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Good day to all. I was thinking of moving to North Carolina. most of my extended family is in Fayetteville. I'm from Prince George's County, MD (Near D.C.) and I'm wondering how much would it take to raise a family out ther. My cousin was telling me that 11.00 and 14.00 an hour was good money. I looked at him and asked how was that good. Anyway I wanted to know what is a realistic number to take care of a family of four. Also I don't mind living in a double-wide if I need to.
Anywhere in NC is going to be cheaper overall than the DC Metro area in my opinion. I moved from Montgomery County, MD to the Asheville area. Lower income, lower cost-of-living. It works out.
Well I guess to be more specific. My wife and I bring in 116,000 a year. Not bad at all, however I live about about an 1hr 15mins away from my job. Truth be told I'm tired of the long commutes, not being able to spend quality time with my children until the weekends. Making a 116,000 should help a lot, but it doesn't stretch far in the D.C. unless I myself was making that much. So I say all of this to say what is 60,000 resonable about to live off of in N.C. More specifically the larger cities (Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-salem, Greensboro)?
IMO living in Charlotte or Raleigh would not be much cheaper than PG county. PG county is by far the cheapest county to live in within the closer in DC region. $11-$14 per hour won't get you much here for a being single, let alone having a family of four. I think you need to research more and be a bit more realistic. While NC is cheaper than some areas, it's not as "cheap" as some people make it out to be. I moved here from Fairfax, VA 2 years ago so I know how expensive the DC area is, but going from $116k to $25k or even $50k (if you and your wife both made $11-14 per hour) would be a huge step down in lifestyle even moving from PG county to Raleigh or Charlotte.
Cool. I got what your saying waterboy and thanks for replying. I use to live in P.G. county. P.G. is not as cheap as it use to be. the Housing is averaging 350,000 but what really hurts is the taxes, insurance and so forth. So this is why i'm in Waldorf, MD (Charles County). Nice community but man is it far (work in Arlington, VA). My numbers were hypothetical. However what I wanted to know what is a good figure for taking care of my family. I'm asking this question to gauge whether it would be worth the move.
Cool. I got what your saying waterboy and thanks for replying. I use to live in P.G. county. P.G. is not as cheap as it use to be. the Housing is averaging 350,000 but what really hurts is the taxes, insurance and so forth. So this is why i'm in Waldorf, MD (Charles County). Nice community but man is it far (work in Arlington, VA). My numbers were hypothetical. However what I wanted to know what is a good figure for taking care of my family. I'm asking this question to gauge whether it would be worth the move.
I'd say if you're making about $116k now, then you would need somewhere in the neighborhood of $85-90k in Raleigh to live comparably.
According to this cost of living calculator Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed if you make $116k now and live in Waldorf, you would need to make about $106k to have the same lifestyle in Raleigh. If you were moving from Arlington to Raleigh with the same salary, you would need to make about $80k in Raleigh to live comparably.
Waterboy how has your transition from Fairfax to N.C. been. How has it benefited you?
It has benefited me greatly. I make slightly less now than I did 3 years ago, but my wife makes more than she did and we're actually making more now that 3 years ago (maybe about the same adjusted for inflation). I was able to finish up college, well this december, anyhow and my career path has improved by me moving here. I sold my old townhouse at a huge gain right before the market took a big hit and bought a nice single family home here for about $120k cheaper than I sold my townhouse for there. Don't be fooled though, everything else but housing will generally at least cost the same and some things might even run you more.
Things I miss are family, but I'm still only about 4 hours from home. I do not miss the traffic, although we do have it in Raleigh, but no where near the scale as it was in DC. I think overall it was a good move for me and my wife and I do not regret it.
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