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Doctor, lawyer, advanced nurse, top tier engineer, successful financial professional, successful small business owner, corporate upper middle manager, corporate senior manager. The tech sales guy who lives next door to me makes $600K a year.
Yep, I have not figured out how to do that yet ..... in fact I don't know anyone that makes that kind of money and I know people with degrees from Cal tech and MIT with all kinds of skills. the only people I know OF that make that kind of money are people with stains on their souls because you typically had to be involved in something shady at one point in time to get to that point.
If an attractive woman can walk alone through a neighborhood at night without thinking too hard then it's safe. Lincoln Park, North Center, etc. I do not pay Chicago prices for real estate so I can live in fear of my fellow citizens.
In Cleveland, Murray Hill is really the only East Side neighborhood that meets this criterion. North Collinwood is kinda-sorta. The West Side is better but it's a patchwork; Ohio City and Tremont are pretty but they are near some bad areas; Edgewater is a little more protected, and Kamm's Corner is fine. For consistently safe areas you have to live in the suburbs.
But I am not an attractive woman so why would I constrain myself to places where COL is insane?
But I am not an attractive woman so why would I constrain myself to places where COL is insane?
So she can walk to your place?
The cost of living is not insane in some of the nice parts of Chicago. My son and his wife have a beautiful, although small, one-bedroom apartment in an upscale part of Chicago for $1100 a month. They had to do some looking around and it is a third floor walkup but it is quite pretty, and very safe.
Yep, I have not figured out how to do that yet ..... in fact I don't know anyone that makes that kind of money and I know people with degrees from Cal tech and MIT with all kinds of skills. the only people I know OF that make that kind of money are people with stains on their souls because you typically had to be involved in something shady at one point in time to get to that point.
There's a lot of smart people that don't make a lot of money being smart quite often has nothing to do with it. Some people landed a dream job just by lying or knowing the right person. Sales people that make a lot of money are quite often very shady people that don't really have ethics. Sales is about 75 percent what you're selling anyone can sell a good product to be honest. It's pretty easy.
The cost of living is not insane in some of the nice parts of Chicago. My son and his wife have a beautiful, although small, one-bedroom apartment in an upscale part of Chicago for $1100 a month. They had to do some looking around and it is a third floor walkup but it is quite pretty, and very safe.
1100 a month where I am is the ghetto, a nice area is like 1600 or more. These days its likely lower due to the local economy but at the time that's just the way it was. And even finding rent for 1100 in a ghetto was not super easy.
Paying out 1600 for a place to sleep and cook food was totally unacceptable so I took my chances.
1100 a month where I am is the ghetto, a nice area is like 1600 or more. These days its likely lower due to the local economy but at the time that's just the way it was. And even finding rent for 1100 in a ghetto was not super easy.
Paying out 1600 for a place to sleep and cook food was totally unacceptable so I took my chances.
I live in Anchorage. Took my chances living in a violent ghetto (for around 5 years) so that I could save money more rapidly to save for a house. Typically people leave you alone if you are not involved in the drug trade, however thats no gaurentee you wont get caught in a cross fire.
There were gun shots probalby monthy with a few swat raids (like the real deal, blue helmets, AR15's, one MRAP and full body armor (there may have been a sharp shooter). However most run of the mill days were not like this.
It was kind of strange, I was in a pseudo part of the ghetto but the interiour of the units were trashed, ironicly the interiour parts of the really bad ghetto were almost luxury (so long as you lever left the front door without a gun or just pulled straight out of the garage and B lined it to where you were going.
...or Boston, or DC, or Seattle. $1600 will have you rubbing elbows with the junkies and hookers.
1600 gets you into decent areas in Anchorage, if you want to rent a single family home in the truely ritzy parts its well over 2 grand but I never ever want to either spend that much on rent or that much on a mortgage or burn up that much of my savings to pay those over inflated prices.
All of these age old questions always boil down to security vs freedom. Do you want to be gaurentted to be drowning in debt or at the very least having to work longer into your old age to pay premium real estate prices or do you want to retire early and have money to pursue passions and interests but there is maybe a 0.00001% chance increase you will be shot and killed.
Even if I were mugged and robbed of 100$ once a year thats cheap compared to what the elites will mug you for from behind a computer screen at a bank.
A question I just had with a co-worker was about health insurance, which is the final shackle for people trying to retire and be free. Do you live your life for health insurance where you have to work till you die so that you never loose that insurance, maybe you take longer vacations but you ultimatly still have to go into the office, still have to maintain a house with over priced real estate taxes, etc. Or do you just accept that you are not going to live forever and decide to be free.
Locals claim that my neighborhood is sketchy/dangerous. But, it doesn't compare to the description of dangerous in previous posts. I do occasionally hear gunfire that's just close enough to know it's not fireworks--about once every 18 months. (never close enough to worry about being in any kind of crossfire) As a guy, I wouldn't make it a habit to go walking through the park at night, but once in awhile is fine. It doesn't meet the "attractive woman" test, but I don't know of many places (urban, suburban, or rural) that would.
I don't make "big city money," but plenty to live comfortably, here. I accumulated some debt fixing up my house, so, as soon as that's paid off, I'll be able to save a substantial portion for retirement.
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