Welcome to Portland-- (to rent, income, tax)

[58rhodes]

Make sure you make $90,000 or up

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by 58rhodes

Make sure you make $90,000 or up

Based on what? I know people here doing just fine on half that amount or even less than that....

[58rhodes]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

Based on what? I know people here doing just fine on half that amount or even less than that....

based on what I say, is it ok that I have an opinion?

and those people arent doing ok if you take into account emergency expenses, retirement, potential job loss, medical issues, etc etc--but Im sure in Portlandia the tax payers will subsidize them.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Big cities are a lot more fun if you have money. Everyone wants to talk about food carts and beer and other big city perks. Well, if all your income goes to rent and you are deciding whether you should use what's left over to heat or to eat, then you aren't going to be enjoying the food carts, the boutique beer, the fancy restaurants, the cute shops, the ball games, or the fresh caught sea food.

The Portland lifestyle that people move here for tends to not be free, unless all you have ever wanted out of life is to walk around looking into store windows, admiring the diversity of the homeless, and eating out of the food bank.

[58rhodes]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Big cities are a lot more fun if you have money. Everyone wants to talk about food carts and beer and other big city perks. Well, if all your income goes to rent and you are deciding whether you should use what's left over to heat or to eat, then you aren't going to be enjoying the food carts, the boutique beer, the fancy restaurants, the cute shops, the ball games, or the fresh caught sea food.

The Portland lifestyle that people move here for tends to not be free, unless all you have ever wanted out of life is to walk around looking into store windows, admiring the diversity of the homeless, and eating out of the food bank.

exactly

[The Big Lebowski Dude]

I posted this on another thread, but felt it was more appropriate here:

I was in Portland for about 4 days earlier this summer, on vacation. And, I loved the city!!! Great weather, very friendly & nice people, fantastic sightseeing, superb food (I primarily ate from the food trucks, and felt the food was fantastic!!), great bubble tea, excellent coffee (and not all Starbucks, either), and decent public transportation (I exclusively used the trains & buses).

Sure it wasn't perfect - there were a lot of homeless/mentally ill people wandering around screaming & muttering to themselves, and some of them seemed to be getting into fights with each other. However, you just had to stay away from them. And, there didn't seem to be any more than usual in a city of that size. Plus, I ran into more aggressive panhandling in Seattle (where I also went during this same vacation).

However, as much as I liked Portland & would enjoy living there, it did not seem to be an affordable city re: the cost of living. There's no way I could effectively afford to live there. It's extremely expensive, and my thoughts are that you would need an extremely well-paying job to make ends meet, especially if you wanted to live in a decent part of town.

The same goes for Seattle, of course.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by 58rhodes

based on what I say, is it ok that I have an opinion?

and those people arent doing ok if you take into account emergency expenses, retirement, potential job loss, medical issues, etc etc--but Im sure in Portlandia the tax payers will subsidize them.

That's cool, then I disagree, $90K is great to live on here, but one can still be just fine with less.

[58rhodes]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

That's cool, then I disagree, $90K is great to live on here, but one can still be just fine with less.

sure I agree if you like to be poor

[pdxmilw]

Back when I was working, I made $62,000 for a while, then went to part time, so I made in the $40s. I did just fine. At $62,000, I felt rich.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by 58rhodes

sure I agree if you like to be poor

Guess that depends on what your opinion of poor is. Regardless, we have different opinions on what one would need to make in Portland. As I said, my wife and I make less than that, yet we still have plenty left over to enjoy ourselves and take trips. We have a Hawaii trip coming up this spring, not bad for being classified as "poor."