was finishing her degree and getting ready to go on the job market, I asked her "how about CW Post or Hofstra?" Then we both laughed.
She worked hard enough to get her first job at NYU where she stayed for 7 years. It was a great time but having grown up in the area, we knew living in the city had a shelf life of about 5 years.
I'm calling BS on that. I have friends who have earned/are earning social science PhDs in several different parts of the country, and many of them have adjunct-ed at other schools during the semesters that they weren't on the teaching schedule in their own program, have tutored or taught at private schools and/or private tutoring centers or on their institution's undergrad campus, have hustled their way into research assistant positions with professors, and have just generally worked their butts off to not only get a degree, but to get the experience necessary to be able to start their careers, even if/when their home program wasn't helping them to get it. Unfortunately for you and your wife, your wife apparently responds to obstacles by using the MITS Theory of Rampant Fatalism in the Face of Even the Tiniest Possible Amount of Adversity.
Actually, it seems that other posters on this forum are the ones who gave up and left Long Island at the tiniest possible amount of adversity. Looks like I am the one who is staying and trying to make it work. Looks like you are wrong.
The difference between myself and other posters here is that I consider relocation to be an absolute last resort, and something I would do after I have exhausted all other options. I have not gotten to that point yet. Others seem to consider relocation to be their response to the tiniest possible amount of adversity. I think this is a case where we are just going to have to agree to disagree. Nothing I say will make my values make sense to anyone. And nothing you say will make your values make any sense to me.
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.
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.
She has never taken a civil service test. What jobs would she even be able to take a test for? I know nothing about the civil service system other than that it's basically closed to white males (since she's female, she might have a chance if a position she's qualified for is open).
Quote:
A PhD and unemployable. There's always Starbucks. Plenty of actors, singers, lawyers, psychology and polisci student debt holders.
It is more valuable having her at home than working at Starbucks .
Approximately 40% of the population is either under 18 (and if working earning very little) or is over 65 and could be retired, their retirement income being less than the median. The unskilled teens and the retirees are skewing the median downward.
Given the median value of the owner-occupied homes, $85K sole income might be difficult to live on as a new homeowner in Bayville, unless you added an accessory apartment to generate more income.
The figure you quoted is already based on HOUSEHOLD income, so no need to multiply it by 2.66.
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.
