Keep high salary when moving to lower cost of living? (Stanford: rent, insurance)

[man4857]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

I think everyone who lives here knows they pay a premium for location. But personally if I had to live in Phoenix I'd want to commit suicide. Places with jobs and overall quality of life are generally expensive. I know I guy who is a system engineer who lived in Phoenix. When he lost his job he had to pick up his family, sell his house and move back here because he couldn't find another job that paid enough there. Ive had job offers in places with lower COL and good lifestyle but I knew if that job went away there wasn't enough industry to easily find a comparable job.

I don't know about his financial situation but sounds like he wasn't very good with money if he's living in a lower COL area and couldn't find a job that pays him well enough so he decides to move to a higher COL area for a higher salary. Don't know, the math just doesn't add up.

[deadcoder]

Originally Posted by oklahoma456

Could anyone with personal experience comment on how their salary changed when moving from a high cost of living area like San Fran, LA or NYC to a lower cost of living area, assuming a lateral or minor promotion (i.e. Engineer III to Engineer III/IV)? I have a job offer in LA, and the job interests me but I don't think I want to stay there for more than 5 years due to the distance from family. I was wondering if I would see any lasting salary benefit if I moved there, got the higher salary associated with the high cost of living, then moved back closer to home (Midwest) where the cost of living is less. Do companies try to at least maintain your current salary at your high cost of living location or do they not take it into consideration at all? I'm particularly interested in the aerospace sector. Thanks!

What about learning new technologies and broadening your knowledge and experience and become more competitive in high paying jobs? Relocating just to increase salary is an absurd idea.

At the end of the day, knowledge pays more than anything else.... just my 2cents

[Finper]

That's what I was thinking man4857...unless he ran home to live with his parents again

[ryanms3030]

On the other hand i know people who bought houses 4 years ago for $400k and sold for $700k. You aren't going to do that in Phoenix

[man4857]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

On the other hand i know people who bought houses 4 years ago for $400k and sold for $700k. You aren't going to do that in Phoenix

Well of course not, but if you're buying a house to live in for a while, you won't look at it as an investment potential. You'd look at the location, area, community, schools, shopping, etc.

[spike1999]

I just moved from PHX. Its a great place, but the schools are dismal if you have children. Also there are costs that are higher. My licenses plates for both cars ran me 1k a year and my car insurance was 1k a year more in Phoenix as well. My income taxes seem about dead even from what I can tell (but that varies greatly based on your income and deductions). Most of my AZ friends pay about 400-500 a month for electric during the summer- I didn't because I insulated the crap out of my house, had a very high efficiency AC and not a very big house. Also I have many friends paying 200 a month in water bills. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about PHX and I will miss living there, but it also falls short on many things that LA clearly has.

As for my career- well there just wasn't as many options/opportunity for me and when I did find something, it paid about 30 percent less than when I could make in LA. I also feel, PHX is very employer friendly. For example- no state short term disability, no mandated sick time as well as very low unemployment benefits (not that I ever needed them, thank god). When I retire I will probably consider moving back to PHX for COL reasons.

But back to the OP. When I moved from Chicago to PHX- my boss kept my pay the same. It was a huge increase in pay because of the COL change alone. Most people I know of, don't take a pay cut when transferred due to lower COL. I think it would be too toxic for an employer to do that.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by spike1999

I just moved from PHX. Its a great place, but the schools are dismal if you have children. Also there are costs that are higher. My licenses plates for both cars ran me 1k a year and my car insurance was 1k a year more in Phoenix as well. My income taxes seem about dead even from what I can tell (but that varies greatly based on your income and deductions). Most of my AZ friends pay about 400-500 a month for electric during the summer- I didn't because I insulated the crap out of my house, had a very high efficiency AC and not a very big house. Also I have many friends paying 200 a month in water bills. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about PHX and I will miss living there, but it also falls short on many things that LA clearly has.

As for my career- well there just wasn't as many options/opportunity for me and when I did find something, it paid about 30 percent less than when I could make in LA. I also feel, PHX is very employer friendly. For example- no state short term disability, no mandated sick time as well as very low unemployment benefits (not that I ever needed them, thank god). When I retire I will probably consider moving back to PHX for COL reasons.

But back to the OP. When I moved from Chicago to PHX- my boss kept my pay the same. It was a huge increase in pay because of the COL change alone. Most people I know of, don't take a pay cut when transferred due to lower COL. I think it would be too toxic for an employer to do that.

All good points. My mother transferred from MA to FL years ago because her company shut down an office and offered to relocate everyone essential that wanted was willing to move. Of course after about 2 years they laid her off and everyone that was making higher salaries that they had in MA. Then she was forced to take a job at the going rate in FL which was a major pay cut. Of course it's still more affordable to live there so she was still able to maintain a house and a good standard of living.

To me, owning a house doesn't necessarily = good lifestyle. My family and I spend most of our free time outdoors hiking, camping, cycling etc. I can ride my bike 40+ miles basically 365 days a year in LA and have access to great mountain roads and scenery. From people that I have known that lived in Phoenix they told me that for half the year they would have to get up at 4am and get any riding or jogginng or other outdoor activity in before the sun came up because of the heat. And in CA we have access to camping and hiking by the beach, in the mountains, in forrest, desert etc and have great variety within a 20 minute to 4 hour drive. All those things are free. So having so much enjoyable things to do for free also offsets cost of living else where.

In the end everyone here are adults and fully understand pluses and minuses. You couldn't pay me enough to live in AZ, NV, NM, FL, AR, AL, GA, SC, NC, WY, OK, TN, WV or NE and I've been in all of those places so I am speaking from experience. There are others I would consider like WA, OR, CO but col is catching up with CA in most places I find desirable. And I'm making 6 figures here and I don't think I would come close to that somewhere else due to my industry

[brrabbit]

It depends on the company, how much it wants you and so on.

I moved from Boston to Milwaukee and kept my salary. The company was very fat and had no problems to match LA or east coast salaries (and invited many programmers from both coasts).

My current company tough has something like "Pay grade" and it's proportionally adjusted to each metro area... However, you can always negotiate.

Anyway, if you can go to another job for higher pay, you are in a strong position. And on another hand, if your company can hire someone who can do your job at a lower rate, then keep your mouth shut and work long hours.

[brrabbit]

a word of wisdom... Although LA has considerably higher rents, especially in the "desired" areas, one might think that cost of living is much higher there than let's say in Milwaukee... But I found that many services and even food prices are much higher in Milwaukee than in LA. And we need to have winter clothes and stuff...

All in all, it ain't that much cheaper for a family of 4 in Milwaukee, than in LA.

[adr3naline]

Originally Posted by brrabbit

a word of wisdom... Although LA has considerably higher rents, especially in the "desired" areas, one might think that cost of living is much higher there than let's say in Milwaukee... But I found that many services and even food prices are much higher in Milwaukee than in LA. And we need to have winter clothes and stuff...

All in all, it ain't that much cheaper for a family of 4 in Milwaukee, than in LA.

I'm moving from Milwaukee to Los Angeles (full time) this month. ^I echo brrabbit.