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I understand how things work and I am not comparing Apples to Apples here....What I am saying is Lets say a probation officer makes 25 an hour in CT and in Maine they start you off at $13-14 and over the course of 10 years you can reach 17-18......How can someone make that big of a decrease in pay but yet still live comfortably in maine? Regardless of car tax breaks, property tax etc? Food costs are the same, fuel prices are the same...Really the only thing you have control over as an individual is whether you want to live in a small or large home.....CT is a horrible state in my opinion to live in and its tax this and tax that, it should be know better as the "Tax State" ....but you kinda proved my point, you retired and then moved here which fits right into what I heard from others, Maine is now 50 % or greater of retired folks from other state which in turn these folks dont have to worry about the job market since they are retired and living there life etc..
Tens of thousands of Maine State employees somehow manage to make do on $13 to $14/hour. I should know I'm one of them. Just choose a branch with lots of overtime like prison guard, or DOT.
Buy a cheap house in a town with low taxes and learn to do your own repairs and upgrades, Buy a decent used car, learn to do basic repairs yourself.
Yup the wife's gonna have to work too.
Come up with a side hustle, many Mainers especially state employees do something on the side.
If all of this sounds like too much then maybe you should wait to move here after you retire.
The Volvo line refers to the fact that there are few Volvos North of said line which has been placed at 45 degrees North latitude. The belief is that the Volvo is more suitable for transportation in southern Maine where incomes are higher and the ability to negotiate snowy roads is not as essential.
The Volvo line refers to the fact that there are few Volvos North of said line which has been placed at 45 degrees North latitude. The belief is that the Volvo is more suitable for transportation in southern Maine where incomes are higher and the ability to negotiate snowy roads is not as essential.
The whole "Volvo Line" thing is of course absurd, as is the idea that only a few hardy souls have the constitution (or the right car) to survive in the remote "wilderness" north of Bangor.
Their are dozens and dozens of Volvo dealers well north of Bangor, Maine, in places far more remote with significantly harsher climates than northern Maine. Alaska, Scandinavia, Baltic States http://www.volvocars.com/
There is even at least one dealership north of the Arctic Circle in Murmansk, Russia http://www.volvocarmurmansk.ru/
As to the OP question about good paying jobs, Maine is a large, mostly poor (except for the "Gold Coast") state without much of a tax base.
If there were lot's of good paying jobs it wouldn't be Maine anymore. It would be like Seattle or Las Vegas or Austin or Nashville and you wouldn't want to live here anymore.
It isn't about weather. Certain cars like the Pious (spelling intentional) attract specific groups of buyers. The most popular vehicles in Maine are 4WD pickups because of their utility and safety. They don't get good mileage in the grand scheme of things called CAFE or corporate average fuel economy, but if you have one vehicle, the 4 WD pickup will do it all.
The single most popular automobile in Maine is the Subaru Forester. For the first time since 1986, I own an automobile and it is a Forester. Most people have seen the advertisement where the tow truck driver or police officer says in amazement, "They lived." It's the only car ad I have seen that shows their product smashed up. 98% of all Subarus sold in Maine in the last ten years are still on the road, so their accident rate must be quite low. All Subaru models are full time all wheel drive. I look forward to driving it in snow.
So, the "Volvo Line" is not about roadworthiness. It is a societal thing. You can tell about the owner by the bumper stickers. I have never seen an NRA sticker on a Volvo. You see "Save the Whales"and "Be kind to your mother." This is not about family values. It refers to Gaia, the Earth Mother deity. Then there is the "Don't Breed" sticker. I thought it was about spaying and neutering pets. Nope; it is about people. These folks want to reduce the earth's population. You will never see such stickers on 4 WD pickups.
I don't think there is a single Volvo registered in our town. However, there are lots of Subarus and pickups. The Subarus are so ubiquitous, that they are likely to have any bumper sticker known to man. You can't tell anything about a Subaru owner unless it has some stickers. I have one sticker so far:
"Enjoy the Maine outdoors?
Thank a private landowner."
The stickers are available from the Maine Woods Coalition.
Maine is the oldest state [meaning the oldest average age] with the highest percentage of retirees. Florida gets the reputation for being a big draw for retirees, but Florida does not have this high a percentage of retirees. A lot of people migrate to Maine after they retire, I did.
Maine is over 92% forest, but due to many economic factors the mills have shut down. So the forestry industry is dying. Maine is left with tourism, which is seasonal, and only focuses on specific locales.
We know a lot of people who have migrated to Maine as retirees.
I wish I had some helpful advice to offer, but I don't.
The Volvo line reference is not very nice, or accurate. This is because I know people with Volvo's, but the reality is that Subaru's are much better in snow than Volvo's and as a consequence there aren't any Volvo dealerships up here---at least near by me.
But your point is basically that the more rural a place is the lower the salaries are going to be. Suburban Philadelphia is not rural and the salaries there are high. Bedford County, 2 hours west of Harrisburg is very rural and salaries there are very low.
However....if you are a dentist, you can make very serious money, especially if you are an endodontist or a maxofacialary surgeon, since there are very very few of these around, and they can charge $3K for a root canal that you can get for $600 in suburban Philly where there are endodontists everywhere.
The Volvo joke is kind of funny. It reminds me of a line about Vermont. "Vermont where even the rednecks drive Volvos". Of course just like Maine now you have to swap Volvo for Subaru.
When I lived in Maine a friend from the midwest asked why there were so many Euro cars in Maine. I said not sure I know they are common in New England in General but the amount in Maine is amazing for a rural state. We asked some one else that one day who used to work for a euro car repair shop near Ellsworth. He said it was because vacationing Bostonians would sell their old cars to the housekeeprs contractors etc cheap. Once Mainers became used to Euro cars they never gave them up.
My wife and I moved from New York to Manchester, ME last August after I accepted a technical position with the State government. (You can view job openings online, by the way, State Jobs: Maine Bureau of Human Resources) I took a 40% pay cut to get here. This is a real testament to following a dream or money. If I wanted to make a lot more money, it would have been easy to stay where I was and kept doing what I was doing.
We are living comfortably here albeit disposable income has dropped significantly. Restaurants are only 1-2 times a week now. I also started bringing lunch to work. I used to eat out for lunch. What helped is a change in activities. Instead of bars, clubs, and buying unnecessary stuff, we are doing more walking, hiking, gardening, swimming (summer), etc. Saving up a little before coming up here also helps.
Check into the State jobs. Most are strictly 40 hr weeks. Someone else already mentioned working more than 1 job if that works for you. If it's a real dream, keep working on it. Don't give up. Good luck!
I plan to sell my valuable Boston area house and take my considerable retirement savings from my high paying Boston area job and retire to Mid-Coast Maine. I don't own a Volvo right now but I have owned them in the past.
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