In Your Opinion, Where is the Best Place to Live for Personal Finance?

[Helvegen]

Originally Posted by dshawg1

They do nickel and dime you in other areas to compensate. Just ask a Florida resident.

Alaska that may not apply, but let's be real, who the heck wants to live in Alaska? Yuck

Washington isn't that bad...if you don't drink. The taxes here on liquor are absolutely insane. One of the things I definitely will not miss about this state.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by Leon2014

Opportunities are high, but so is rent and demand for performance. Once all is accounted for, you'll basically will be living in a tiny place, working 10 hour days, with real wages about the same as most other large cities.

But you may not have "career jobs" elsewhere; just "dead end jobs".

You can save a lot more money making $120k and spending $30k/year on rent than you can making $40k and spending $10k/year on rent.

[Leon2014]

Originally Posted by ncole1

But you may not have "career jobs" elsewhere; just "dead end jobs".

You can save a lot more money making $120k and spending $30k/year on rent than you can making $40k and spending $10k/year on rent.

You got everything reversed. It's the big stable companies that have been around since the 19th century where you can build a career in IT. 90% of Silicon Valley companies won't be around in 5 years.

$40k in IT in non Silicon Valley? Even public school teachers start out better than that. An IT pro might make 90K somewhere else, and 110K in Silicon Valley. That's how it really breaks down. And that doesn't account for smaller square footage that can be afforded and tax implications, such as higher brackets and various tax benefits that phase out.

[midwestlaxer]

Originally Posted by dshawg1

I may have phrased that slightly incorrectly but in your opinion, where is the standard of living the best for growing your net worth once you factor in jobs, climate, schools, etc.

What say you?

if I had a choice (and soon I might)...I would live in rural Montana and telecommute to my Illinois job.

the town I have picked out...you can get a 2800ft2 house for $60k....can't even build it for that.

i would be rich!

[Tallysmom]

There's not enough criteria to make that assessment. I do believe strongly though in Bloom where you are planted.

[thatguydownsouth]

I live in Jacksonville Fl and we have a pretty low cost of living. You do have to live around some less than desirable crime statistics, but it makes up for it in other ways. We have the beaches, good fishing, NFL, baseball, proximity to other cities etc.

The pay here is great for the cost of living. You can get a house for 50k and fix it up, or 250k in a good area. Or 1.5MM on the river of course. The schools are aweful here though, that's the big downside. The private schools know it too and they charge more than a college per kid, something like 23k for high school.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by Leon2014

You got everything reversed. It's the big stable companies that have been around since the 19th century where you can build a career in IT. 90% of Silicon Valley companies won't be around in 5 years.

$40k in IT in non Silicon Valley? Even public school teachers start out better than that. An IT pro might make 90K somewhere else, and 110K in Silicon Valley. That's how it really breaks down. And that doesn't account for smaller square footage that can be afforded and tax implications, such as higher brackets and various tax benefits that phase out.

No, I'm saying the $120k is in Silicon Valley and the $40k is elsewhere doing clerical work.

And yes, an IT pro may make almost that much elsewhere, but they will likely have fewer choices.

[ThomasDarcy]

Maybe someone who describes themselves as an "IT Pro" may make only 120k in silicon valley, but a serious software engineer can easily make $250k at a place like Google after a few years.