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According to the last salary calculator I checked the cost of living in Denver was way lower than Boston where I live. Don't know how that would compare to Wichita and not sure how accurate those things are, but it made me sit up and take notice. Denver sounds awesome - I am jealous that you get to move there! While no place is perfect, everything I've heard about it makes it sound like a really nice place to live. I am always looking around because the cost of living in Boston is just a killer (not to mention the horrible winter, rude people, and awful drivers). Hope it works for you - good luck!!!!
According to the last salary calculator I checked the cost of living in Denver was way lower than Boston where I live. Don't know how that would compare to Wichita and not sure how accurate those things are, but it made me sit up and take notice. Denver sounds awesome - I am jealous that you get to move there! While no place is perfect, everything I've heard about it makes it sound like a really nice place to live. I am always looking around because the cost of living in Boston is just a killer (not to mention the horrible winter, rude people, and awful drivers). Hope it works for you - good luck!!!!
Yeah I never liked the coasts anyway. I have a lot of relatives living there and have been to the East coast many times.
I waited to respond to your post so I could talk to my daughter's friend's mom who works for Lockheed. She said that at least her branch (the one in Littleton) is doing "fine" but she did say that they have seen many other locations who have been cutting back hours or asking people to take voluntary furlough days in conjunction with holidays. Defense contracting used to be the "holy grail" of jobs. Now, many people I know personally who I worked with when they were active duty and retired into defense contracting jobs are out of work.
The reality is that there are no "safe" jobs out there. The only thing you can do is prepare yourself and your family as best you can for an emergency jobless period and either try to find (or hope you're in) a job that has a higher chance of weathering this storm. Even the rose-colored-glasses estimates say that this economy isn't going to be turning around until at least 2012.
As far as your salary goes, I won't bother attacking you (since others did that before me), but your salary can stretch as far as you're willing to make it stretch. I am a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids and my husband brings in less (though in truth, not much less) than your offered salary. We are doing just fine. We don't live lavishly, but we DO spend our money on vacations and "mini breaks" and have no intention of stopping that. You will not be able to live in a huge house, have expensive cars, eat at fancy restaurants, wear designer clothes AND go on lavish vacations on your salary. Somehow I'm sure you weren't planning on that anyway.
So, here are some things to think about: Do you have at least 9-12 months of living expenses in an easily-accessible account? Would you still have that amount after you move (and pay for the costs that go along with relocating)? We moved from Florida and even had our moving company paid for. We still somehow spent nearly $7,000 during the initial relocation phase (including rental deposits, clothing for the "seasonal weather", vehicle registrations, drivers licenses, immunizations for our dog (who didn't need ths same ones in Florida), etc, etc. If you moved to Denver and lost your job the first month, would you want to stay in Denver? Losing your job could easily happen to anyone and if you just moved to Denver for a job but really don't feel "invested" in living here, perhaps you shouldn't move. If you really want a change and that coincides perfectly with your new job offer, then go for it. We love it here and if my husband lost his job, we would do everything we could in order to stay.
We haven't found that Denver is a cheap place to live. While we don't have astronomical housing costs, you will find yourself paying a lot for the other living expenses. I think people seem to believe their dollar will stretch further out here and maybe it will compared to states like California or the East Coast, but after living all over the country, I haven't found that our money goes any farther. You may save in one area, but you pay a lot more in others.
Finally, I noticed that you said that you don't have kids so schools aren't important. I will tell you (and I'm sure the pro realtors on these threads will back me up) that whether or not you have kids, it is still a smart investment to live in a well-regarded school district. Good schools usually go hand-in-hand with lower crime rates and faster home sale periods. You will not find many homes for sale in a good school district that don't mention the school district in the first few bullets of their flyers. Who knows when this economy is going to turn around? However, people are still going to be relocating and moving so there will always be a market (even if it's a slow one) of home buyers/sellers. Many people prioritize schools in their "must have" lists and living in a good district may mean that you at least get a few interested buyers if you ever have to sell your house. Just my 2 cents and what I've seen in my own neighborhood (though it's too far from where you want to be).
I waited to respond to your post so I could talk to my daughter's friend's mom who works for Lockheed. She said that at least her branch (the one in Littleton) is doing "fine" but she did say that they have seen many other locations who have been cutting back hours or asking people to take voluntary furlough days in conjunction with holidays. Defense contracting used to be the "holy grail" of jobs. Now, many people I know personally who I worked with when they were active duty and retired into defense contracting jobs are out of work.
The reality is that there are no "safe" jobs out there. The only thing you can do is prepare yourself and your family as best you can for an emergency jobless period and either try to find (or hope you're in) a job that has a higher chance of weathering this storm. Even the rose-colored-glasses estimates say that this economy isn't going to be turning around until at least 2012.
As far as your salary goes, I won't bother attacking you (since others did that before me), but your salary can stretch as far as you're willing to make it stretch. I am a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids and my husband brings in less (though in truth, not much less) than your offered salary. We are doing just fine. We don't live lavishly, but we DO spend our money on vacations and "mini breaks" and have no intention of stopping that. You will not be able to live in a huge house, have expensive cars, eat at fancy restaurants, wear designer clothes AND go on lavish vacations on your salary. Somehow I'm sure you weren't planning on that anyway.
So, here are some things to think about: Do you have at least 9-12 months of living expenses in an easily-accessible account? Would you still have that amount after you move (and pay for the costs that go along with relocating)? We moved from Florida and even had our moving company paid for. We still somehow spent nearly $7,000 during the initial relocation phase (including rental deposits, clothing for the "seasonal weather", vehicle registrations, drivers licenses, immunizations for our dog (who didn't need ths same ones in Florida), etc, etc. If you moved to Denver and lost your job the first month, would you want to stay in Denver? Losing your job could easily happen to anyone and if you just moved to Denver for a job but really don't feel "invested" in living here, perhaps you shouldn't move. If you really want a change and that coincides perfectly with your new job offer, then go for it. We love it here and if my husband lost his job, we would do everything we could in order to stay.
We haven't found that Denver is a cheap place to live. While we don't have astronomical housing costs, you will find yourself paying a lot for the other living expenses. I think people seem to believe their dollar will stretch further out here and maybe it will compared to states like California or the East Coast, but after living all over the country, I haven't found that our money goes any farther. You may save in one area, but you pay a lot more in others.
Finally, I noticed that you said that you don't have kids so schools aren't important. I will tell you (and I'm sure the pro realtors on these threads will back me up) that whether or not you have kids, it is still a smart investment to live in a well-regarded school district. Good schools usually go hand-in-hand with lower crime rates and faster home sale periods. You will not find many homes for sale in a good school district that don't mention the school district in the first few bullets of their flyers. Who knows when this economy is going to turn around? However, people are still going to be relocating and moving so there will always be a market (even if it's a slow one) of home buyers/sellers. Many people prioritize schools in their "must have" lists and living in a good district may mean that you at least get a few interested buyers if you ever have to sell your house. Just my 2 cents and what I've seen in my own neighborhood (though it's too far from where you want to be).
Thanks for the response. What division does your daughter's friend's Mom work in? I am not going to be in the Defense work. It is for NASA new spacecraft Orion program and I believe Lockheed has a contract for it until 2015 and I am told there is plenty of work to be done in my skill area (in acoustical/vibration engineering). That is why they want to hire me. Of course, if Obama cancels the space program all of a sudden, I would be hurting, but so would be a whole lot of folks in LM and NASA. It is probably not likely.
Where I work now (in Wichita), in business aviation, things are far from rosy. Due to lowering market demands, planes are not selling and my company is struggling to survive right now. We have laid off 25 - 30% of the workforce and probably we have another 15 - 20% layoffs to come this year. Even 2010 and 2011 are uncertain, maybe even 2012. I probably will not lose my job here (unless the company just tanks, which is not completely improbable), but with the company in survival mode, chances of staying busy with challenging work is becoming difficult. I am getting bored and frustrated here a bit and nervous as well. Also there are numerous rumours flying about extended furloughs and drop in benefits/pay.
Despite this, it is a given that changing jobs in this climate and relocating one's family to another town is a BIG deal. Change is always unnverving. Me and my wife have been deliberating about this a lot and I feel no matter how much we discuss this, at the end of the day we just have weigh the pros and cons and go with a decision and hope it works out. I do not have a big buffer in my bank for a rainy day, so if I go and lose my job I would be hurting. However, the same would apply if I lost my job here in Wichita. Although the relocation package is pretty good with relocation allowance, but I am nervous about being able to sell my home here in 3 months and getting settled in Denver. I am not going to buy a home right away before I make sure the job is OK and that I can live in Denver for a while. My plan is to rent a modest home/condo/townhouse at least for 6 months to 1 year. In a nutshell here are the pros and cons that I see:
Pros:
1. Challenging and exciting job (at least on paper)
2. Nicer place than where I live now
3. Lots of things to do and places to visit (Wichita is very boring that way)
4. LM seems more stable in the current climate than where I work now
Cons:
1. Uneasiness of moving to a new place in this economic climate
2. Higher cost of living
3. More traffic/higher commute times/faster life (this applies more to my wife than me)
4. Have to establish myself in the job with boss & peers
5. Wife is a simple country girl from Kansas and how she will adjust to a bigger city
6. Wife gets farther away from family (although she says she will adjust)
My head is spinning now, so I am going to take a break and stop thinking about this for a while. I am going to finalize my decision this weekend and plan to tell my boss about it on Monday and see what happens. I will take it from there.
Is there any realtor visiting the forum from the Denver Metro area. If so, please PM me.
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