Just out of curiosity

[Mr5150]

Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka

And I remember hearing from folks that surviving with 125K in Cali is a nightmare even.

Define what you mean-CA is huge and varied. Once you get out of the Bay Area (and other coastal urban areas) you can live like a king in CA on $125K-even if your a family of four. 125K/year is three times the median income of my area.

The median home price in my area is 200K and even less in the Valley.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

From the limited knowledge that I have, it seems that new job offer salaries right now in LA/OC/SoCal are no higher than Denver for an equivalent level position/company.

For your information, Irvine is basically the OC equivalent of Greenwood Village. Hope that helps.

Definitely helps, Vegas. I still love GV even after the home being broken into

But my eventual ambitions lie either in Cali or NY state. My entire career was spent dreaming on these 2 states.

I really hope my negotiations go well. Irvine looks better to me, personally. But I also have some evil motives of securing one of these jobs and bargain my present position in CO. As they always say, they only pander to a guy who suddenly decides to leave.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

Define what you mean-CA is huge and varied. Once you get out of the Bay Area (and other coastal urban areas) you can live like a king in CA on $125K-even if your a family of four. 125K/year is three times the median income of my area.

The median home price in my area is 200K and even less in the Valley.

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I bet the girlfriend can find a job and I hope she can also find a place for her pit bull (this is causing a problem in CO, where they are banned)

But my panic factor is generally stoked by the people I talk to. I mostly talk to my Indian circles living in CA and they paint a pretty bizarre picture about Cali that one gets killed if not for a healthy paycheque. That's the source of my confusion. The first thing I hear from them is that the cost of living is way too high.

Thanks for the advice, guys. Consider me blind to Californian lifestyle.

[sms1967]

If you don't have to buy a house... $150k allows you to rent anywhere here. If you don't want to be a city dweller, maybe San Mateo or Foster City? If you're more liberal and/or Bohemian, perhaps the Alameda/Berkeley area across the bay?