Cost of living vs. income - relocation advice.

[MeTheGirlie]

Hi everyone.

I'm currently located in NJ. While I love monmouth county where i live, I'm also interested in finding out other parts of the country and salary levels vs. available jobs.

DH works in the financial industry doing software sales - which "sales" he can do anywhere, but the pay is pretty high.

Since the cost of living is less "inland" as opposed to the East Coast, I'm wondering what types of jobs people have all over the country.

Approximations in salary ranges are acceptable (i.e. you don't have divulge how much you make - but I'd love to hear what people around-abouts can make in other parts of the country to figure out affordability of homes I look at).

For example, as a historical home buff, I see homes all the time that appear affordable but what can we do in those locations for a career?

Am I making sense?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Kanga]

I'll play. We live in central Iowa, so living expenses are very cheap compared to everywhere else. To give you an idea, gas is about $2.05/gallon right now. An updated 3br 1-2ba, move in condition house goes for about $140,000. By updated, I mean newer things in the last few years or so. Not necessarily granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, but no shag carpet either. I am not familiar with how much you can get salary wise in the financial industry, and I suppose it varies widly on your dh's experience and field of sales. A rough guess estimate would be between 35k and 50k a year to start out. Of course since he's in sales, he would probably get a base salary, then bonuses or comission. After he stays with the same company for a few years, his salary will most likely increase.

I recently saw an add in the paper needing a registered nurse for a hospital, and starting salary was 18/hr. Hope this helps. Also, if you get your search narrowed down some, you could always go on career builder or monster and search for jobs in your and dh's field.

[MeTheGirlie]

Thanks ChadandLiz.

Amazingly so, financial industry "hubs" are typically NY (where he is based), some in Chicago, etc. So Iowa, not sure if there **are** the types of companies he deals with, however, Software sales? That should be universal. It's all a matter of where you live I suppose.

But thanks for your input, it's greatly appreciated!

[k8lyn]

i don't know how helpful this will be without a job offer in hand, but go to bankrate.com. you can put in your city and the city you're thinking about moving to. then enter your current income. it will tell you how much your income is worth in the new city. make sense?

p.s. i started this hours ago and am just getting around to posting. if it's redundant, apologies!

[amew]

In general, don't think that the higher income levels on the coasts is enough to make up for the higher cost of living. In other words, I think many people make less in the middle of the country than they might on the East Coast, but not all that much less. I am an attorney working in Texas. I make about $10,000-15,000 a year less than my friends who work at large DC and NYC law firms. But I paid $200,000 less for my three-bedroom house than my best friend paid for her one-bedroom apartment in NYC, so I think I still come out ahead financially by living here. When I worked in Chicago, I made the same money I could have made in a big East Coast city, but then again, Chicago isn't all that cheap to live in either.

Prior to quitting his job to return to grad school full-time, my DH was a consultant. He traveled constantly, but made the same money based out of Texas as he made based out of DC and the Northeast. His friends in the business community seem to make about 5-10% a year less on average than they probably would on the coast. I have a couple friends who are teachers who recently moved here from California, and they complain that the pay is much lower here, but I don't know what the actual difference is.

[houseblend]

www.salary.com is a great site to check out, too. It will tell you the average salary for almost any job anywhere in the country. That way you can compare your city in New Jersey with any city you are considering moving to.

I'm not sure what you mean by "software sales" to the financial industry. Would he be looking for a new job? Or able to keep his job in a new location? The reason I ask is because there are a lot of cities that aren't as techie as the cities on the east coast you mentioned. It may be hard for him to find a new job in those cities.

[MeTheGirlie]

Yeah, that's actually the delimma as well (that is, IF we actually were going to make a move).

For example...he sells software to financial institutions - that they use for trading. His company makes trading software.

Therefore, he's got 2 arenas here. 1.) he used to be in the financial industry as a trader Pre 9/11. , which works for him because he's got the connections 2.) Software sales (or for that matter, sales) - which can pretty much be done anywhere.

So when thinking about relocating to any part of the country, I almost need to know what the "jig" is in that part of the country - for example, anyone can do sales that has a sales background, however, if it's milk bottle sales door to door, that's not gonna work, you know what I mean?

So, houseblend, you're very right. Many are not techie, so the software part of it wouldn't really apply if we were to move to an area of the country that has **NOTHING** to do with sales, then we'd be crap outta luck! LOL.

[laura]

I live in the Bay Area, so that isn't helpful. However, we've been hearing a lot about Austin, TX lately - lots of people, industry, technology relocating to that area. If you can take the heat, I think now is a great time to get into that market. I think you can get a nice 4BR/2.5BA house for ~$300K there.

Chicago is probably another good area - it's expensive IN the city, but there are a wide range of suburbs at varying prices. Also perhaps consider Seattle (?).

As others have said, I don't think this 'fishing expedition' is going to be very productive w/ specifics unless someone happens to post here w/ your husband's exact job, KWIM? I agree with whoever said that I don't think people on the coasts make *nearly* enough to cover atrocious costs of living, so I think any move to a lower cost of living area where your husband could get a job would be beneficial, but there are other things to consider, such as cost of relocating, etc. I would strongly recommend hitting monster.com to check on jobs in other areas - some will list salaries, and you can get a small idea from there. Maybe once you narrow your area, people here would be able to provide some additional insights.

[LeslieR]

i don't know how helpful this will be without a job offer in hand, but go to bankrate.com. you can put in your city and the city you're thinking about moving to. then enter your current income. it will tell you how much your income is worth in the new city. make sense?

p.s. i started this hours ago and am just getting around to posting. if it's redundant, apologies!

It took me a while to find this on the site, so I thought I'd post the exact link here in case anyone wants to check it out. Pretty cool!

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp