Should a midwest midclass fam move to SJ to SAVE money?! :)

[emegmac]

I grew up in Rochester IL. I moved to Mountain View 5 years ago for my wifes work. I I am in my early 30's. I made a good living in Springfield, and lived comfortably. I can not tell you enough how expensive living here can be. Everything just seems to cost more. Housing, food, gas, taxes, ect. I still can not get over how much it cost. It is beautiful here. We get to go to the beach, the mountains, San Francisco, ect. But I miss the people back home. People here are rude and wouldn't talk to you if you were on fire. I have 2 kids the oldest 2, and will be moving back to the midwest before they enter school. I would rather have them go to a small school like Chatham or Rochester. We make almost twice as much as we did and still never think about buying a home. I will say when I move I will not be moving back to Springfield. I want to stay in a larger town, just not this large, I lived in Naperville for a while and loved it there.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by gte601

Realistically the problem is your wife's income is good, yours is too low. A family of 4 really needs to have two good incomes to have the middle class lifestyle you could have in the midwest. Maybe you should goto nursing school too?

I think this sums it up. To raise a family in the typical American middle class lifestyle here in the Bay Area you need not one but TWO professional incomes to live decently (3BR house with a small yard). It becomes a real rat race for those trying to raise kids here.

Sure, you'll save on the heating and air conditioning bills here, but that's about all you'll save on. And the weather here is great most of the time. But we pay through the nose for that weather. It's better to not allow yourself to get spoiled by it.

As others have said, the income tax here is high and going higher. The sales tax in our county is 8.25% and will be going to 9.25% in a few weeks (it's pretty similar no matter which place you live in). And make no mistake, the state of California is very poorly managed. So don't expect that you'll get good public services (schools or otherwise) without paying through the nose for them in one way or another.

Housing costs here are the worst problem. But as others have said, everything else is higher, too (groceries, taxes, etc).

The other thing you have to factor in is the lifestyle "keep up with the Joneses" type pressure. This is a yuppie kind of area and there are a lot of "amenities" but paying for those cultural and recreational amenities costs money. It can be really frustrating to have to say "no" all the time to doing these kinds of things. You may think where you live is "boring" but it is also more sane. Many people in this area don't know how to just "hang out". Much of what they do for fun requires spending $$$$.

If you and your wife didn't have kids and had a longer time period to plan for them, that would be one thing. But that's not where you're at. In short, given your situation in life, I think you and your family are much better off in the Midwest.

And by the way, $1K per month even for a 1BR apartment is not realistic for Cupertino.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by benandgrace

This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway. My wife will be going back to school sometime to finish an RN course. I make only around 20,000 a year as a courier for a medical lab. We have a child not yet two and one on the way. We currently live in a small city near Springfield IL. We're considering either a move soon to a bigger house in this city or a later (5 yrs or so) move near SJ. I know hardly anything about SJ but below is the breakdown as I see it.

I'll leave my earnings out of the equation since I'm guessing I would probably earn the same in SJ as I do here. My wife would earn probably 48-50k as an RN here. That amount w/ 2,500 subtracted for taxes + insurance on a paid off house 4 bdrm 3000 sq house would be 47.5 or 45.5.

In safe community w/ great schools near SJ (where my wife would earn the most as an RN), Cupertino, for example, would cost 12,000 per month for a one bdrm apt. Subtract that cost from the 75k my wife would earn= 63k. That's a potential savings of 15-20k per year, no relatives within 6 hours, much less room for living, much worse air quality and traffic, much better weather, better schools, and a lot more amenities in comparison with the Springfield IL area.


Any opinions and/or advice would be appreciated.

Stay where you are, anyplace in Ca would be much higher and even if salaries for nurses are higher so is everything else. Even child care would be much more expensive..

Nita