How much do you need to make to live comfortably? (Seattle: apartment, to rent)

[azoria]

Ah, Jen.....you forgot something. Electric bills.

You're gonna run the AC in Austin at least 9 months a year. I've lived in a number of US locations and electric rates in Texas are the highest I've ever seen. Austin was part of a fiasco that bought into the South Texas Nuclear generating something or other, and it cost consumers a fortune. I have never seen such expensive electricity anywhere. Big square footage+year round heat and humidity=electric bills that will exceed the mortgage payment.

AND a lot of the neighborhoods surrounding the Austin city limits are in MUDs (Municipal Utility Districts). They buy electricity and water from other suppliers and charge their captive resident victims extortionary rates for household utilities.

Utilities in Austin and the Austin area cost me more than I've ever seen anywhere else. And that's a cost that never gets paid off. It's there every month of your life.

(And let's not even talk about the imported south American fire ants.......)

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by azoria

Ah, Jen.....you forgot something. Electric bills.

You're gonna run the AC in Austin at least 9 months a year. I've lived in a number of US locations and electric rates in Texas are the highest I've ever seen. Austin was part of a fiasco that bought into the South Texas Nuclear generating something or other, and it cost consumers a fortune. I have never seen such expensive electricity anywhere. Big square footage+year round heat and humidity=electric bills that will exceed the mortgage payment.

AND a lot of the neighborhoods surrounding the Austin city limits are in MUDs (Municipal Utility Districts). They buy electricity and water from other suppliers and charge their captive resident victims extortionary rates for household utilities.

Utilities in Austin and the Austin area cost me more than I've ever seen anywhere else. And that's a cost that never gets paid off. It's there every month of your life.

(And let's not even talk about the imported south American fire ants.......)

We live in a poorly insulated base-board heated house in Seattle and my electric cost is much higher than it was for me down in our brand new, energy efficient home in South Austin. So I guess it all depends on the individual home's circumstances. But I will concede that there are NO scorpions in the Seattle area- unless you count that one in the Olympia Motel 6 a couple of months ago that stung that poor kid (the hypothesis was that it came in with someone's luggage). Fire ants, I can live with. Scorpions-eeeewwww!

[ComfortablyNumb]

I have been to Austin many times, and the thing I hate about it is how spread out it is. Besides for the interior business area, the entire city feels like its along a frontage road. Even the downtown is spread out...

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

I have been to Austin many times, and the thing I hate about it is how spread out it is. Besides for the interior business area, the entire city feels like its along a frontage road. Even the downtown is spread out...

Okay, you're entitled to your opinion but this is a Seattle cost of living thread. Sorry to have taken everyone on this Austin, TX digression by comparing the two. Although, I did note that the OP is from Honolulu so I guess he/she will probably be better off here.
A salary of $50,000 in Honolulu, Hawaii could decrease to $36,991 in Seattle, Washington (I just love that little link that obsidian gave us )

[obsidian97]

Originally Posted by azoria

AND a lot of the neighborhoods surrounding the Austin city limits are in MUDs (Municipal Utility Districts). They buy electricity and water from other suppliers and charge their captive resident victims extortionary rates for household utilities.

Utilities in Austin and the Austin area cost me more than I've ever seen anywhere else. And that's a cost that never gets paid off. It's there every month of your life.

Actually, this is a tactic that unincorporated areas in Texas use to keep from becoming incorporated into cities they don't want to be a part of. When I lived in Houston, the local MUD for Kingwood regularly issued millions of dollars of bonds that they didn't need to keep the debt ratio of the area unattractive to Houston (Houston loves to gobble up 'profitable' tax bases in surrounding areas). They finally succumbed when they hit their debt ceiling.

Originally Posted by azoria

(And let's not even talk about the imported south American fire ants.......)

...but they're so cute! (the reason the idiot that imported love bugs did so)...

[sbdude76]

Originally Posted by Pittgal

Not true for all. We moved here for hubby to work at a "tech" company. The stock was 32.00 when we came in 2006, it is now 82.00. Thats 50.00 more a share we get then we thought, I'd say that they're still going up!

Amazon's vesting schedule is draconian....

5% first year
15% second year
40% third year
40% fourth year

And they work you like a dog. Good luck on making it 4 years. But yes, if you make it to 4+ years you will be very much in the money.

[Misti in Seattle]

I found a nice condo in a nice area for under $200,000. Granted it depends on your definition of "nice" -- and I had to search for it, and it is one bedroom. And I live here quite comfortably on far less than $80,000 a year. Not "fancy" -- but comfortably.

[Pittgal]

Originally Posted by sbdude76

....

And they work you like a dog. Good luck on making it 4 years. But yes, if you make it to 4+ years you will be very much in the money.

Made it a little over 2 years now, over halfway done! He doesn't work like a dog, when launching something it gets hectic, but otherwise he's on a decent schedule.

[texastrigirl]

I would second that we seem to have achieved a good work life balance at Amazon as well. I think the culture is a bit different than it was in the early to mid 2000's from what I know from friends who used to work there. Start ups are always crazy initially and let's not forget, Amazon is not that old!!

[MichaelinWA]

Maybe. In this day and age of accounting rules that require companies to expense options and stock awards, grants to the rank and file tend to be quite a bit smaller than in the good old days (1990s for example). Equity compensation of some sort is nice to have, and it's good if your employer's stock goes up. But as a population we'll probably never again party like it's 1999.

Originally Posted by sbdude76

But yes, if you make it to 4+ years you will be very much in the money.