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hello all! i am originally from Long Island (East Meadow) and I've recently moved to the Atlanta, GA metro area because I would not be able to financially survive on Long Island. Do I miss it? Hell yes! All of my friends are there and so is my girlfriends family. Since we are both teachers, we knew that we would not be able to survive on the Island. The cost of living is insane and the taxes are getting worse.
Long Island's future will be between the wealthy and the poor. The middle class will become thinner as time progresses.
How is it in Atlanta? I have never been there, but I have heard that a lot of people are moving there.
Hi Nancy, how are you? It's ok, but it take A LOT of time to get used to. You have to realize that there is no place like Long Island. However, due to stupid politics and high taxes, young people, like myself, are leaving.
Our taxes are unmoveable. An old friend of mine is a long-time accounting guru -- the kind of rainman type who absolutely cannot sit silent when he hears rubbish (a friendship acquired in grammar school sandlot fights). He says most LI taxes are 44% retiree benefits and at least 11% debt service -- i.e. interest alone. So that is more than half of our tax dollars paying for NOTHING -- absolutely NOTHING. We have become addicted to cooking our own books to pretend we are better off than we are. And the worst is yet to come.
Now add the fact that our State Income Tax is subsidizing most seniors via the STAR program (I love paying folks at Town hall to send out and process all that extra paperwork to the folks I pay in Albany to send out and process all that extra paperwork so we can all pay the out-of-state bank to process checks representing my income tax dollars going to hide the school taxes for the "greatest" generation. Free university education, unlimited debt to give their children everything borrowed money could buy -- and of course -- ever lower taxes were not enough for them.
Now our "kids" raised to believe they are ALL ABOVE AVERAGE face 5-digit tax bills with half paying grandma & grandpa's debts. Mortgage money used to be one-and-a-half times your annual salary. Lately it has been as much as twice annual salary. So if junior and spouse both make $80,000/year -- they might be able to borrow as much as $320,000 for a house. Now take away the $12,000 open-space tax, the $3,000 transfer tax, the $30,000 mortgage insurance (wasn't that a great idea to let the banks and insurance companies sell the same stuff) and the $2,000 liability insurance (someone has to pay to rebuild the gulf coast casinos) plus regular closing costs and fees - that means our best and brightest and luckiest might be able to buy a $260,000 dollar house. Make way for their mansion in Old Field - NOT! (If lucky, a cottage in Selden). Thankfully LIPA/Keyspan/Cablevision/Verizon rates are so reasonable?
After five years, their house taxes might only be a couple of hundred dollars a week! Then each of them can really afford to support 2 retirees and their medical bills and prescriptions drugs and heating assitance with their federal payroll taxes. Half of their federal income taxes will go to pay interest on the Reagan debt alone. Then they can splurge at the mall buying their Asian made goods from their minimum wage classmates at the bargain tax of only 8.25% (Hey -- party at the garage where 8 of them live on the AM shift!)
When we leave to go out west etc, we leave the retirement obligations and debt service behind. If you already "got yours" i.e. your kids were educated well and you enjoyed the free parks and beaches -- then leaving debts and retiree obligations behind is just smart business. Besides the "red" states suck much more money from the Federal treasury than they put in. Gotta love those who curse the collection plate more loudly each time they stick their grubby hands in to pull out far more than they ever put in.
All that said -- I am sure our kids will make it here.
Recently one of my very large dogs was lost in the woods. I looked for hours and asked some of the local kids to keep an eye out. When one of them later found and stored my dog at his house -- much to his mother's dismay - he called. When I went to get my best friend of 12 years, I could not help but notice how afraid this kid was of my large dog. I also noticed a modest home and clearly modest clothes. As I reached into my wallet to hand the kid a well earned reward (I was thinking a $50 bill) he told me no -- that was OK. I tried but the kid really would not take anything and he meant it. I though maybe his mother had told him not to take anything so when he walked with me and my dog up the block, I again tried to get him to take a few dollars at least. There was no one around. As the saying goes, character is what you do when no one is watching. There is an honor and dignity - a wealth of spirit in our kids that wildly exceeds us.
We who voted since the 70's to the 90's did not make it on LI. We failed. We were greedy. We lied to ourselves to preserve a lifestyle we could not afford, did not earn and did not deserve. A lifestyle we would not pay for. We stuck our kids with a horrible debt. We dug a nasty hole and shoved them down. But I know in my heart they will make it. They will overcome our failures, our deceit and our cowardice (evil triumphs when good folks do nothing -- the best of us over 30's did nothing). Our kids have the genes of our ancestors and some extra help from around the world. Perhaps our awesome failure will help bring out the best and noblest in them. Perhaps they will look into the eyes of their children and have the courage to look out for them and their future the way we did not. Perhaps they may someday even forgive us. They may not have more financially than us -- but when they show a modest decency and concern for their kids, they will vastly outshine us. They will make it - here and anywhere.
Tell your kids to join the police force or become teachers on Long Island. After a few years, they'll each be making over $100k and after 20-30 years they'll will have pensions that will make most folks meager retirement income look like chump change.
Barring those two occupations, or other government positions, they'll either have to own a decent business or work on Wall Street to live comfortably here.
In another decade, average property taxes will be closer to $15-20k/yr or more. Someone's gotta pay those government employee benefits.
Tell your kids to join the police force or become teachers on Long Island. After a few years, they'll each be making over $100k and after 20-30 years they'll will have pensions that will make most folks meager retirement income look like chump change.
Tell your kids to join the police force or become teachers on Long Island. After a few years, they'll each be making over $100k and after 20-30 years they'll will have pensions that will make most folks meager retirement income look like chump change.
Barring those two occupations, or other government positions, they'll either have to own a decent business or work on Wall Street to live comfortably here.
In another decade, average property taxes will be closer to $15-20k/yr or more. Someone's gotta pay those government employee benefits.
Its sad to say but your right. Can you imagine the average property taxes being $15-20 k? Whoa.
You think $80,000 is a decent salary for Long Island or any other place in the NYC metro area (including the other 4 boros) outside Manhattan. I think not.
And we all know that rents these days even Queens, Brooklyn & even the Bronx (or Hempstead for that matter) are so reasonable -- NOT!!
Mostly everyone I know in this area in their 20s & early 30's(and I grew up in Queens) is struggling to end meet, saves nothing, has a ton of credit card debt, lives with multiple roomates, or their parents pay the rent. Most of these people make well in the six figures and work on Wall Street or some Wall Street related job.
Before, I moved out of Queens, I was making around $77,000 and paid less than $900 for a studio apartment in Flushing Queens which I lived in for over 10 years. I considered myself poor relative to others my age considering I drove a Nissan Altima from 2001 with 40,000 miles when everyone else had BMW's & Maximas.,
And it is a cliche, Get a good education, work hard, and success will come to you. But then add the patronizing line - Don't expect things all at once (wink, wink). But don't people expect things not all at once but immediately, now?? I mean everyone I see on Long Island who looks just a few years out of high school is driving a 5 series BMW, Audi or high end Toyota or Nissan. No one will be seen in clothes from Target, they must by things at Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, or on fifth avenue or soho in Manhattan.
You just cannot be live here and be successful on an average salary whatever the reported mean or median is for one person. You must have the job & that means working on Wall Street for some name company or Hedge Fund and not making less than $200,000 a year per person.
You think $80,000 is a decent salary for Long Island or any other place in the NYC metro area (including the other 4 boros) outside Manhattan. I think not.
And we all know that rents these days even Queens, Brooklyn & even the Bronx (or Hempstead for that matter) are so reasonable -- NOT!!
Mostly everyone I know in this area in their 20s & early 30's(and I grew up in Queens) is struggling to end meet, saves nothing, has a ton of credit card debt, lives with multiple roomates, or their parents pay the rent. Most of these people make well in the six figures and work on Wall Street or some Wall Street related job.
Before, I moved out of Queens, I was making around $77,000 and paid less than $900 for a studio apartment in Flushing Queens which I lived in for over 10 years. I considered myself poor relative to others my age considering I drove a Nissan Altima from 2001 with 40,000 miles when everyone else had BMW's & Maximas.,
And it is a cliche, Get a good education, work hard, and success will come to you. But then add the patronizing line - Don't expect things all at once (wink, wink). But don't people expect things not all at once but immediately, now?? I mean everyone I see on Long Island who looks just a few years out of high school is driving a 5 series BMW, Audi or high end Toyota or Nissan. No one will be seen in clothes from Target, they must by things at Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, or on fifth avenue or soho in Manhattan.
You just cannot be live here and be successful on an average salary whatever the reported mean or median is for one person. You must have the job & that means working on Wall Street for some name company or Hedge Fund and not making less than $200,000 a year per person.
Well I dont need fancy cars or clothes. Or should I say I cant afford them? What kills me is this...
Oil bill= $700
LIPA= $250
Taxes= $800
Mortgage= $2800
Cable/phone/internet bill= $130
Food= $150
Do I need to go on? Im dying over here!!
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