Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Calculating a realistic relocated cost of living is proving to be tough. After we've analyze it up & down, it seems like it's still just a WAG or SWAG at best until the actual relocation occurs. I guess that's when we really find out how accurate our planning was, and hopefully we did it right! I've seen a few other threads here discussing the minutia of budgeting (like how much does a gallon of milk cost in NC vs. [anytown]?). I'm trying to take a slightly less complicated approach, but I'm also looking for some "reality check" opinions from others on this board who have experienced the local economy first hand.
Here's our projected situation in NC, either Raleigh/RTP area or Charlotte:
Married couple with one child, elementary school age
Dad works, Mom will be stay-at-home (after school day care not needed)
House will be fully paid for (but will still need to pay insurance & property taxes)
Two cars, but only one car payment
Child in public school, not private
We are pretty average spenders, don't drive fancy cars, etc. We want to live comfortably, not frugally.
The bottom line salary that I think I've arrived at is around $73k per year. That's a lot less than what we currently need here in California with a big mortgage payment and both working. Obviously we'll take as much as we can get come interview/offer time. But what I'm trying to decide here is the go/no-go point where we would want to make the move or call it off.
I'm looking for input from others who live in the area. A simple "higher", "lower", or maybe the min. amount you think would be needed given our projected situation. Basically does my idea of the bottom line sound reasonable to you? Could you live off it given the same situation? We want to cover ourselves but on the other hand do not want to set the bar unreasonably high due to our own lack of knowledge of the true cost of living in the area.
I would have to say Charlotte for sure, my husband is a Project manager for either residential or commercial and he couldnt break 40,000.00 well once he was offered 52000.00 but with little benefits and that was commercial. We just couldnt do that with all of us and me not working, he wants me to stay home with the kids.
Thanks, Nea1. So you think we won't need to make as much as what I estimated? Again, it's not so much "how much can I make?" as "how much do I need to make - minimum" to live in this scenario:
Quote:
Originally Posted by A&N
Here's our projected situation in NC, either Raleigh/RTP area or Charlotte:
Married couple with one child, elementary school age
Dad works, Mom will be stay-at-home (after school day care not needed)
House will be fully paid for (but will still need to pay insurance & property taxes)
Two cars, but only one car payment
Child in public school, not private
We are pretty average spenders, don't drive fancy cars, etc. We want to live comfortably, not frugally.
The bottom line salary that I think I've arrived at is around $73k per year.
Am I too high? too low? about right? (Remember, the house would already be paid for)
Well we had a mortgage on 244000, two cars and four kids and there was no way to make it on 40,000 or even 52000 especially without medical. No house payment and only one car payment, it will be different for you, you maybe able to make it on that. 52000 a year is about 3846 a month before taxes, if you have no bills that is about 3000 after taxes how does that sound? But I dont know what they will offer you pay wise, probably more than my husband you are a higher up than him.
All I can say is, we lived comfortably in a 2200 square foot house, 2 kids, 1 dog, and we made around that same salary, and had a mortgage. No, we did not live it up, but our needs were met, we had extra money, and it was not a stressful life.
So, doing all of that without a mortgage, piece of cake.
We probably spent 450 a month on groceries
120 a month on electric (a little higher in the summer)
insurance, we did the house and cars together and it was about 1200/year
cable (high speed internet included) 95/month
I can't think of other things, but I believe you will be fine
You will be living great in NC on that kind of salary, especially without a mortgage. Pretty much everything is the same as in CA, but housing and gasoline is less expensive. Our health benefits and electric bill is higher in NC. All our other bills including car insurance is about the same give or take $5-10. Food is higher here for some things, less expensive for other things, so it balances out. The biggest hit for us was our health insurance, it is way more expensive with less coverage.
Great feedback. With the 3 replies so far it seems like 52K would not be enough based on nea1's experience, but that my target 73K might be a little high for a bottom line salary requirement based on Leighbhe & enlightenme's responses.
I particularly like Leighbhe's response because it makes for an easy comparison.
The only thing I can tell you is that when we did all this (from CA as well) our financial advisor told us NOT to pay cash for a home. He said we would have been killed by taxes without that write off. We kept our same salary when we came here. So that said I would look into what type of taxes you will be paying each year without the interest from a home loan. Figure it all the way around because in the end we saved money by actually having a loan.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
