this is why young people are not coming to maine (Portland: high crime, home)
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... So where on earth do all the negative comments about the cost of living in Maine come from? From just (what's called) "the tax burden"? I'd much rather pay a higher rate - if that's even the case, when you compare services - on a vastly less expensive property, than a so-called "lower burden" on a house that costs 3 times as much. It's just simple math.
I have had various job offers coming at me since my retirement.
Each job offer would include a certain lifestyle / cost-of-living choice.
I could easily find work in Bah'ran, making $200k/year tax-free, living within a guarded 'American compound', allowed to leave twice a year on a company provided R/R trip.
I could do the same thing in Saudi in a shipyard. I still get the job offers.
I could easily get a job in DC, or LA, or Boston; each of them would be on-call 24/7 doing tech repair wearing a suit, living in traffic and spending every dime on my over-priced house and suits.
I do own a home in Ct, I could easily accept offers there. I would be living out of a seabag, every Monday morning reporting in my office in Groton for an hour and then running out to Pearl Harbor, or Guam, or Europe to do each week's assignment.
Everywhere you go, every career path you follow has it's own lifestyle. Granted in some of them you can earn much more money, but along with that increased income goes other high prices and lifestyle costs.
I chose to live on my retirement and to enjoy my life. I am now 48. I will only be in my 40's for so long, and when the years pass by I can not re-capture them.
I do not want to wear body armor for the rest of my life. I do not want to live permanently in the fog of jet-lag, as I have lived in the past.
I want to live somewhere cheap, somewhere rural, where we can build a home and farm and herd livestock. Where I can sale eggs and farm crops. Where I can leave my keys in the car. Where my house has no lock on the door.
Could I have moved to NH, bought land and built a house on my pension? Raised our family and been fairly happy on this level of income? I doubt it.
I can appreciate everyone getting turned off by this discussion of taxes and tax burdens, etc. I think what concerns some of us is that, yes, things are Ok now, but that there are some little signs out there that we see and that suggest to us (some of us), that they could be worrisome trends, such as the transition from a shipbuilding and manufacturing economy to a lower wage service industry that basically depends on tourists. (Nothing against tourists, I'm just doubtful we can create a decent economy based on tourism. Maybe I'm wrong.) The tax stuff, to some of us, is being interpreted as the early signs of a foundering state government/economy and that if we don't raise the issue now, we will only be able to wish he had in future, when it will be more difficult to do the things that should have been done earlier.
So where on earth do all the negative comments about the cost of living in Maine come from? From just (what's called) "the tax burden"? I'd much rather pay a higher rate - if that's even the case, when you compare services - on a vastly less expensive property, than a so-called "lower burden" on a house that costs 3 times as much. It's just simple math.
Not necessarily, My scenerio is yes you are going to pay a lot more for a house in say Ma. But with that you are probably most likely going to earn a lot more. After your mortage everything else is now cheaper, food, gas, cars ect. because you are earning so much more. Maine I see can appeal to someone on a fixed income or who's earning potential is low. housing here is affordable compared to Ma and southern NH. But also if you consider (recent outrages housing increases aside) that your valuation on your home is going to increase every year by about 3% then those who live in Ma will have a much better nest egg then people in Maine. But again it's all what your looking for. for me and what I do I would have been far better off investing in Ma or NH.
Like a few that have spoken out here on the board, we are in exactly the same situation and have been doing tons of research with every day providing more and more.
I am born and raised in Maine. My wife in Pennsylvania. We met while in the Air Force, married and did our 20 years. We had purchased a nice lot in a subdivision in the panhandle of Florida about 10 years ago with all intention of settling down there. On our most recent trip last month to both Maine and Florida we made up our minds that we will be returning to Maine. The property and state income tax can be a shocker initially but the more you research it you find that there are trade offs and hidden costs in other areas. As Forestbeekeeper has stated it isn't always about the money yes I know it does help but my wife and I will be giving up very hefty salaries to move back and in our opinion it is worth it all. Yes I know we are in a position to where we receive a military retirement check but trust me that goes only so far and we know our income will be more than slashed in half (so we are going to make sure we have enough for the house) but in the end it isn't always what it seems. Live where you are happy.
We still are not sure yet on exactly. The Bangor area seems to be what we seem to think about as most of the family has moved south to there or we can easily to the drive north to see the rest of them. Now when I say the Bangor area I mean the area within a short drive to Bangor. Forest beekeeper raises a good point with his choice as the mill rate is super low in those type of areas. We know we would like 2-10 acres with a good school system for our daughter, high speed internet availability, and a view would be great but can't be greedy. I am flying back in from Germany next month for some training in Portland and driving north to meet with a relator on the weekend. I sent the email to all of the family today also telling them to be on the lookout for some good land... seeing as they all thought we were moving to Florida, I am just waiting for the replies as I am sure they will good. On topic of this thread, I just want to say that I personally know over a dozen people that have left Maine (15-20 years gone) and either have moved back or are planning to very soon. Some times you don't know what you've got till its gone. Wow that is so cliche..sorry but there is allot of truth in that. Yes Maine does not have an over abundance of high paying jobs but if it did would it be the Maine we have all come to know and love?
... On topic of this thread, I just want to say that I personally know over a dozen people that have left Maine (15-20 years gone) and either have moved back or are planning to very soon. Some times you don't know what you've got till its gone. Wow that is so cliche..sorry but there is allot of truth in that. Yes Maine does not have an over abundance of high paying jobs but if it did would it be the Maine we have all come to know and love?
I do not know anyone like that, however I could see why it could happen.
I have heard folks here [in person, as well as on forums like this one], native Mainiacs, who have been very insistent that life in Maine was terrible, that Maine taxes are high, that Maine prices are high, etc.
They truly do need the opportunity of living somewhere else, and to see for themselves for it is like to live in a high-wage area. High-wages bring: high-prices, high taxes and high crime.
It does seem to me, that during my career, and all of the places that I have lived locals are always hum-drum about life locally. Thinking that it is boring, etc. Coming up with reasons of why they dislike wherever they are. However this last part is purely from their own perspective, and may not be shared by other folks who are not native.
Forest is right. There are people everywhere that find all the bad things to whine about.
My son in law...soon to be EX-son in law...was well employed by MBNA in Belfast. It was a good job for him, since he had no degree and I am not entirely sure that he had completed high school. He came from New Jersey originally, and my daughter met and married him while living in Florida.
When he was hired by MBNA in Boca Raton, I suggested to him that the start to work on his degree. He told me that at MBNA it really didn't matter. When the Boca operation of MBNA closed down, he took a lateral move to Belfast because my daughter really, REALLY wanted to live in Maine. They moved, bought a nice house with five acres not far out of Belfast and live moved along. My daughter was very happy.
The University of Maine has an entire college center colocated with the MBNA facility in Belfast, but still the guy made no effort at continuing his education.
When MBNA was bought out, my ex-son in law was spared when the scythe passed through the first time, and held on to his job. His promotion rate had been about one third the rate of similar workers with college degrees.
Last year, he suddenly took a job with a company in Virginia, and he moved directing my daughter to "spruce up the house", put it on the market and follow him down with the children. He then bought a house in Virginia for his family (which my daughter never saw until she arrived).
True to tell, he got a tremendous raise for moving to Virginia. The raise amounted to almost 30% more than he was making in Maine. Of course, they had not sold the house here in Maine, with its mortgage, and the house in Virginia required that they put an additional mortgage on the Maine house in order to make the downpayment, and the Virginia house has an interest only mortgage that is TWO AND ONE HALF times larger than the Maine mortgage.
Obviously, the guy, who didn't NEED any more education, put the family's welfare in great jeopardy.
My wife and I put a lot of time and effort into rehabing the house in Maine, and after five months got a fine tenant who loves the place. They will probably buy the property eventually, but the lease payments do not meet the total cost of holding onto the house.
The saving factor here is that my daughter, with some help through therapy, has gotten onto her feet, and has gone back to work. She has a degree with high honors from the Universty of Maine in Orono...and her ENTRY salary despite being out of the workforce for seven years doing children...is not a lot less than her soon-to-be ex-husband's.
She is now living in her own condo, and divorce is pending.
This is a long rambling story, and the point of it all, is that the grass is always greener someplace else if you want it to be. My ex-son-in-law never made any attempt at self improvement, and never made any attempt at finding something else to do here in Maine, where his family was happy. Could he have found something as "good" as he found in Virginia? Probably not without more education, but he jumped for a third more money to a situation where for almost three times as much, he still couldn't duplicate the quality of life....the type of house, neightbor, community and so forth, that they had here.
And ultimately, the marriage came apart, and the family nearly destroyed.
And the unfortunate part was that the key to advancement for him...further education...was located about a hundred yards from where he worked, and his employer in Maine would have paid for it.
So, is there opportunity for advancement in Maine? Yes. Is it easy? Yes, if you work at it, and take advantage of the opportunity presented. If you sit on your ass and think that the world will give your something, or that you are owned something, you will find yourself searching elsewhere, and probably not finding it there, either.
I am surprised to hear that there a lot of people from Maine who do not like it here. I've said many times, and on this forum, that the one constant I see is that people born and raised here love it. Most of the people I know (my wife included) that have left to go to college out of state, return, regardless of income to work and raise a family here. It says a lot about a place! but I do counter that with most of the people that I have met who came here (usually with high expectation's, or little research) after a while find it is not what they thought it would be. There will always be instances where this is not the case but this is certainly my experience. Va was one of the best states I lived in. N va is basically DC now and home prices are outragous. But I always found the state to have it's own personality, very friendly people, great employment opportunities, and very well managed government. I am sure its probably different today but i still have many friends down there.
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