The thing about affordable cities is though, like anywhere else, its a personality thing. If you can tolerate living there then its great, however if that area isn't for you, not so great. Wrigelyville is awesome, but it'll cost you. Great for when your single and don't have a family, however if you have one or two it becomes crazy expensive and too loud. My older brother lives near Grand Rapids, Michigan, its boring as fuck but he's boring as fuck so it works. Me though, I couldn't do it. I'd go insane. Like anything else, where you live is all preference and give and take.
I'm paying around $3200 for a 1300 sq. ft. two-bedroom in Clarendon. Housing prices here are fucking nuts, but not nearly as bad as Manhattan.
I'd much rather live in a place with more genuine people and have an extremely cheap cost of living. I met a few of his friends when I went to visit a while back and I didn't witness a single genuine interaction among them. Its like they live in a world of bullshit and human interaction is based on opportunity. If they can't get something out of you, they want nothing to do with you. That could just be him and his friends though. He works as a recruiter for a major company. So people are always trying to suck his dick.
The only thing was we had a set up going in, in that we had everything we needed to furnish our house (including TV and appliances), my car (which was paid off, so only 1 car payment), and we were paying only slightly above the minimum on her student loans. I also spent a solid hour a week working on our house budget to make sure we could do everything we wanted too. Our financial situation is drastically different now, though. Wife is part time, and I work 50 hours a week, and we make about 15K a year less than we did when she worked full time. On top of that, we have a kid. We were able to get the wife's loans paid off with a trust left by her grandfather, but between the lower salary and the kid, nice vacations are a thing of the past, as are new cars, dinners out, or buying anything we want. Almost all of that is a side effect of having a kid. Long as 'Sack doesn't knock some dumb chick up, he'll be fine.
Damn you could have a cult-like compound in metro Atlanta for $3200 a month. The cost of living adjustments can't cover the majority of that. You must have several roommates.
It's fun for weeks, months, sometimes years to retire. Yet it's a fact that the majority of the population never fully does. Those that can afford the luxury of early retirement are good at their jobs, and I find it rare that you can be good at something without liking it in some form. If you dedicate your life to something career wise, there has to be something you love about it- whether it be money, prestige, etc. Whatever your industry- For the majority of us, work is part of our DNA.
I feel the majority of people never really retire because of two things: 1. Work is their life. They are boring people, they have no hobbies. Just work. Thus when they retire they do not know what the fuck to do with their free time. 2. Money. If you don't have it or run out then you have to go back to work. I'm trying to set myself up so that both of those things are true. And if I ever go back to work after I retire it will be working on the mountain or on the golf course for somewhere around minimum wage. My biggest stress would be telling the drunkards to pick up their pace of play. Ahhhhh the life.
I just looked at my credit card to get to the bottom of it, and think I have some clues. I'll stop my boo hooing now, I certainly enjoy my life. One person's country club membership is another's nice dinners, sport tickets, nights out, travel, etc. on another note, I could probably budget a bit better.
Work was in my grandpa's and dad's DNA. My brother who doesn't have their work ethic does like his job and he's insanely good at it so he works all the time. I fucking hate work and would live off 50k here in the midwest if it meant low stress and plenty of vacations. I never got the whole, got to get a new car and have years of car payments, thing either. I still drive my first car and paid it off in full when I bought it used. I honestly can never see myself buying new. I think a lot of people are suckered in by the safety of buying a new car. They don't know dick about fixing them and want the comfort of dealership guarantees, even if it means getting hosed. Or they think they "deserve" something new because they graduated college and found their first 35k a year gig (car manufactures market the shit out of this concept). l don't know dick about fixing cars outside of the very very basics but I'd take a Toyota that will last for fucking ever over something new that cost 1500 dollars ever time you take it in (see: my mom's Mini).
Nothing says "I fucking suck with money" like a guy driving a Corvette while living in an efficiency apartment. I do not get 30k millionaires. The fucking holes they dig themselves into.
The Mrsanthropic and I live in NJ, but we both have very good jobs - together we clear 200G/yr. This doesn't go as far as it should in NJ, but we essentially have our Missanthropic's college paid for, we could pay off the mortgage tomorrow if we wanted to, and either of us has to seriously worry about losing our jobs. But we got here by working our asses off, both getting postgraduate degrees, and buying way less house and car than we can afford. I have no expensive hobbies, and my wife is bashful if she buys any clothes that cost more than $25. Our biggest expense is probably my liquor bill. Be smart with your $, and work your ass off.
Oh, you know the breed. The guys who go out and spend money like hedge fund managers in the VIP and meanwhile they work in a cellphone kiosk. Then the reason they say they're in debt is because they're not getting paid enough.
I'd take 75k all day long, when the wife gets a job in December we will clear 78k a year which will lead to much lower stress levels, I am pretty good with money and I am just lucky that her student loan debt is less than 10k. I don't know how people get by with 100k in student loan debt, nevermind the fact that it boggles my fucking mind why they would even take that much out for school in the first place.
My partner and I (together 12 years not married for the win) together make about 3x the average household income for my part of the world and have no kids or pets. Baring some kind of fuckup we could be debt free with a net income of $40k+/- (property investments) (not including superannuation) before getting outa bed in about 10 years. The wench who’s a pharmacist could add $25-$30k to this doing locum work 2-3 days a week, keeping me in the manner to which I’ve become accustomed. Will be tempting to take the slow road at 45, but I really can’t see it happening.
I woke up with the song 'Copacabana' going through my head. Either today is going to be exceedingly weird, or my tenuous grip on sanity is slipping.
Sign me up, too. I don't know what kind of lifestyle you intend on living and whether or not 75K is doable or not for 75K, but I am pretty sure that there is no way to practice law 20 hours a week and make 75K a year. If you can figure out how to do that once you subtract your overhead and staff salaries and still net 75K a year, call me. I'll move to fucking Nebraska and partner up with you.
I had a dream that a patient died on the first day of my next internship. People have died before, but it was never with me in the room. Hope it isn't a sign of things to come. That sucked.