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I'd like to end up either back in Vermont, but it will be better financially to live on the New York side of the VT/upstate NY side of the border, because the Mr. pension won't be taxed (NY state employee) if we stay in NY. If I kick off first, he'll end up going down south somewhere, or wherever the kids end up. While if I don't really care where I am as long as there is a proper winter, mountains, a chicken coop, a place to park a VW bus, and a few decent, unpretentious vegetarian restaurants.
Yeah, there are pros and cons to both. My dad just sold his house and is now renting an apartment. I works for him because his house was too big and he was spending too much money on it. He managed to get into an apartment complex that is for seniors on a fixed income and is rent controlled. He really was able to slash his expenses which worked out good for him.
Bottom line is that people got to do what fits and works the best. There are definitely advantages to renting for sure. The thing is is that you have to pay to live, no matter how you slice it, rent or mortgage you're still paying at the end of the day. if you can manage to sock a few bucks away hell, you're doing good. I saw some thread over in the POC forum talking about some article stating how 70 percent of people (I think it was) have less than a 1000 bucks in the bank. That would terrify the hell out of me to be that close to losing everything if something major happens. I mean you could be literally out on the streets if some major event happens in your life and you have no one to fall back on.
That's frightening, the thought of having such little emergency funds, but I can definitely see how people get to that point even when they are trying to be wise with money; sometimes all it takes is one moderate setback and the time it takes to rebound. We've been through it a couple of times, and the only reason it wasnt financially devistating is because renting allows us to live below our means. But if we lived somewhere else, owning would have been much more adventageous.
That's frightening, the thought of having such little emergency funds, but I can definitely see how people get to that point even when they are trying to be wise with money; sometimes all it takes is one moderate setback and the time it takes to rebound. We've been through it a couple of times, and the only reason it wasnt financially devistating is because renting allows us to live below our means. But if we lived somewhere else, owning would have been much more adventageous.
I think living below your means is the way to go. We've done that for a long time now. Back when I had a job I made pretty decent money and I had a company vehicle, that and Mrs. Chow working from home allowed us to have older paid off cars. I really think that helped out in a lot of ways. We also don't buy stuff unless we really need it. We do have a few luxuries but they really are worth it. We've tried to scale down and get rid of anything we don't need. We ****canned our phone landline a couple of years ago. We both just have cell phones now. I have a pay as you use service phone now(Ting) and only spend about 24 bucks a month for it. We have the cheapest cable package we could get. We do have Netflix and have some music services but they are really cheap and well worth the money considering that we stream music practically all day long. We don't have kids, lol, kids are a major overhead expense. But overall we're pretty thrifty for the most part.
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Originally Posted by SD4020
Some of the steps I've taken in the last couple of years I wish I would have started doing 15 years ago. It's better now than it has been.
Yep, I wasn't really a saver til I turned 28 or so. Before that I blew every dime I ever got. To me my income tax check just meant more money to blow. Now every year I bank that money and like I was saying up thread is that we never impulse buy anything, it's always thought out and researched ahead of time. Just stuff like that is how you do it. We used to try and cut coupons but said screw it, wasn't really worth the time and effort. You can be cheap and scrimp and all but at some point you have to draw the line and for us that was clipping coupons. I hear you can save a boat load of money if you play your cards right.
I keep looking at real estate in New Mexico and used to also look in AZ but it's too damn hot there. I keep seeing how cheap the real estate is in other parts of the country. I too wanna live in the desert. NM would be a good choice because it doesn't get quite as stinking hot and they get four seasons and some snow. A little snow would be nice, as in it snows and in a day or two it's melted and gone.
Here you got really expensive real estate, high taxes, bad schools, the worst traffic in the nation, a completely ineptly run state. This state is turning into a have and have not's. The middle class shrinking phenomenon is really evident here. The politics of this place is far far too left leaning for my tastes. I'm a middle of the road guy politically speaking and the far left loons have taken too strong of a hold here. The unbelievable crowding here would blow people's minds. You could start off in downtown LA and drive just about any direction for 90 miles and you'd still be in sprawl. Especially if you go east, not as much in the north direction but you get my point. Everywhere you go, crowds, everywhere you turn no open spaces. We do have a lot of fun stuff and activities here I'll say that much.
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Originally Posted by Chowhound
Santa Fe would be on the must visit list. It's a little "hippy dippy" there though, but small doses of that is cool with me.
We went and looked at Vegas years ago to possibly relocate to. IDK, wasn't for me. It's too damn hot. Just like Phoenix. Phoenix to me was a let down too, we looked extensively there to relocate but it felt like LA with all of the urban sprawl only with much worse weather.
The southwest in general is where I wanna stay. Mrs. Chow is down with the native American thing. I am too. I've heard that the native population in NM is pretty high and that they are actually sorta rude to white people. I haven't seen it myself but I've seen more than a couple of threads about that in the NM forum. Who knows. We have to plan a trip out there to get a lay of the land, you can only do so much with google street view.
The middle class shrinking in California is disheartening. I think if I became wealthy, I'd still be middle class in spirit/values/thinking.
Tuscon is cooler than Phoenix. It's definitely worth considering.
The ABQ area weather is good. ABQ doesn't have much in the way of suburbs but country-like areas aren't far. Also, in ABQ is a lot of government and less private industry compared to other areas, even of a similar size.
The sprawl in Phoenix can't be anything like LA. Depending where you work, you can live towards the edge of the city boundaries or if you work away from downtown Phoenix, commute to one of the outskirt areas like Mesa or Tempe. Maybe actually work in Mesa or Tempe.
I know Vegas and Phoenix are hot areas, though the dry heat never bothered me. I'll take a summer that scorches the hair off my head in exchange for sunshine and nice weather in the other seasons. Humidity is much worse, for me anyway.
IMO, if you are comparing the southwest to very large metro areas like LA and NY, the grass is greener on the other side.
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Originally Posted by ylisa7
I hear you about wanting a simper life. My DH and I are both from Long Island, NY. The best thing we did was leave there 20 years ago. When we hear from my husband's siblings their lives sound like they are the hamster on the wheel. Sure they make a lot of money but their property taxes are about $15,000 a year….and that is just the start of all their expenses…and yes stress.
My DH and I are very lucky. We lived in NC for awhile on a farm and had a roller skating rink. Then we sold, move to Florida and starting flipping houses. Sold our last one(at the time) and bought a big motorhome and traveled the country for 3 1/2 years. Talk about a simpler life. It was great. No extra stuff at all
I never met anyone who left L.I. and regretted it. Now that I think of it, there was one person who moved to Texas and moved back to L.I., but that was really long ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms.Mathlete
I'd like to end up either back in Vermont, but it will be better financially to live on the New York side of the VT/upstate NY side of the border, because the Mr. pension won't be taxed (NY state employee) if we stay in NY. If I kick off first, he'll end up going down south somewhere, or wherever the kids end up. While if I don't really care where I am as long as there is a proper winter, mountains, a chicken coop, a place to park a VW bus, and a few decent, unpretentious vegetarian restaurants.
VT taxes are high. Perhaps higher than NY. NH is the opposite, if I'm not mistaken.
After my divorce and paying off all that bs I had extra money. I paid cash on a better car and pickup. Finally getting the one I wanted and still stashing money away. I buy toys and things I like, and I don't always go the cheap route. I view those things as investments. Tools, computer, camera etc. I buy what I want and like. I may wait before purchasing. But I careful about what I go in to debt on.
The middle class shrinking in California is disheartening. I think if I became wealthy, I'd still be middle class in spirit/values/thinking.
Tuscon is cooler than Phoenix. It's definitely worth considering.
The ABQ area weather is good. ABQ doesn't have much in the way of suburbs but country-like areas aren't far. Also, in ABQ is a lot of government and less private industry compared to other areas, even of a similar size.
The sprawl in Phoenix can't be anything like LA. Depending where you work, you can live towards the edge of the city boundaries or if you work away from downtown Phoenix, commute to one of the outskirt areas like Mesa or Tempe. Maybe actually work in Mesa or Tempe.
I know Vegas and Phoenix are hot areas, though the dry heat never bothered me. I'll take a summer that scorches the hair off my head in exchange for sunshine and nice weather in the other seasons. Humidity is much worse, for me anyway.
IMO, if you are comparing the southwest to very large metro areas like LA and NY, the grass is greener on the other side.
The sprawling in Phoenix granted isn't as bad as LA but it's pretty damn bad. I had given Tucson a once over and decided that it's still too hot, but yeah, it's definitely cooler than Phoenix. I definitely like the dry heat. The last few years here in So Cal we've been having humid summers and it sucks, it's killing me and I do know that our humidity here is nothing comparing to the rest of the country but when you're not used to it, man it kills you. LOL. In terms of large metro's, I'm done with LA, I'm sorta zeroing in on the ABQ metro as the last I looked it was about a million people and that's plenty enough for me. The LA metro area is around 9 or 10 million the last I looked. Too damn many people here. I hate LA, I hate the culture, I hate the hipster vibe and vapid pretentiousness of it all. LOL... I'm a Ca native too. LOL.
Every time I'm in another state like AZ or NV or anywhere that isn't here I feel more at home, it's really hard to quantify exactly why that is the case but it has been that way for some years now.
Chow, LA sounds like hell. I have decided I will never live east of the Missouri River. If there comes a day we decide to move, we will head west. However, I'd be perfectly happy to stay here. It suits me.
Chow, LA sounds like hell. I have decided I will never live east of the Missouri River. If there comes a day we decide to move, we will head west. However, I'd be perfectly happy to stay here. It suits me.
That movie from back in the 90's Thunderheart is set in your neck of the woods and the scenery looks awesome. I mentioned that to you before. Then I read about your guys' winters and I said F that noise. LOL..... I ain't going there. I'm a spoiled weather wimp. I keep talking about NM but I hear the winters can get pretty chilly. I guess no matter where we go we'll have to adapt as we're used to the milder weather here.
We let the bunny run free all day. Just now she was running around and being a terror and Mrs. Chow leaned over and said to her "Don't lick the pole, bunny." She's always licking and chewing on something.
"Phrases you don't necessarily wanna hear, for a thousand, Alex."
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That would terrify the hell out of me to be that close to losing everything if something major happens. I mean you could be literally out on the streets if some major event happens in your life and you have no one to fall back on.
But overall we're pretty thrifty for the most part. 
