26, Young-Professional Considering Moving From New York to San Diego.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Sampaguita

If you're prepared for a completely different lifestlye, then, yes - look into San Diego - but it is vastly different from NYC on all levels. The night life in SD is of no comparison to New York nor are the restaurants. I also would not recommend PB for you for the reasons that happykid outlined. I'd probably consider downtown SD/Little Italy before anything else. San Diego has its own charms but if you're looking for a NYC with warm weather, SD isn't it.

My cousin's fiance wants to relocate here; he is an investment banker making 6 figures in NYC but in his research, doesn't see how he can be in the same line at the same salary here in SD.

+1. This is exactly correct. I don't even think you can compare San Diego and New York City. Two entirely different types of city.

But definitely I understand the reasons why the OP would want to live in San Diego. It's wonderful and the weather is great. I couldn't handle a NYC winter. NYC is a great, world class city and I love going there for vacations or even for work/meetings I've been there many many times. But I'd never want to live there.

San Diego and NYC have two totally different qualities of life.

As far as the investment banking/financial institution field they are also night and day in the vibes and environments. Many of my friends and clients are in that industry and live/work in NYC and they live/breath/eat work. San Diego is completely different and there aren't too many jobs in that arena compared to NYC.

It sounds like you might be fortunate enough to get transferred by a larger company/institution. That's the ideal scenario, IMHO. But I'm not sure how much it will bode for your future professional growth. Being in NYC in the financial industry is like the epicenter and SD isn't anything comparable but I think the quality of life here in SD vs. NYC is head and shoulders better.

As far as areas, I'd agree with some of the other posts. Personally if you can afford it, I think you'd LOVE La Jolla or Del Mar. Maybe some other areas but I guess it depends where you will be working.

Do you know where you will be working yet? Are you getting transferred down by your current employer? As Sampaguita mentioned, LOTS of people want to work here so firms don't have to pay anywhere near what they pay in NYC.


You will love San Diego. Good luck.

[oddstray]

The OP was in 2008. I think s/he's either moved by now, or not.

[earlyretirement]

Ah man..I didn't even notice the date. LOL. Zombie posts can suck...

But the good lesson probably is that this guy probably never even moved to SD. Probably figured out the job market was horrible and he couldn't make a fraction of what he made in NYC or couldn't find a job...

[tonyinsd]

The job market, especially in finance, probably wasn't much better in New York either.

Imagine going from being a $300K a year guy at Lehman to unemployed in a weekend and all of it for reasons that you had nothing to do with.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by tonyinsd

The job market, especially in finance, probably wasn't much better in New York either.

Imagine going from being a $300K a year guy at Lehman to unemployed in a weekend and all of it for reasons that you had nothing to do with.

ABSOLUTELY Tony. You're spot on target. I didn't notice when the original post was. I thought it was recent.

Back a few years ago during the crises, people were losing their jobs left and right! In late 2008 / early 2009 if you were in the financial sector it felt like the world was coming to an end.

I work partly in that sector and many many of my clients/friends work on Wall Street. Many of my clients are Principles/Partners at the big Wall Street firms. ALL of them took huge pay cuts and big cuts to perks back then.

Many little guys like this guy that was posting making $120,000 totally got cut and many got out of the industry completely.

I personally knew 5 guys that got almost wiped out at Lehman. You'd figure these so called "financial geniuses" would know what diversification meant but many had most of their net worth in LEH stock. You'd be surprised how many executives from LEH went bankrupt after it imploded.