How do you afford to live in California? (San Diego, Long Beach: foreclosed, hotels)

[.highnlite]

We get it. Living in California requires making some pretty extreme trade offs for everyone at every income level.

Everyone seems to take it for granted that it costs more to live in CA, than in other states,, why?

Why? do you think this?

Aside from the possible real estate costs, and that of course depends on where you want to live, either here or in another state, what causes the "extreme trade offs"

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by .highnlite

Everyone seems to take it for granted that it costs more to live in CA, than in other states, why?

From what our out-of-state relatives say when they visit, everything seems higher to them, including groceries, hotels, and gas.
Looks as if it's true. Cost of Living by State

[e_cuyler]

I don't see a big difference in groceries in CA, but it depends on where you live. My home state charges sales tax for groceries so I think groceries are cheaper in CA in a lot of locations.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

From what our out-of-state relatives say when they visit, everything seems higher to them, including groceries, hotels, and gas.
Looks as if it's true. Cost of Living by State

I worry about, "everything seems higher". I would prefer to see data rather than an anecdote, and is cost of living by state distorted by real estate costs?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we cut our income by 2/3, but also cut out our mortgage, and most of our gasoline cost, and we do pretty good here in CA.

We don't find grocery cost a burden, and we find the quality of vegies high.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

From what our out-of-state relatives say when they visit, everything seems higher to them, including groceries, hotels, and gas.
Looks as if it's true. Cost of Living by State

Couple of things to note here:
1. you can't really get much out of a state to state comparison because California is so large and diverse in every way ... comparing California to Wyoming, for instance, is ridiculous

2. the charts on the website you linked show the COL as including housing costs -- which factor we have already noted IS the single factor in which many areas of CA are higher than typical elsewhere in the country ... the HC chart (Housing Costs) are a separate data set, but the COL chart includes HC

List personal budget expenses ... then note which you think are higher in California than elsewhere: taxes, food, gasoline, utilities, communications, clothing, insurance, etc. ... hotels don't count -- they are a traveler's expense.

Other than housing -- in certain areas -- you will have a hard time finding much difference to a personal budget. Gasoline is at the high end ... but gas costs are not so different as to break a budget by themselves. Health insurance -- a huge figure for most people, after housing -- is not much different in CA than other places ... same with other insurances ... clothing is not more expensive (stay off Rodeo Drive) ... consumer products such as washing machines and dryers and bicycles and lawnmowers are not more expensive ... tv and cell phones and internet are the same everywhere ... utilities aren't bad at all ... food is NOT more expensive ... neither are restaurants or most typical entertainment. California DOES have many expensive entertainment venues to choose from, more than Wyoming for sure ... but there is a lot of reasonably priced entertainment as well ... to say nothing of all the free and nearly free things to do here.

It comes down to housing in select areas. That's it. That's the difference.

[crzchn]

[quote=ragnarkar;22313614]

Originally Posted by jklmnop

I shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe, and other high-end grocery places..

But only pay about $600 in rent to share a place.

And drive a Civic over a decade old.

In the end, my monthly budget is about $1500 and I save the rest.

A rule of thumb for living somewhat *Frugally* in California is to budget $1500/mo for the first person and $1000 for each additional person.

You sound like me, but I gave up my car ten years ago and have not looked back.

[xmasevemom]

Originally Posted by SmoothBBQ

Sorry to break it to you, but you're going to need at least 350K per year to live in California.

We live there at 100k a year but we rent. We are also frugal and do not make car payments (both our cars are paid for). We spend all our money on rent and our daughter's preschool. I wear clothes from Target and we don't smoke or drink or have any expensive habits or tastes, really. Our idea of an exciting dinner is Baja Fresh.

[crzchn]

Originally Posted by bicoastal10

How does one retire on $1.5 million at age 40? Seems pretty low for someone retiring at that age. Usually, people who truly retire that young cash out with at least $5 million.

Essentially you are asking how can some one live on 40k a year.

I live on much less than that.

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

From what our out-of-state relatives say when they visit, everything seems higher to them, including groceries, hotels, and gas.
Looks as if it's true. Cost of Living by State

When I was a student in Deep South for a year, I paid $250/month for a 3 bedroom house and had roommates... fuel was dirt cheap compared to the West, and used cars were cheap to buy.. car repair was 2X cheaper than in CA. Many foods were cheap too. Same goes to many parts of Midwest, South West. I wonder why people are asking questions... I guess they never got out of CA, or out of Hilton when they're traveling.
Hotels... some people live in hotels, cause they can't get an apartment, as in some areas perfect credit and a job with monthly check 3X of rent amount are required (unless you're in subsidized housing or a member of certain minorities) due to housing shortage, also people live in hotels when they're between places, so cheap hotels are a big deal.

[cmdreset]

Getting back to the original poster's question (God forbid)

Originally Posted by jklmnop

SNIP
Everywhere I look I see more or less about the same cost of living. I know not everyone makes six figure salaries in California so what is the scoop? How do you get by?

Yes, in the better-rated school districts $600k is a middle-middle-class house in CA (read: not where you would expect an MD to live in other parts of the country.) So here is how they do it out here:

(1) The Old Timers: Lots of people bought houses before the bubble - they are doubly fine (low price house, Prop 13 low taxes.)
(2) The Wealthy: All that real estate money went somewhere during the boom. A one-time $300k windfall makes a $600k house a lot more affordable.
(3) The High Earners: In the high-cost areas, there is a combination of dual income professional couples, stock-option and bonus money, and low interest rate loans floating around to keep prices high relative to other parts of the country, even today. But one earner losing a job usually puts them in Category 4 below.
(4) The Pretenders: People who spend every cent they make (and more) to finance their aspirational "dream house". This category is slowly being foreclosed upon.

In my little corner of affluent San Diego, I see a lot of each type.

I make decent money and support a family on one income. We choose to rent in a good school district.