Young Health Professional Deciding Where to Move (San Diego, Carlsbad: health insurance, co-op)

[bag12345]

Hello all. I have been using this forum in the past to help with my moving decisions and it has been very valuable. Now as I post this I hope it will help guide me in this new quest for a new home.

I was born and raised in Iowa, went through schooling in Iowa and always awaited for the day when I could move. I finally did and very much enjoyed living beyond Iowa. One medium sized city and one very large city, both in warm climates. Anyways now I have moved back home until I find the next path in my career.

What I am looking at now is possibly moving to San Diego. I have only been to San Diego a few times but I have loved the beach, varying geography, outdoors activities, great climate, and laid back atmosphere. However I am quite nervous about the decision as I will not necessarily have a paying job to start. I am a chiropractor, and paying jobs here are very slim. I am exploring the option of starting my own practice within another chiropractor's existing office at a percentage based rent. To come to San Diego where I am far from family and have no guaranteed income is a nerveracking experience. Your thoughts may be appreciated on this topic.

Otherwise while I am actually in San Diego currently and I am exploring neighborhoods, I would love to hear your thoughts of where you might suggest for living and for an office. I am staying in the PB area, and I enjoy the area although it may be too young (I'm 27). I very much enjoy all types of outdoor activities from being on the beach, to hiking and running with the dog. I also enjoy a good nightlife from beach bars to the occassional club. I love to have access to the organic food markets. I'm very health conscious.

Anyways I will give more information as time goes on, please feel free to comment and I appreciate your good efforts!

[DCStudent]

I would think you'd want to look in "richer" areas than PB, for an office space and/or work. Probably more of the La Jolla, Del Mar, Solana Beach, and Rancho Bernardo areas. Folks in these areas will most likely have the health insurance and/or discretionary income for your services. I have no idea what the Market looks like for your line of work though.

In terms of places to live...PB tends to be a (undergrad) singles/party scene. Supposedly OB is the (slightly) older scene but still a party scene, if that's what you want in an area... I prefer North County (keep in mind I'm bias, since that's where I chose to live). The Encinitas and Carlsbad areas. You may also want to look in the University Heights or Hillcrest areas, these places have a night life scene that's less "frat boys gone wild".

There are tons of posts on this forum discussing the different areas of San Diego county, I'd recommend you do a quick search of them to get a little more insight and detail on specific areas in San Diego county.

[MattCA]

Ya, PB is going to be the younger and drunk crowd. I've worked with a few people that live in PB and they talk about how people are constantly passing out in their yard, peeing on their yard, asking to use the rest room ect. A different younger guy told me about him getting drunk in PB and waking up in some guys house he randomly stumbled into and spent the night! Those are very nice places the previous poster listed. Expensive though also. I don't know about OB being much better.

[oddstray]

I recommend that your first priority should be your potential income. I do not recommend coming here with "no guaranteed income" unless you have a fairly sizeable cushion of savings to rely on until you establish a sufficient income.

As for neighborhoods, the north county tends to have more disposable income. The central areas tend to be more open to alternative ideas. Both of those seem more likely to be amenable to chiropractic than other parts of San Diego.

[DCStudent]

Originally Posted by oddstray

I recommend that your first priority should be your potential income. I do not recommend coming here with "no guaranteed income" unless you have a fairly sizeable cushion of savings to rely on until you establish a sufficient income.

I concur. Secure the income before you head out here unless you have a nice size savings set aside and are okay with using a hefty chunk (or all) of that savings while getting established.

[tonyinsd]

Before you move ANYWHERE, you need to have a job that will pay the bills, even if it's not what you want to do long term. If you don't have that, then you need to have enough savings to tap into so that you can pay your bills for at least six months.

I'm a big advocate for taking the plunge and moving to where you want instead of going to some place as an interim stop before you end up where you want.

However, you need to be able to pay the bills.

[lrmsd]

Okay, my spouse and I work in holistic health. We had an office in PB; IPSB college was originally located there, too! That said, PB has changed in recent years. It USED to be a mecca for yoga, holistic health, etc. with lots of families, as well....It's not so much now....

But, just mentioning that we lived in clairemont with our family and had the office in PB. there are still PLENTY of practitioners in PB, including chiropractors. I had people driving from all parts of the city to get work from me [not chiro], b/c in their mind 'PB is where you come for this'.....

Obviously you can commute to your place of work, a neighborhood or two over.

And whole foods is in la jolla/utc, near PB.

that said, I personally think PB has devolved, IMO, and not a desireable place to move to any longer, for the reasons already mentioned.

Encinitas or Solana beach are better coastal options, as is carlsbad. You could try ocean beach; it has a great food co-op and lots of alternatives happening. But, it has similar issues as PB. And to me it's also too urban.

San Diego county is full of holistic health folks; one of the largest oriental medicine programs [yes, it's called that] in the country is located here. And it's in mission valley/gorge area. Office park central. You'll find chiros all over the county and city proper, in office parks mostly, but from chula vista to oceanside, and santee, rancho bernardo, etc. Our family chiro is currently in encinitas, prior to that we went to mission valley. The chiro there lived in chula vista, and said the commute wasn't bad-20 min or so. But this person wanted to live in a house near hiking, etc.

My point is that, while you should focus on where you want to set up shop, this does not limit your living options, unless you want zero commute. But 15 or 20 minutes is entirely reasonable, if you lived in clairemont and had an office in PB, for example. Or had an office in mission valley but lived in north park or hillcrest [where more alternative options are located, but it's more urban, relative to san diego].

If you want to live and practice in the same place, you can do that, too. My suggestions for this would be as mentioned:
Encinitas
Carlsbad
Solana Beach
Hillcrest/North Park area
Craig's list often has office shares for chiros. Might be a good way to start. Or join an existing integrative clinic. SD is full of them. Starting out on a percentage basis, if you trust the person you enter the agreement with, is a good way to start out. Nothing need be permanent, so think in short term, but plan for long-term, with a private practice. Over time, you likely will meet others of like mind and end up networking and having a business as such. they say it takes about 2 yrs to get a practice to full speed. Just remember that it's a longer term thing, not overnight, but income will increase, etc.

Lots of options; perhaps that makes it more difficult starting out!

I'm sure you already know what it takes to set up a private practice, do insurance, etc. Start that ball rolling by getting paperwork for CA plans, if you are going that route, including worker's comp. And certainly make some calls to the office share ads on craigs list or other listings....

I would pick Encinitas, given the choice. It has everything you want, tons of holstic health options, a very willing populace/demographic,[lots of world class athletes train there]etc. google their chamber of commmerce.

[bag12345]

Thanks all for the comments thus far.