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I was recently offered a job in Cary earning 50k. From the research I've done, I'm concerned that's not enough to support a family of four. Do you think my worries are well-founded? We'd want to live in a 3br house or townhome where there are good schools for our kids. Thank you for your input.
IMO, No. Not if that's the only income-unless you could find cheap housing-and I don't think housing is that inexpensive. Although I guess it depends on your expenses-bills, cars, etc. IF you'd be taking a paycut thinking the cost of living is less here, it really isnt. Some housing is less, but I'm finding everything else as expensive or more than the large midwestern city I moved from. We decided it would be worth the income loss to live here, but I know as a family of 5, we couldnt live on 50K here (and we're NOT in Cary-where housing is more)
No it's not. Once you go out to dinner 3 or 4 times a week, put gas in the Lambo for the daily commute, and buy the latest spring fashions, 50K doesn't come close to cutting it. I need 4 times that amount to support my family of 4. Oh. . . . plus. . . there's the dog also.
The single largest variable in costs will be real estate related.
Small offsetting variances aside... all the other stuff is pretty much the same everywhere.
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As to the question of how much is enough anywhere...
anything less than $60,000 has your family of 4 in statistical poverty.
Before my husband was promoted 2 years ago we lived on that with 4 children. We had no debt, though. It was very tight. We bought our clothes primarily from Goodwill. Both of our cars are worth less than 5k. We did have good health insurance and life insurance and were able to save a few hundred dollars a month. I cooked everything from scratch (still do) and we never went to restaurants. Entertainment was Monopoly with the kids or potluck dinners with friends.
However, we shop mostly local and organic. I am very picky about buying high quality food. My friend supporting the same size family would spend less than $500 on groceries, when I was spending $1000.
With two fewer mouths to feed, I bet it wouldn't be too hard. The two kids cost us an extra $300/mo. for health insurance, probably about the same in food, and we needed a 4br house because of our family dynamics.
If this is a career opportunity with the potential to move up, I would go for it knowing it'll be a little tight at first.
I wouldn't rely on the naysayers or yaysayers on this one, but I would lean towards the Nay. Housing in Cary is expensive - over=priced. I live in Johnston where rent/housing prices are reasonable. Cary is priced to exclude the "riff-raff" (my opinion)
If you have no debt you can live just fine on $50,000 a year in this area.
$14,400 a year in rent - $1,200 month for a nice 3 bedroom house
$2,580 utilities - average of $258 a month
That still leaves you with over $30,000 a year. Even if you had to pay something like $5,000 in tax you would still have over $25,000 a year for food and fun. That's over $2,000 a month to live on.
You can make it work if you want to. No you can't come here with that income and family size and eat out 3-4 times a week. But if you have relatively low debt and are willing to make a few sacrifices to be here, you will be fine.
Cary is priced to exclude the "riff-raff" (my opinion)
No comment.
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