Am I Crazy For Considering Moving to Los Angeles?

so minimum triple of what you are making to maintain status quo is what the engineer is hearing.

 

Spoke with another dad of the kid’s kindergarten yesterday, they just moved here from the Bay Area.

he stays at home, wife is in healthcare admin and the are renting a fancy house off Augusta Rd (nice part of town)

he said, even with 2 good salaries, they were just getting by.

 

Can you define "good salaries"?

 

Bay Area is definitely not comparable to SD. Way more expensive than SD on average.

 

I havent lived there in 13years, but I would say double is a decent place to start. You may not even be able to own a home unless you go to the barrio or El Cajon....well they are kind of the same. When I think SD i think Mission Beach, PB, OB, Mission valley mid town, hillcrest, etc...maybe even as far east as La Mesa/lemon grove. Basically houses west of the 5 right near the 5 are going to be big $$$ like min 500k and up. You can find small houses in some decent areas for 350-500k but there aren many...assume buying a house in SD area is 500-1mil.
Add in all the other costs...state/local sales tax (assume its ~10%), income tax will be ~9-12%, other fees etc. Its easy to see you need doubl-ish pay to be OK. And that is if you already have 100-150k total.

Like I said it would take stupid money for me to move back, like 4-500k cause I aint living in an apartment with no spending money again.

 

$100K per year is not much in California. I would define a good salary as something in the 160-200 range. A buddy of mine lives in San Jose, making about 220 per year and rents a 1 BDR apartment.

Another thing to consider living in California is the cost of entertainment. Dinner for 2 with a couple glasses of wine is about $150. Its hard to find a glass of wine for less than $10 in a decent restaurant. Its kinda spendy.

 

dunno what a healthcare admin and university admin job throws off over there. He said they both had decent salaries so I assume 150’s

 

Inside my old paper route. I had from Ebers to the water and Pt. Loma to Orchard. About 70 papers. I think I made about a buck a paper per month. That sounds like a lot for 1973, but it was seven days a week and getting up at 0430. Good times.

I have no idea about hospitals, but Univ. Admins do not pull 150k unless they are program directors. That even goes for Stanford and USC. I know a lot of people getting by fine in the Bay area on 100k salaries. They rent (rent control) and have modest lifestyles. To each their own, but...
he wasn't talking SD or BA. The LA Basin is pretty different. Regardless, if you have a $300k takehome and you can't figure it out, you have issues.

 

I'm dumdbfounded. $1,000 to rent a room in SD.

I've one employee that pays $750 for a room in El Cajon and that's cheap.

I pay myself $50k/year.
I've no expenses but always borderline broke.

 

Oh cool, another emotional little cunt that can’t stay in his dungeon safe space. Where on the doll did the west coast dwellers touch your brittle private space?

 

I don’t agree, I don’t think a new person can come into the Bay Area only making 100k and live well at all, as in your example. If they’ve been here 20 or 30 years they could do ok.

I’m not researching it now, but I think I read a 2 bedroom apt in the city averages 4500 a month. I think a 2 bedroom in Orange County is probably 2200-2500.

I’ve never lived in rent control, but I believe the new guy coming in doesn’t benefit, instead he is hammered with a higher rent because the building potentially has a bunch of people under rent control, which limits how much the owner can afford to spend on fixing up the place.

Mu brother in law benefits, he is in a big 3 bedroom flat in San Francisco and has been there for at least 20 years. I think his rent for the flat is around 2500-3000 a month and he rents a room out to people to lower his portion. He told me the place should be about 7500 a month. It has old carpet, old windows, super plain,etc, but because of rent control the investors won’t put any money into the place, and he won’t force it because he knows it is a good deal.

The city is ridiculous to afford housing, I believe it’s worse than NYC. Heck my son is renting on the 15th floor with a view of the Empire State building from his bedroom and views all over the city and its $7600 divided by 4 guys with 4 rooms (one room carved out of the big living room) and totally remodeled, new appliances, with a doorman, rooftop pool and party area, etc.

 

I remember a friend paying that amount in SF for a studio about that time, but he had parking. I was living in a 2bath 2 br condo in the central valley for $800 at the time.

 

I was just commenting that I know a number of people who get by fine. One is my sister-in-law. I'm sure others may have much higher scruples.
However, since Razr is talking LA, maybe we should stick to that.

 

That’s fine and I’m just saying it’s a bad example comparing people who have been here for 30 to 50 years with a new person coming in.

 

A joke, get over it. I even have relatives there. To each their own I hope you like it there and stay. If he goes there I hope he does well. I am betting you never joked about another region of the country.....

Oh and yes I have no desire to live there but have been there multiple times including as far back as '68.

 

Hey @Razr do you have an update? How is it so far?

 

It might take a while for him to reply. He's stuck in Socal traffic.

 

You don't necessarily need to run crews. You surely have a lot of valuable knowledge and contacts. Often times if you can figure out how to leverage that for other businesses it's worth more money than your actual business.

Hahaha, I think I qualify as a native speaker of corporate by now. I'm also conversant in Academia, after grad school I will become completely insufferable.

Our job is to manage and analyze data to find new money and cost savings for the business, as well as build reporting and analysis tools for internal departments. I say data analysis but we probably only spend 5% of our time actually analyzing data, it's mostly a matter of sorting out messes, understanding business processes and fighting political battles.

My eyes have really been opened to the entrepreneurial potential for data products and services. What some organizations pay big money for is just hilarious. A lot of these big companies purporting to have marketing and other insights are selling utter dogshit, but convincing their customers they have something special.

I'm down to grab a beer, hit me up.

 

I'm still in Indy. With the decent weather this winter, I got super busy with work, working on jobs I had scheduled for spring.
I have been in contact with them, we have a phone call tomorrow.

I'm still on the fence, it's just a huge move. My daughter is finishing her freshman year of college here, and there's a 2-3 year wait to get into any nursing school in the LA area. I can't put her life on hold. I made the comment to my wife about having dual residencies, her and the daughter stay here, me there. That idea didn't go over well originally, but she has opened up about it. I could fly home once a month.

So, this is my latest idea......me moving out there to work for the next 5-8 years, wife and kid back at home in Indy. Wife keeps her job (teacher), kid stays in college in Indy. I would rent (possibly buy) a home in the LA area, small enough to not kill my budget, but big enough that all 3 of us can live in during the summer, weekends, off times in Indy. I would fly home, or they would fly out and stay with me.

I know there are pros and cons to both ideas, but if I can go out there for a few years, bank 100-150k a year, retire in 8 years with a nice chunk of change.

 

That sounds like a fantastic idea!!! I’m actually shocked the wait is that long to get into nursing school here? Was that a normal college or some special nursing only school?

When we looked at 4 year colleges for my daughter back in 2013, she was accepted at a few public California colleges, but they were so impacted it would take 6 years to get her 4 year degree. Weirdly they don’t have enough open spots to arrange a schedule within the 4 year window, plus they suck full tuition out of you for 6 years that way?

I don’t actually understand it because every other single freaking college in United States seems to be able to handle a 4 year program? Anyway she went to TCU and did it in 4 years.

The offer is still there if you need a place to crash for awhile while you figure it all out. Coming out here for the summers will be awesome for your family...... only thing better will be the month off over Christmas should be spent out here where it is 50° warmer. Lololol