Advice for Mom Needing Affordable Boston Suburb (Brockton, Newton: affordable apartments, condominiums)

[chicagoliz]

Just curious -- you say you're new to New England, living in NH, yet you're already looking to move again. That seems like a lot of moving for someone with school aged children. What is it that you're looking for?

(BTW: It sounds like what you really want is Brookline or Newton, but they're way out of your price range.)

What brought you to NH? What makes you want to leave? I know it's not my business, but if you have young kids, you need to pick a place and stick with it unless there is some very compelling reason for a move. Moving a lot is not good for them.

[Bigmover878]

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

Just curious -- you say you're new to New England, living in NH, yet you're already looking to move again. That seems like a lot of moving for someone with school aged children. What is it that you're looking for?

(BTW: It sounds like what you really want is Brookline or Newton, but they're way out of your price range.)

What brought you to NH? What makes you want to leave? I know it's not my business, but if you have young kids, you need to pick a place and stick with it unless there is some very compelling reason for a move. Moving a lot is not good for them.

We just want a bigger city to reside in. We live in a small town and there's not much for employment opportunities. Plus we're used to big city amenities. We live with family, who moved up here recently, but they are moving within a year and we have to get our own place. I visited Boston 3 times with the kids and we loved it. Also, the pay for my profession is higher than in NH , hence the reason for wanting to move to Boston. It's not realistic to stay put because there are no job oppotunities for me.

I've seen on other forums that Brookline and Newton would fit our preferences too! But again the cost factor

It's unclear whether the pay increases yearly, as my previous school district, so that's why I listed that income estimate. It seems improbable that with my income and no debt, and just living expenses we couldn't afford a town like Brookline or Newton or Arlington. Just to be clear, a monthly salary of 7,200 is not doable in ANY of the Boston Suburbs??

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Bigmover878

We just want a bigger city to reside in. We live in a small town and there's not much for employment opportunities. Plus we're used to big city amenities. We live with family, who moved up here recently, but they are moving within a year and we have to get our own place. I visited Boston 3 times with the kids and we loved it. Also, the pay for my profession is higher than in NH , hence the reason for wanting to move to Boston. It's not realistic to stay put because there are no job oppotunities for me.

I've seen on other forums that Brookline and Newton would fit our preferences too! But again the cost factor

It's unclear whether the pay increases yearly, as my previous school district, so that's why I listed that income estimate. It seems improbable that with my income and no debt, and just living expenses we couldn't afford a town like Brookline or Newton or Arlington. Just to be clear, a monthly salary of 7,200 is not doable in ANY of the Boston Suburbs??

No because that's not your take home pay. If it were your take home pay you could make it work.

[Bigmover878]

Ok so taking out for, say insurance, income tax, etc take home pay is around 6650 plus 1,000 in child support, it's still not doable?

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Bigmover878

Ok so taking out for, say insurance, income tax, etc take home pay is around 6650 plus 1,000 in child support, it's still not doable?

Only 550 out of 7200 goes to tax and insurance? That is a bit, um, optimistic, isn't it? I generally estimate 1/3 or 2/5s being taken out...

You said earlier you thought 72,000 would be the salary, which is 6k a month... though that's higher than the few librarians I know, so are you really thinking your salary would be $86,400ish?

[MrLinderman]

Originally Posted by Bigmover878

Ok so taking out for, say insurance, income tax, etc take home pay is around 6650 plus 1,000 in child support, it's still not doable?

Listen, your numbers are all over the place. Let's work with a 72k yearly gross salary. Obviously teachers' pay structures can be different, but 72k works out to 6000 a month gross, not 6650.

6000 gross, with 3 exemptions leaves you with 4438 before any health or retirement or other deductions. Those will eat up a ton most likely.

It's going to be very, very tough to pull off. My wife and I gross about twice as much as that, live in one of the "ehh" burbs of Boston, and even then sometimes it can be difficult. Metro Boston is insanely expensive.

[bohemka]

I'm in the small camp that thinks you could probably make this work financially as long as you're fine with not saving anything.

The larger problem is that you want to live in a suburb but teach in Boston, with your kids attending the school at which you'll be teaching. It doesn't really work like that unless you're talking about a private school system. In the public system, your kids would attend schools in the town in which you reside. This gets immediately tricky if you are commuting to Boston for work as a single parent.

[Bigmover878]

Oh wow! Good grief....and with a 2 person income??

unless what I've seen on districts website is wrong, I will be paid on a ten month salary. As I was before. I just took out taxes and insurance, union fees, etc to get to that number.

I guess I'm having sticker shock! I'm originally from the south and with this income, I'd be living very well. I do know wherever we move I want to stay long term, 15 years or more. I just wanted to see if it's doable or if I should stay in southern NH but live in Concord or Nashua or Manchester.

The quality of life is so much better up here, and the schools are light years ahead of where we came so we are staying put! Thanks to everyone who responded. I think we might be better off in southern NH. I've got until May to figure this out and the advice is greatly appreciated ya'll

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Bigmover878

Oh wow! Good grief....and with a 2 person income??

unless what I've seen on districts website is wrong, I will be paid on a ten month salary. As I was before. I just took out taxes and insurance, union fees, etc to get to that number.

I guess I'm having sticker shock! I'm originally from the south and with this income, I'd be living very well. I do know wherever we move I want to stay long term, 15 years or more. I just wanted to see if it's doable or if I should stay in southern NH but live in Concord or Nashua or Manchester.

The quality of life is so much better up here, and the schools are light years ahead of where we came so we are staying put! Thanks to everyone who responded. I think we might be better off in southern NH. I've got until May to figure this out and the advice is greatly appreciated ya'll

I'm in a similar position to MrLinderman. Everything he said is 100% true. Most of us only put up with it because we have a compelling reason to.

Honestly if I were you I would move back to the South. I would never tell anyone in your position to move to the Northeast. I've lived in NYC or MA my entire life so I'm used to putting up with the cost of living here but it gets worse every year. If my wife ever got a decent job offer in a cheaper part of the country we'd probably pack our bags and get the hell out of here. This is a great place to live if you can afford it but a really crappy place to live if you can't.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Honestly if I were you I would move back to the South. I would never tell anyone in your position to move to the Northeast. I've lived in NYC or MA my entire life so I'm used to putting up with the cost of living here but it gets worse every year. If my wife ever got a decent job offer in a cheaper part of the country we'd probably pack our bags and get the hell out of here. This is a great place to live if you can afford it but a really crappy place to live if you can't.

If I had kids there is no way I'd live down south. The few people I know that did so all have had to put their kids in private schools which eat a good chunk of the savings they hoped for as the schools were that horrific in GA, NC, FL, etc. And even then they say the private schools aren't as good as our general public schools so extra tutoring is needed.