Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 12-06-2008, 12:47 PM
 
Location: Baltimore
1,346 posts, read 4,215,320 times
Reputation: 667

Advertisements

I'm going to be testing with the San Francisco Fire Department soon. They start at $70k/year. How easy is it to live on this in San Francisco or somewhere else in the Bay Area?

From what I hear, many say that the COL is too high unless you have some high paying tech job or something. I'm guessing it can't be as bad as some are making it out to be.

I'm ranked 48 of 4000 on Milwaukee FD list and top 100 on the Washington DC list. I should be getting offers from both soon, but wanted to give SFFD a shot since it is a very good department. Milwaukee is a cheaper city, but starting pay is only $36k. DC is about the same as SF, and starting pay is $44k. If people can do it there, I'm guessing $70k shouldn't be too bad in SF. Especially after getting raises. Thanks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 12-06-2008, 01:20 PM
 
Location: Northern California
3,722 posts, read 14,725,748 times
Reputation: 1962
Meet your new fire chief Sfgov.org | San Francisco Fire Department: Chief of Department >> Chief Joanne Hayes-White (http://www.sfgov.org/site/sffd_page.asp?id=57063 - broken link).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2008, 01:37 PM
 
Location: Alaska & Florida
1,629 posts, read 5,383,389 times
Reputation: 837
$70 K a year will be fine to support yourself. If you have a family and you are the only person with an income, it will be a lot more difficult, but $70 K will support you and I'm sure you will love working and living in San Francisco. Enjoy!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2008, 01:44 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,156,794 times
Reputation: 3631
Try $40K. That's my budget for supporting myself and my partner. The better your credit, the easier it is, because you'll get priority for housing and it'll be easier to get financing at favorable rates. Costco is your best friend (there is no Wal-Mart convenient to San Francisco). Do bring your car but only if you know you'll have parking. If you have two or more, sell them until you have one.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2008, 01:55 PM
 
1,632 posts, read 6,844,534 times
Reputation: 705
City employees in SF are notorious for overtime. You might actually make more like $200,000.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ffknight918 View Post
I'm going to be testing with the San Francisco Fire Department soon. They start at $70k/year. How easy is it to live on this in San Francisco or somewhere else in the Bay Area?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2008, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Baltimore
1,346 posts, read 4,215,320 times
Reputation: 667
Thanks for the info everyone. Great to hear all of this. I'll be in town Tuesday for the first time ever. I'm more than excited. From what I know about the city, it seems to be the right fit for me.

Michael... Thanks for the tipoff about the OT. haha
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2008, 03:14 PM
 
Location: SE Missouri
166 posts, read 490,076 times
Reputation: 114
Don't expect to own a home for awhile there, if ever, but you can definitely live off of 70K, and as mentioned you can almost definitely count on OT in working for SF city.

The firefighters and police officers I knew out there made a very nice living. Hope it works out for ya! The Bay Area is a great place to live, if one can afford, and you'll be able to do that with your career for sure.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-07-2008, 07:51 AM
 
455 posts, read 1,114,841 times
Reputation: 422
Don't take the Milwaukee job for that low pay. Plus, risking your life for $40,000+ in DC isn't good either.

The $70,000 in San Fran would seem like the best option. Nice weather there too.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-07-2008, 01:41 PM
 
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,313,597 times
Reputation: 6471
SF used to have a residence requirement for firefighters. Does it still apply? We've got quite a few big city FF's that live in our area that make the commute.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:10 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top