[Cupcakebear]

Hello everyone!

My fiancé was just offered an accounting position in Las Vegas making 43k per year. We currently live in Fontana, California and we have been set on relocating for some time now. The cost of living in California is insane ($1200 for a one bedroom apartment in our city). I'd rather gouge out my eyes like Oedipus than sit in traffic one more day, and we are planning on starting a family. I guess my question is, would 43k be a reasonable starting salary in LV? I've done a lot of research and have found that cost of living comparisons vary greatly. A few have compared 43k in vegas to 54k in my area, and others list much closer figures. I am substitute teaching in CA, but I do not want to count my income towards our total just in case it takes awhile for me to actually find a job when we move. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to help me out with your insight(:

A little information about us:
We don't have credit card debt, student loans or car payments.
Don't care to live in a hoity toity area, just a safe place
Heat doesn't bother us
I've lived in CA my whole life, fiancé has lived in Kuwait, Philippines and CA

[Kitchen Witch]

Originally Posted by Cupcakebear

Hello everyone!

My fiancé was just offered an accounting position in Las Vegas making 43k per year. We currently live in Fontana, California and we have been set on relocating for some time now. The cost of living in California is insane ($1200 for a one bedroom apartment in our city). I'd rather gouge out my eyes like Oedipus than sit in traffic one more day, and we are planning on starting a family. I guess my question is, would 43k be a reasonable starting salary in LV? I've done a lot of research and have found that cost of living comparisons vary greatly. A few have compared 43k in vegas to 54k in my area, and others list much closer figures. I am substitute teaching in CA, but I do not want to count my income towards our total just in case it takes awhile for me to actually find a job when we move. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to help me out with your insight(:

A little information about us:
We don't have credit card debt, student loans or car payments.
Don't care to live in a hoity toity area, just a safe place
Heat doesn't bother us
I've lived in CA my whole life, fiancé has lived in Kuwait, Philippines and CA

You had better check out the Clark County School District website. In August, they'll be hiring almost 2,000 new teachers so you might just have a good chance at getting employment.

Back to school: CCSD to hire 2,000 new teachers - Las Vegas Sun News


You should be OK with that starting salary, so long as you keep your debt almost nil and everyday expenses under control. You might find car registration a bit higher than what you are paying in Cal, depending upon what year and model your cars are, same for your car insurance.

Depending upon where your other half is working, there are lots of apartments and homes around, cheaper rent than in Cal as well.

Areas like Centennial, Silverado, the Southwest area, the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas and lots of areas in between, all have many apartment complexes and homes for rent. You will find something good and relatively safe in a nice area. But stick closer to where the fiancé will work for traffic ease in the beginning, and then, if all pans out for you, you can shop around after your lease is up for a different place, permanent home, bigger home, etc, etc.

Blessings!

[Cupcakebear]

Originally Posted by Kitchen Witch

You had better check out the Clark County School District website. In August, they'll be hiring almost 2,000 new teachers so you might just have a good chance at getting employment.

Back to school: CCSD to hire 2,000 new teachers - Las Vegas Sun News


You should be OK with that starting salary, so long as you keep your debt almost nil and everyday expenses under control. You might find car registration a bit higher than what you are paying in Cal, depending upon what year and model your cars are, same for your car insurance.

Depending upon where your other half is working, there are lots of apartments and homes around, cheaper rent than in Cal as well.

Areas like Centennial, Silverado, the Southwest area, the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas and lots of areas in between, all have many apartment complexes and homes for rent. You will find something good and relatively safe in a nice area. But stick closer to where the fiancé will work for traffic ease in the beginning, and then, if all pans out for you, you can shop around after your lease is up for a different place, permanent home, bigger home, etc, etc.

Blessings!

I will definitely check into CCSD. Thank you for all of your help KW!(:

I have been looking into apartments/condos in the Southwest between Durango and Rainbow. Do you know if this is a generally decent area? Fiancé will be working for Caesars and I found that this area is fairly close.

[Kitchen Witch]

Originally Posted by Cupcakebear

I will definitely check into CCSD. Thank you for all of your help KW!(:

I have been looking into apartments/condos in the Southwest between Durango and Rainbow. Do you know if this is a generally decent area? Fiancé will be working for Caesars and I found that this area is fairly close.

Yes, you should be good with that area, southwest is relatively new. I am not that familiar with various rents, but you should be able to find something decent and relatively safe. No place is foolproof safe though. Always use common sense and you should be good.

See if you can come first and check out things before you move. Always the smart way to do a major move, see it for yourself, then you know.

Blessings

[ft_chief]

Originally Posted by Cupcakebear

Hello everyone!

My fiancé was just offered an accounting position in Las Vegas making 43k per year. We currently live in Fontana, California and we have been set on relocating for some time now. The cost of living in California is insane ($1200 for a one bedroom apartment in our city). I'd rather gouge out my eyes like Oedipus than sit in traffic one more day, and we are planning on starting a family. I guess my question is, would 43k be a reasonable starting salary in LV? I've done a lot of research and have found that cost of living comparisons vary greatly. A few have compared 43k in vegas to 54k in my area, and others list much closer figures. I am substitute teaching in CA, but I do not want to count my income towards our total just in case it takes awhile for me to actually find a job when we move. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to help me out with your insight(:

A little information about us:
We don't have credit card debt, student loans or car payments.
Don't care to live in a hoity toity area, just a safe place
Heat doesn't bother us
I've lived in CA my whole life, fiancé has lived in Kuwait, Philippines and CA

You will be comfortable on that salary with only two of you. Just minimize the partying on the weekends. The nightclubs here are expensive. BTW, I am living on that amount with a family of 5 people.

[qingguy]

I'd say it depends on what the accounting position is; if it's Director of Accounting then I'd say it's low, if it's entry level bookkeeper I'd say it's high. Check salary.com, it allows you to compare by city, position, experience etc.

I think you can pull it off on her income and then sock away everything you make for a down payment on a house. Remember unlike the great state of California (I relocated from there) you don't have state income tax so taking into her bracket into consideration she's saving 9.3% there.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by Cupcakebear

Don't care to live in a hoity toity area, just a safe place

What you'll find in Las Vegas is that "hoity toity" means a neighborhood with an HOA.

And, without an HOA, it's likely to neither be very safe nor desirable. There is a clear distinction in HOA and non-HOA Las Vegas neighborhoods.

Need proof? Drive up from Fontana on a weekend. It's just 2.5 hours. Or take a gander at Google Earth.

[Cupcakebear]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

What you'll find in Las Vegas is that "hoity toity" means a neighborhood with an HOA.

And, without an HOA, it's likely to neither be very safe nor desirable. There is a clear distinction in HOA and non-HOA Las Vegas neighborhoods.

Need proof? Drive up from Fontana on a weekend. It's just 2.5 hours. Or take a gander at Google Earth.

I actually drove up to Vegas and checked out the Southwest area. It appeared to be very nice and clean, but that does not always equate to safety. Thank you for informing me of the importance of renting a property with an HOA.

[Freebird]

TL: DR quick summary - Las Vegas has way less traffic, is way less expensive place to live especially for rent, no state tax - 43K should go a long way up there compared to almost anywhere in California


We just moved away from Las Vegas and back to California - kicking and screaming, hated to leave but it was for a stable software engineering job instead of staying with a startup company/situation. It has been almost six weeks now of living here after living in Las Vegas for sixteen months.

You mentioned wanting to gouge your eyes out in traffic - we had lived in Los Angeles before moving to LV so we never stopped being amazed when the traffic guy on the news in the morning would say "bad traffic today, add an extra five to eight minutes to your commute". I can honestly say the Las Vegas traffic never bothered us the whole time we lived there. Worked from home so that avoided alot of it - but even when we were in what might've been considered "bad" (especially to anyone without LA traffic as a frame of reference), it was an absolute nonissue for us, always. It was always so weird to have empty space around us on the freeways most of the time and to NOT have to look at the traffic info to see which streets were red before going anywhere.

We learned really fast which streets to avoid, which surface streets would be faster than the freeways and what times to ride the monorail or walk to the strip instead of driving (probably no need to say it, but be aware that the strip and roads leading to/from it can be absolute parking lots depending on time of day or what's going on there). That was the closest we came to LA traffic - if we drove to or on the strip at certain times.

Yeah no state tax in Nevada - it was so nice not to have that taken away from every check. The overall cost of groceries, fuel for the car, whatever we would buy was less expensive. Car insurance was actually less expensive for us as well.

Rent is an unbelievable difference in cost and this is probably where you will realize the most change from Fontana / California as far as what you can get for the same amount of money - we are paying way more each month now for a way smaller space. At least we got six weeks free for signing a thirteen month lease so that offsets it a bit. Seven weeks ago we were living somewhere we liked so much more for so much less money - it was so cool to live in both the city and the tower.

If you've been thinking of relocating for awhile now, are ok living with the heat (we loved it), and have a solid stable job offer with benefits - that's perfect. We would've stayed in a second if there had been jobs like the ones here available in Las Vegas. The 43,000/yr from Caesars will go way farther up there for sure and it's icing on the cake if you have no debt and can just salt away everything you would make from a teaching position.

Congratulations to your fiance on the offer and I wish you both all the best as you are sorting out what to do and where to live !

[ecd3easy]

Originally Posted by Cupcakebear

I actually drove up to Vegas and checked out the Southwest area. It appeared to be very nice and clean, but that does not always equate to safety. Thank you for informing me of the importance of renting a property with an HOA.

The area your looking at is safe. It has the highest rental $$$ in the city because it relatively undeveloped compared to other areas. However you less traffic and good access to the Strip hence work for your significant other.

Here in Vegas and especially this board they act like anything without a gate and HOA is a trailer park. The Southwest is nice.