Why does everyone think we are rich??

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by goldengrain

Gates keeps pushing for more and more foriegn workers. He also says US schools are not training enough people with higher skill levels. Of course, the more of these people on the market, the lower salaries go.

Did I not hear that Microsoft may lay off many people and export those jobs? Was that just 'pr'?

No, Microsoft seems to be still growing locally - as well as overseas.

Ken

[drewba]

Originally Posted by jenlion

Then I hear that Klahanie is also referred to as "KlaCompton", and I get frustrated. We wouldn't have moved up here if I was afraid it would be a struggle to feed and clothe a couple of kids, so we did check out a few houses we COULD afford, and verified that we could rent if we need to (and we just might). But Klahanie was an area we were looking at, it looked fine to me.

I'd take those comments with a grain of salt. It's true that much of Klahanie is a bit older and the houses are someone smaller than the rest of the Sammamish plateau. There are several people at work that live in Klahanie and think very highly of it. The couple of times that I've been through there, it seemed quite nice.

[jenlion]

pwright, we could have actually gotten the same pay with another company and stayed in Dallas -- it's not the money. We just don't "fit" in Dallas. We will miss my grandparents and the friends we do have there, and the "established"-ness we had (doctors, day care, house, knowing where things are, knowing what to expect). But we're hoping for a better life here -- moving is much harder, obviously, but I'm hoping to find another couple of good doctors (anyone recommend a great pediatrician eastside? or a good pulmonologist?) , friends, neighbors, home, and get used to the prices.

In Dallas you can't step outside from may to october (yeah, I'm exaggerating a little) without getting blasted by heat, and there's really not a lot to do outside anyway. Scenery is important to me -- I love mountains, I love trees, REAL trees, not the dallas scrub-trees. When we visit someplace like this I feel... restored somehow. I feel like THIS is where I belong. So, leaving a place where financially we are settled and life is "easy" is difficult short-term, but I really hope that there is a payoff in living someplace that I feel is where I'm supposed to be. I don't need to live in a mansion -- I could do that in Dallas on that salary, I suppose (a McMansion, anyway). I just want to settle someplace where we're close to his work, someplace with a nook for me to work, someplace our kid(s?) can play, and we can live without having to stretch for a mortgage payment too much. I'm sure we'll find that here eventually (Seattle "freeze" notwithstanding), hopefully sooner rather than later.

[jenlion]

I remember reading recently that a good bit of people's happiness is determined by how "rich" they are compared to other people around them. You might live in the middle-of-nowhere, make minimum wage plus a dime an hour, and eat beans and rice, but if your neighbors make minimum wage and just eat beans, well, you feel "rich" and pretty happy. If you live Dallas, say in University Park (very rich), and you have a BMW, but you see the people next door in Highland Park (a teensy bit richer) who have BMW, Lexus, and Jag, and a home in the Caymans, well, you feel poor and unhappy.

I'm sure in Seattle you could sub a nice/nicer part of town, I just don't know yet what they're called. :-)

Same goes in other cultures worldwide, they think that it's a universal thing, if I remember correctly.

It is kind of sad, isn't it? That you have to retrain your brain to be happy that you're not hungry and that you have a roof and that you have clothes, and to quit looking for something to be unhappy about (too loud in here, too small house, my car doesn't have a cd changer). Maybe there's some evolutionary advantage to always want to move yourself up to the "better" things, but it seems wrong. Why are we arguing about pergo verus "true wood" hard floors when a huge chunk of the world is 'food-insecure'? BostonBorn's got it right there. If someone in Tibet or Peru wanted to call me "rich", they'd be quite right!!!!

[pwright1]

I said in another thread 'does money buy happiness'. Some people took it the wrong way. We all know we need money to survive. I actually downsized everything. No more mortgage, high car payment or job working 10-12 hours a day with no time for me. Now I have a job that I love(pays much less), a car thats paid for and a nice comfortable aparment in the city, plus hobbies I can actually enjoy like photography and taking trips to cool places. Right now I am happier more than ever.

[kilgore trout]

Hey Jenlion,

I'm a fresh college grad, so my position may be fairly different, but for me the pay difference between offers in Dallas and Microsoft was substantial. I'm going to be making 60% more salary at Microsoft than my highest offer in Dallas. Now, it's worth noting that my highest offer in Dallas was with a very small company with nowhere near the resources of Microsoft, so that likely plays a role as well.

My wife will be working as well and so far we're not terribly worried about the cost of living. We don't live an extravagant lifestyle by any means and we're used to living on a college budget (we supported ourselves through school, not parent funded). I suppose after that, anything would be an improvement.

One reason you might be getting that response, based on the research we've done, is that median HH incomes are generally a good deal lower in the Seattle area than that of MS employees. We don't feel like we'll be anything close to "rich," but we were surprised to see how far above the median we'll be. It's a strange feeling for a couple of kids who were struggling to make ends meet in December.

What I have heard, across the board, is that Microsoft is an outstanding company to work for who really takes care of their employees and their employees' families. Maybe this is part of it as well. There's definitely as much value in good quality of life as there is in high salary.

BTW, was your husband scheduled to have his NEO today? I started to drive in before finding out it was postponed till tomorrow due to weather. PM me if he'll be starting tomorrow - we're from Austin and I'd love to meet another new MS employee from Texas.

j-

[wsugrad03]

Originally Posted by jenlion

Then I hear that Klahanie is also referred to as "KlaCompton", and I get frustrated. We wouldn't have moved up here if I was afraid it would be a struggle to feed and clothe a couple of kids, so we did check out a few houses we COULD afford, and verified that we could rent if we need to (and we just might). But Klahanie was an area we were looking at, it looked fine to me.

"KlaCompton" is pretty harsh. It's not that bad at all. That development was one of the first major developments that created the Issaquah/Sammamish plateau. Granted it's 20 years old and starting to show it's age. It just gets a bad rap because home there are 100K less than anywhere else on the plateau. I'd rather live there than some overpriced matchbox in the Issaquah Highlands. Those poor people are still waiting for their highland shopping center, which was supposed to be buillt years ago.

You can also find some more affordable homes closer to the north end of the plateau near Redmond. It's tough to afford the home you want in this area unless you have $650K. Give it another 6-12 months and you'll probably see much better deals.

[jwb123]

It's just that even at the point we're at, it's still going to be a constant work, a constant struggle, to stay afloat. Any job loss would still throw it out of whack, even with a few months of savings. I don't know when you hit the point when you feel like you "made" it, but this isn't it. When we drive through neighborhoods that look like they'd be just right and find out they're going at 800k, but regular people like us live there, it's depressing.

Welcome to Seattle and one of the biggest reasons we moved to Austin.

We lived in Klahanie years ago. 2000-2003. It was great then - and definitely not looked at as Klah-compton... but things change, and attitudes get snooty, I guess... I am sure it's still a nice area, but just older than other developments up on the plateau.

[larrykcragun]

Because your stock will make you millionaires. How about a loan?