Stuck in Ohio- but Moving to So Cal in 6 months! ADVICE (San Diego: fit in, car insurance)

[blauskies]

Originally Posted by Radical347

I've looked up a lot of the salary/COL calculators and salaries in finance and engineering seem to be very similar in Houston, or Dallas vs. the Bay Area - maybe around 10% less. But COL is literally 50% less. I've also heard of people who moved to Texas from the Bay Area and gotten a pay raise.

In some instances yes, and also RTP in NC if one desires a relocation to either place. Problem is all the good opportunity and start-ups are in the Bay area overall, it's a double edges sword because the likes of working for Google or Apple is so enticing

[jkbatca]

While I go on and on, another thing struck me after reading other posts and where to move to. Everybody has different criteria on what is important to them, so saying person A should move to location B may not work for many people. Whether someone should move to CA or not really depends upon what is ultimately important to that person.

For example, I joke with certain people at my work because they would be happy living in some cold, desolate, grey place (ahem Western PA, just kidding) because they love sitting inside and writing or doing other indoor hobbies. They could give a rat's a$$ about California's great weather! They could live almost anywhere.

Then there are people who want to start a family and having a decent sized home and COL is important; for CA someone starting out will have to wait a decade or more to get into some fixer upper home. For those people, CA isn't the best place to start for COL and business reasons.

But then there are people like me and many others I know where after we're done at work, we like to have places to go, things / hobbies to do, and destinations to explore in a decent time frame. For those people, CA has a great diversity of things to do and geography to explore. For example, there's tons of mountain biking within a 1/2 driving from my house of the caliber that others drive days to in order to do the same thing. What others call a week's vacation, I call a day's drive.

So the decision of where to live basically means the person needs to do some soul searching on what is important to that person and apply decisions accordingly.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by Clevelandgal

Then when you come it here, eat a bunch of your vegan food stuff, watch somesunsets, kiss a vegan boy, surf,aspire to be a model/engineer looking for a job HARD, but it might not happen. Well it probably wont...Not because you didn't try, but bc the economy sucks now and 22 year old(hell 40 year olds) with all kinds of ambition want to live here.

lol thanks for the quick "I'm sorry" only to follow up by belittling my desires. NOT.


can't say I'll take advice from someone so judgmental. guess i really p*ssed you off when I said I was pretty?

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by tonyinsd

There's nothing wrong with working a low level job while you're looking for something better. It pays the bills and you don't end up somewhere that the only thing you like about the place is the job you got.

AMEN! I'm really not sure how many times I need to reiterate this point.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by jkbatca

While I go on and on, another thing struck me after reading other posts and where to move to. Everybody has different criteria on what is important to them, so saying person A should move to location B may not work for many people. Whether someone should move to CA or not really depends upon what is ultimately important to that person.

For example, I joke with certain people at my work because they would be happy living in some cold, desolate, grey place (ahem Western PA, just kidding) because they love sitting inside and writing or doing other indoor hobbies. They could give a rat's a$$ about California's great weather! They could live almost anywhere.

Then there are people who want to start a family and having a decent sized home and COL is important; for CA someone starting out will have to wait a decade or more to get into some fixer upper home. For those people, CA isn't the best place to start for COL and business reasons.

But then there are people like me and many others I know where after we're done at work, we like to have places to go, things / hobbies to do, and destinations to explore in a decent time frame. For those people, CA has a great diversity of things to do and geography to explore. For example, there's tons of mountain biking within a 1/2 driving from my house of the caliber that others drive days to in order to do the same thing. What others call a week's vacation, I call a day's drive.

So the decision of where to live basically means the person needs to do some soul searching on what is important to that person and apply decisions accordingly.

I'm in the third category- no kids, no need for a house-- just want to put in my time working and then enjoy life.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by blauskies

In some instances yes, and also RTP in NC if one desires a relocation to either place. Problem is all the good opportunity and start-ups are in the Bay area overall, it's a double edges sword because the likes of working for Google or Apple is so enticing

what is RTP?

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by blauskies

It's not for everyone and most Engineers can make a better living elsewhere if they desire to own a home and have a much larger disposable income for other things which goes up in smoke with the high cost of living there.

I'm thinking CA for a couple years, then going somewhere else if I want to settle down.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by blauskies

Miami is way worse, but San Diego salaries are in line with South Florida if not worse.

I'm going to focus more on finding jobs near LA, not necessarily only SD now. All of california really.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by blauskies

Could not have said it better myself, you are in tune with this effect and it is very evident in California and without a doubt South Florida, both places attract these types young and old. I always wondered what all those young people were doing at Starbucks in the middle of the afternoon sitting around with their laptops and iPads while I saw a plethora of luxury cars parked out in the parking lot. I was just strolling in for a iced coffee on my lunch break and it looked like a Saturday afternoon but it wasn't.

yeah, i figured that much. I'm of the "work hard and pay your dues" type work ethic, and there's no silver spoon over here!

[blauskies]

Originally Posted by divagotstyle07

what is RTP?

Research Triangle Park