Minimum income I should make before relocating?

[Need_affordable_home]

Oil city, PA. Thanks for the link to DP. Good message board with plenty of tips! I want to move out because im too old to live with parents plus I want my own house and rules. Then I can buy whatever I want in my own house

[kdm31091]

I've said it a thousand times but I think your best bet is to find a not-expensive city with good apartments, rent for awhile, save up, go somewhere you truly LIKE (not just somewhere cheap/nice people) and buy a decent home.

And something more then an associate's degree will help too

[CandyApple]

Hmm... A little bit too far north, and WAY too much snow for me. I'd also like some place a bit warmer during the winter than that. And it's rather cloudy. It is far enough away from big cities that people won't be moving there to commute anytime soon, so that's a plus. And it looks pretty, from the city-data pics.

Hope you like snow! Sorry, I don't think I'll be coming to drive up house prices.

Glad you liked the forum I posted.

[Need_affordable_home]

LOL you live in Anchorage! Much colder than Oil city!

[Cosmic]

I would fall into that camp that would advise having more experience with this venture under your belt before moving to fab Oil City.

I would want to know the graphics business was actually a paying gig. I was self employed for about 15 years as a contractor. Had a partner, we built it into a fine well paying venture. But it didn't happen overnight and there were a lot of things that had to be learned, adjustments made and ways of tuning it to fit us exactly. Your paychecks are not predictable, plus have a way of disappearing at the wrong time. Not everybody pays their bills or at least on time, you can spend a huge amount of time chasing new business, especially those who want freebies or aren't sure of what the job is. Must find ways to solve all the problems and increase efficiency especially in acquiring new work or it can eat you alive.

Is the graphics business seasonal with peaks / valleys?? Few businesses are totally recession or down turn proof. Most will have busy / slack periods. Owning your own business also usually means zero safety net, you pay for things most folks don't, like double Social Security, extra insurance costs, medical, retirement, more types of taxes, in short everything, etc.

I usually only worked in good weather pounding nails, wrote software in the winter, both had their disadvantages / advantages. It is best to have more than one line of work or way of earning money. My partner was not so lucky and suffered thru some bad periods, finally he got a job as a fireman and tried to continue as before. It was the begining of the end. Lots of things can trip a fellow up. Partnerships can be tough, many don't last.

Some of my relatives have tried the being out on their own. Most made fair money but eventually went back to work for The Man. Most of them were in the computer field. There is a lot of pressure to perform and they had to deal with all aspects of getting, doing and holding work, including the technical, admin, billing, etc. Long hours and sometimes not getting what they thought it was worth. All self employed can be in danger of getting into depression periods at times, nature of the beast. Vacations are rare, not when you want it or never.

Trying to run a business, move, go thru the transistion between different areas, buy a house, etc, etc sounds like a full plate, especially if things are under funded. Those saying you need a cushion for the unexpected are right on. Nothing can be planned perfect.

You need some sort of exploration period before becoming too committed to a plan that is only vaguely based on hard facts. The cost of living in Oil City may not be as low as you expect. About like Ohio, you can find small towns with all the stores, if you search for them. When you actually get there, you find they have all the goods priced to the moon and depend on folks not being willing to drive to the large cities. True a lot around where I am. You can not buy anything except the normal gas, food, daily living stuff etc. Markups of 100 - 300% are not unheard in some goods, like construction materials, hardware, electronics, etc. In some areas of less prosperous folks they charge more for everything, not less as common sense would dictate. You need time and boots on the ground before getting so deep, before having to do everything at once.

IIRC the median income in Oil City is ~$39,000, it might be a bit like Wellsville, OH, the old very poor who just hold on, some very wealthy old money who never sold out, a smaller minority who still have good paying jobs and the younger mostly poor. Median comes out looking not too bad.

Most start up type businesses are based on having so much cash on hand to fund the initial period where revenues typically are low or nothing. Trying to do everthing close to edge without any contingency or slack means be very lucky all the time.