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Minimum income I should make before relocating? I want to move to a location like Oil city. My dad says I should make $2k a month before leaving, I say $1200 a month and im out. The costs of living in Oil city is so low I figure a minimum of $14.4k a year to make it if I own a house free and clear and have no debts. I do freelance graphics design and will be doing other things to supplament the income.
No thanks to jobs unless you know of one that pays $120k a year here, thats how much ill need in order to afford a house. Theres no jobs in Oil city so im self employeed and make my own money. I like it that way, no mean boss, no long traffic
Minimum income I should make before relocating? I want to move to a location like Oil city. My dad says I should make $2k a month before leaving, I say $1200 a month and im out. The costs of living in Oil city is so low I figure a minimum of $14.4k a year to make it if I own a house free and clear and have no debts. I do freelance graphics design and will be doing other things to supplament the income.
No thanks to jobs unless you know of one that pays $120k a year here, thats how much ill need in order to afford a house. Theres no jobs in Oil city so im self employeed and make my own money. I like it that way, no mean boss, no long traffic
You're doing other things like paid surveys...sorry...don't count on it
And I don't know if anyone lives (comfortably) on $14k a year. I think "living" is probably 20k a year and "comfy" is at least 30k. The housing may be low but its not like EVERYTHING in Oil City is cheap. You still have regular priced gas, bills, groceries, etc so don't count it out!
Need affordable- 20k in Oil City is equivalent to 45k in Florida- you should do fine as long as you avoid credit card debt- will you be near a main city? maybe you can find more work there. Kudos to you and good luck. Florida has no options for a young person starting a real career. Wish you the best.
I just made a dollar on that paid survey. Another paid survey website says I have almost $200 "pending" but ill be happy if $20 of that gets "approved" and credited into my account then mailed to me as a check. I am not gonna count my chickens till they hatch, meaning once I actually start getting checks. One survey website says I can make $15k a year accroding to its survey calculator based on 1000 surveys completed per year(yea right, like one survey a week becomes "available") and with many referrals. Ill be happy to make $2k a year! I estimate ill make another $5k a year doing surveys for all the websites I register on. Freelance graphics design hopefully will make up for the bulk of my income. Its all about getting customers!
I could sponsor pay per clicks on my graphics design website and when people click the ads, I get paid and the company gets customers in return. Theres google adsense I could use. I make google money and I get some in return. Theres many other ways I need to research how to make money online. I dont feel freelance graphics designing alone will be enough unless I get several clients a day. I really hope to have $1200+ a month income by spring so I can move out and enjoy my own house!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunnyhelena
Need affordable- 20k in Oil City is equivalent to 45k in Florida- you should do fine as long as you avoid credit card debt- will you be near a main city? maybe you can find more work there. Kudos to you and good luck. Florida has no options for a young person starting a real career. Wish you the best.
sunny.
Easily if not more. Actually $45k wont do me much in West Palm Beach, itll be enough for a mobile home and other high expenses of living though. $20k in Oil city is enough for a big house and very low costs of living. Even if I could find a real job in WPB, say as a graphics designer and make $45k a year(which is average) ill never partake in the american dream, houses are far out of reach for a $45k salary
West Palm sux- It is an ugly city unless you are living on "the island" of Palm Beach with its bridge keeping people out- my friend lived there- she is a 6th generation atty who will never work- Dad has his office on Royal Palm Blvd and they do nothing all day-
West Palm seems to be going down as well- and the job market is very bad- but good luck yo you in Oil City. Fl isn't worth it.
Well, the general rule of thumb as I know it, is that 25% of your income should equal all of your housing expenses (rent/mortgage + utilities, taxes, etc.) So just reverse it - figure out about how much those expenses will be per month, and then multiply by 4.
Where does the other 75% go? Car payment, other debt payments, groceries, leisure, retirement savings, general savings, clothes, buying stuff for your house, etc.
I'd say no less than USD20,000 (net, not gross) would probably enable you to live in an inexpensive town or city but not extravagantly.
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Originally Posted by christina0001
Well, the general rule of thumb as I know it, is that 25% of your income should equal all of your housing expenses (rent/mortgage + utilities, taxes, etc.) So just reverse it - figure out about how much those expenses will be per month, and then multiply by 4.
Where does the other 75% go? Car payment, other debt payments, groceries, leisure, retirement savings, general savings, clothes, buying stuff for your house, etc.
West Palm sux- It is an ugly city unless you are living on "the island" of Palm Beach with its bridge keeping people out- my friend lived there- she is a 6th generation atty who will never work- Dad has his office on Royal Palm Blvd and they do nothing all day-
West Palm seems to be going down as well- and the job market is very bad- but good luck yo you in Oil City. Fl isn't worth it.
sunny,
Would I be crazy to still want to live in WPB if house prices halved? Ive lived there all my life so am very familiar with that city. If prices were to halve, wouldnt WPB be worth it or do you know of better cities at half the price?
Ill hopefully be living in Oil city soon but if WPB halves in house prices and I can afford it, should I move back or just stay in Oil city(still much cheaper than WPB)
Quote:
Originally Posted by christina0001
Well, the general rule of thumb as I know it, is that 25% of your income should equal all of your housing expenses (rent/mortgage + utilities, taxes, etc.) So just reverse it - figure out about how much those expenses will be per month, and then multiply by 4.
Where does the other 75% go? Car payment, other debt payments, groceries, leisure, retirement savings, general savings, clothes, buying stuff for your house, etc.
That means if I make $1200 a month, I can spend $300 a month on home expenses. I will own the house free and clear(I have $15k right now and should have about $20k by the time I move out) I sure hope utilities arent more than $150 a month. Property taxes should be less than $100 a month(paid annually) so I guess if I buy a house for $10k to $15k, I can keep the monthly house expenses under $300.
Ill own the car free and clear, hopefully my parents will buy me a cheap one as a gift like they did for my bro and sis, if not ill buy one myself. Food is going to be my single biggest expense at $300 a month. For leisure ill buy scented candles, should cost me about $30 a month but I also get illumination and heat and the aroma relieves stress. I think its well worth the $30 a month to have alot less stress in your life
I could probably support myself for less than $1200 a month but I want to give myself a safety margin and have at least a couple hundred a month to save for "emergencies" I dont want to wait till I make lots of money, I want to move out as soon as I make $1200 a month. I figure ill make more money over the months and itll just get easier. I may make $14k the first year but like $17k the second and even more the following years. It has to do with my self employement accelerating
Do they have good internet there? If you're making money off the web, that's one thing to consider. Also, how much would medical insurance cost? If you don't get insurance, how much are you budgeting to have available for doctor visits, tests and such?
When I was in Fairbanks, no car, it was ~$1200/month for food, rent, phone, electric, and minor miscellaneous stuff (movie tickets, cheap video games, toilet paper, etc.) for two people. $600 of it was rent. Miscellaneous does not including medical, internet, or anything expensive. We had savings for anything beyond that. We actually got a couch and a working vaccuum from the waste transfer station. One time I hit the motherload and got a TON of NES games there. That was so cool.
If you're doing graphic design work, you've got to factor in the cost of equipment/materials/etc. Odds are you'll want to get better/more stuff as you progress in your work. Also, are you planning on getting customers over the internet or in the city where you'll live? Both? If it's over the 'net, odds are you'll get the same customer base no matter where you are. If you're planning on getting graphics work in the city, you should do some research to see if there's a market for you before you get there.
As far as surveys go, to see how much you make, take how much you make on a survey and divide by the time it takes to do a survey (as a fraction of an hour). That's how much you earn per hour on surveys, and if that number is too low I'd suggest finding another source of income. what's the minimum amount you want to earn per hour, once established, for it to be worth your time doing something for profit?
Here's a good website I found for making money off the 'net: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/ It's got lots of good info on adsense, website coding, and more good stuff.
Besides rent (oops, I mean taxes! ) and utilities, what are you budgeting for house expenses (repairs, upgrades, etc.)? What kind of house would you like? Beofre picking a house, I'd read some books at the library on buying houses, fixing houses, house design, etc. so that you get a sense of pitfalls to avoid and things to look for in a house beyond a nice floorplan. And since you're going to be working at home, I'd get an extra room devoted strictly to that in whatever house you buy for your little "office".
If you don't mind me asking, why are you so eager to move out the instant you start bringing in the money? I like another poster's idea of getting three month's worth of money in the bank before heading out. It's good to have a backup supply. Plus, earning a month's supply of income three months in a row will give you the confidence that it wasn't a one time thing and that you'll continue to earn that much.
Oh, and let us know how that survey thing works out! I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to do to earn money on the 'net too!
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you have the right idea-
