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We are really struggling, badly. Because we are homeowners, we can never get ahead. I work in a school district here and I work full time-some weeks 48hrs or more. And I have yet to break over 40K a year. My spouses job was eliminated back in 2008 when his employer sold their place to a big company. He got a job working for $9.97hr at 20hrs a week he was with for 4 years until they decided to move. He asked for a raise to cover his bridge toll ($1.50 a day)as it was going to go from a 1 mile commute to 40 miles a day. They fired him. Since then, he still can't land a job. If you are over 50, you are screwed here.
I bring home after taxes, health insurance and union dues, $880 every two weeks. I can't survive on this in the Hudson Valley. Our taxes here have now climbed to over $8k a year. Let's not even mention Central Hudson and gas prices. I am drowning.
So tell me, if we could sell here-we have no mortgage as we paid off our house before he lost his job-could we do better else where in NYS? Are there real living wages out there?(I dispatch school buses-I landed a Civil Service job-but it's the lowest paid district here). Hubby dispatched concrete for 21 years before than he was military. Where can we go? Suggestions please. I can't go on anymore. It's getting depressing that I just can't get the bills paid. We both have another 20 years to give a company, but no one wants you if you are 50.
Sell me on my own state as it looks like our youngest will be staying here-we had been looking south, but the coach decided they weren't interested and the NY ones are banging away at the door. So we'll stay here, but need another place to live that's not constantly knocking us flat. It's turned bad here since 9/11 and the lower counties have taken over here. They won't hire locals for real jobs. I've been called a back water hick by Long Islander's once too many times in the last 5 years, I want to get away from that.
It's possible. If it helps for a frame of reference, born in NYS and I lived awhile in Buffalo and now in Rochester, and things aren't exactly booming in either. I'm a college graduate in a generally employable field that is licensed by the state and most of us aren't confident in our ability to secure future employment should anything happen.
You'll get random anecdotal tales from time to time about how great the job opportunities are even with high pay, but they're a couple standard deviations from the norm.
We are really struggling, badly. Because we are homeowners, we can never get ahead. I work in a school district here and I work full time-some weeks 48hrs or more. And I have yet to break over 40K a year. My spouses job was eliminated back in 2008 when his employer sold their place to a big company. He got a job working for $9.97hr at 20hrs a week he was with for 4 years until they decided to move. He asked for a raise to cover his bridge toll ($1.50 a day)as it was going to go from a 1 mile commute to 40 miles a day. They fired him. Since then, he still can't land a job. If you are over 50, you are screwed here.
I bring home after taxes, health insurance and union dues, $880 every two weeks. I can't survive on this in the Hudson Valley. Our taxes here have now climbed to over $8k a year. Let's not even mention Central Hudson and gas prices. I am drowning.
So tell me, if we could sell here-we have no mortgage as we paid off our house before he lost his job-could we do better else where in NYS? Are there real living wages out there?(I dispatch school buses-I landed a Civil Service job-but it's the lowest paid district here). Hubby dispatched concrete for 21 years before than he was military. Where can we go? Suggestions please. I can't go on anymore. It's getting depressing that I just can't get the bills paid. We both have another 20 years to give a company, but no one wants you if you are 50.
Sell me on my own state as it looks like our youngest will be staying here-we had been looking south, but the coach decided they weren't interested and the NY ones are banging away at the door. So we'll stay here, but need another place to live that's not constantly knocking us flat. It's turned bad here since 9/11 and the lower counties have taken over here. They won't hire locals for real jobs. I've been called a back water hick by Long Islander's once too many times in the last 5 years, I want to get away from that.
So fire away! Where's a better place than here?
We were pretty much in the same situation. Only that the company my wife and I both worked for packed up and went south because of the astronomical cost of doing business in New York. They only offered one of us a job and at a reduced salary. Fortunately we had no debt, received a severance package and saved up enough money to live for a couple of years. We taught ourselves how to use computers and started our own graphic design business. We both had worked for commercial printers most of our lives so this was a perfect fit.
The cost of living in New York was eating away at our savings quicker than we could earn it. The biggest culprits were the state and local government's insatiable demands for more money. Particularly the property taxes. Our money was being swallowed up by that giant cesspool of corruption. Basically we were just existing.
As far as I know there are not too many well paying jobs in upstate New York where the housing and taxes are cheaper than the New York metro area.
I won't even try to sell you on New York State. As we have found that getting the hell out of there was the best thing we ever did. As far as I'm concerned just about anyplace is better than the northeast, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in particular. We're in Arizona. Because we wanted to be here. That's very important. It was a perfect fit for us. Being self employed and working at home allows us to live anywhere. And after 5 years of living here there's no place else where we'd rather be. It's just such a great feeling to be able to go and buy things that you want and not just what you need to exist. Living out here we save over $18,000 a year in living expenses. That's $18,000 a year to do with as we please.
Fortunately for you, your house is paid off. More than likely you will be able to sell it and afford to buy another home outright that is either comparable to the one you're living in or as in our case even better. Chances are you will have enough money left over that you can use to supplement your income until things get back to normal for you.
As to where you choose to live that's entirely up to you. Just pick out several places that you think you'd like to live. Spend as much time researching every aspect of those places. Plan on making several trips there. Subscribe to the local papers and call real estate agents for relocation packages.
Don't despair. You've got company as we've been through all that crap. Things will work out for you. I wish you the best of luck!
Last edited by Ex New Yorker; 10-05-2015 at 08:29 PM..
You might want to check out the Albany area, which is more populous than the HV (larger places just have more job opportunities and better wages than smaller places) and tends to have a fairly stable economy because of the large number of decent paying government jobs there. Your husband could look into state civil jobs as NYS does not discriminate against older workers (a friend of mine was hired as a corrections officer at age 51 a couple of years ago!).
Hubby was sent back to school to learn HVAC. 2 problems, one his age-no one wants to hire a 51 year old, two-how do you get experience if no one will hire you due to you age. It's so odd that all his years as a manager for dispatch in the concrete industry and handling 7 million a year in sales means he's got nothing to offer in another field. Heck, even Home Depot here won't hire him.(we both secretly loath those online personality trait tests to get hired for a retail job).
Thanks for the good ideas and suggestions, we are both trying all avenues. I am keeping an eye on the board for school district postings as I'd like to keep my NYS retirement intact and not lose it this close to being done. But I can't stay here in Dutchess because I only make 37K a year and that's not enough to cover much as they take out $1200 a month between taxes, union dues and health/dental insurance. I can't make up what's being taken out. We are drowning and we don't even have debt. Thanks again!
Refusing to hire someone because of his age? That sounds like age discrimination. I'd move out of NY if possible and move to where the cost of living is much lower.
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