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Old 02-15-2011, 07:12 AM
 
2,919 posts, read 5,807,738 times
Reputation: 2801

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I know that you never know what goes on behind closed doors.....but I know a family who moved to LA. Now at the time both parents were working until 1 lost their job...(BTW, the jobs were with big corporations)...I thought for sure that they would move back home due to the high cost of living in CA and to one of the parents losing their jobs...but to my surprise they are sticking it out......I guess my question if I were to move to Los Angeles(I'm single by the way), could I afford it?I mean thats all you ever hear about is the Cost of Living......I mean my god if a family of 5 can stay in LA with only 1 parent working...I know I can ....RIGHT?..
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Old 02-15-2011, 07:26 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,779,981 times
Reputation: 17831
Quote:
Originally Posted by westcoastbabe View Post
if I were to move to Los Angeles(I'm single by the way), could I afford it?
I think I can help you.

How much will you be earning after taxes per month?

What will these expenses be per month?
Housing
Automobile loan
Fuel
Auto insurance
Health insurance
Retirement savings
Food
Household supplies (soap, light bulbs, etc)
Utilities
Entertainment
Cable
Cell phone
Starbucks
Gym
Hair and Nails
Other expenses

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Old 02-15-2011, 07:52 AM
 
2,919 posts, read 5,807,738 times
Reputation: 2801
Housing
Automobile loan -$2000.00 left to pay - 2007 Honda Accord
Fuel
Auto insurance - Roughly $400.00 every 6 months
Health insurance
Retirement savings
Food - $30.00 - $40.00 every 2- 3 weeks
Household supplies (soap, light bulbs, etc)
Utilities
Entertainment
Cable - Average $60.00
Cell phone - $42.00
Starbucks - VOID
Gym
Hair and Nails
Other expenses
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Old 02-15-2011, 08:05 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,779,981 times
Reputation: 17831
So your income is?

And your total expenses are?
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Old 02-15-2011, 08:20 AM
 
9,848 posts, read 8,284,533 times
Reputation: 3296
Quote:
Originally Posted by westcoastbabe View Post
I know that you never know what goes on behind closed doors.....but I know a family who moved to LA. Now at the time both parents were working until 1 lost their job...(BTW, the jobs were with big corporations)...I thought for sure that they would move back home due to the high cost of living in CA and to one of the parents losing their jobs...but to my surprise they are sticking it out......I guess my question if I were to move to Los Angeles(I'm single by the way), could I afford it?I mean thats all you ever hear about is the Cost of Living......I mean my god if a family of 5 can stay in LA with only 1 parent working...I know I can ....RIGHT?..
Your family friends discovered the tens of thousands of give-away dollars to be gotten in the system I would guess.
They can stay because everyone else is flipping the bill, but the horrible truth is we have no money and the whole thing is imploding.
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Old 02-15-2011, 08:53 AM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix
11,039 posts, read 16,868,976 times
Reputation: 12950
They're probably on food stamps, section 8 vouchers, low-income auto insurance, free healthcare, etc...

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that these things are here so that kids don't go hungry, but when I lived there, I also knew someone who had a family of 5 on a $35,000/year job with a stay-at-home mom. When I asked him how he did it, he just laughed and said "food stamps!" He said that his wife liked staying at home with the kids, so... that was that. Kind of frustrating when at the end of the same year, I ended up owing California an extra $700 because I had two jobs to keep myself from having to go to the government for help
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Old 02-15-2011, 10:15 AM
 
2,919 posts, read 5,807,738 times
Reputation: 2801
Yikes!!
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Old 02-15-2011, 10:20 AM
 
362 posts, read 818,061 times
Reputation: 160
We need more threads like this...
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Old 02-15-2011, 10:28 AM
 
Location: South Bay
7,226 posts, read 22,201,982 times
Reputation: 3626
food stamps? really? just because you have one income doesn't mean you're going to need food stamps. i know a few guys whose wives don't work and they get by, they're certainly not using food stamps to feed their families. things may be tight financially, but they're doing okay and they live in LA with kids and a stay at home wife. yes it can be done. you'll need to a pretty good job, but you don't have to make $200k/year to pull it off.
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Old 02-15-2011, 11:11 AM
 
4,538 posts, read 10,632,544 times
Reputation: 4073
The issue is almost entirely rent.

Even in the ghetto, its going to cost $650-700/mo for a studio. For a relatively safe area(and by no means the safest), its going to cost at minimum $800/mo for a studio.

So thats the issue. In general, single people making under ~$35-40K a year have to find alternative housing options.
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