Say you have person A and B
Person A makes 100k/yr doing software development
Person B makes 70k/yr doings software development
On paper most people would assume person A makes more than person B.
What you don't hear is how person A pays 3,000/mo in rent and person B pays 600/mo in rent for a comparable place/sized apartment in a generally cheaper city.
... People do all the time. A $300k job in San Francisco is like $150k in any MidWest state.
That's like asking why the government doesn't consider taxes when applying for benefits.
Because people are dumb
I moved to a rural area from the city, and I got so much backlash its not even funny.
"But user! There are no jobs out there!"
Well, I did get a job, and it pays 5K/year less than what I got before but my cost of living is around half what it was before, so my net earnings are 35% higher.
People are fucking stupid when it comes to money and finances, thats why average credit card debt is 16K.
The sooner you understand how useless everyone is, the easier life will be.
Even if the stuff is like that. If on average people spend 80% of their income, they will in San Francisco and in MidWest.
In San Francisco a 20% is $60k/year and in MidWest it will be $30k/year.
A vacation to Hawaii doesn't costs half if you're from MidWest. A Lambo doesn't costs half if you're from MidWest, maybe you'll afford it someday but in SF you'll faster.
Still, the argument is valid. When I decided to open my ecommerce i moved from Rome to Tenerife. My revenue would be the same if i stayed in Rome but in Tenerife I spent half (and also lived on earth's Paradise
My parents always told me that being poor is a reflection on a man's spending habits, not his income. And I believe them. I take home only $1,500 a month when I don't get over time. I have no debt and a near perfect credit score. I bought a cheap Toyota for $2,200 in cash that never seems to quit running. I got a mortgage on a house and rent out the spare bedrooms to cover the payments. I pay off my credit card balance in full once a week.
On the other hand, my Aunt's Uncle makes $160K a year with some big management position. He's a complete douche bag. He has stacks on stacks of debt. He's a sports gambling addict. He probably couldn't qualify for a used car loan if he wanted one. The only reason he isn't in the complete gutter is because he inherited his Grandparent's house. He has absolutely no retirement savings, yet spends hundreds a weed on golfing.
You're fucking retarded. The more you make, the more you are above the cost of living. There is maybe a $30k difference per year in cost of living between SF and a midwest state. Just because you heard making $30k in Iowa is like $60k in the Bay doesn't mean that shit is a ratio straight down the line
>the cost of living
The cost of living varies from city to city shithead.
And it's fucking static within that city, which is the whole point of my post. A guy making $70k/yr is breaking even in SF, but a guy making $300k/yr has $230k/yr left over. I'm demonstrating how retardedly you are undervaluing high wages in big cities because 'hurr it's so fuckin expensive dude'.
A guy in the midwest at $150k is nowhere near $300k guy anywhere because of this and what this guy said.
>The sooner you understand how useless everyone is, the easier life will be.
Honest question:
How can we take advantage of this people?
I change my question:
How would you take advantage of this people for the purpose of earn more money?
Because it would deflate the egos of all the wannabe yuppies who moved to the big (expensive) city to get rich quick. Frankly I don't want more people figuring out that someone who spends a few years working in China making 36k a year and stockpiling about 30k of it is doing better than someone in NYC making 90k a year and saving maybe 10-15k plus enjoying a better quality of life because their money goes further in China. Let the fuckers who want to get rich quick spin out and wind up not getting ahead, that's less competition ten years from now.
BINGO
Well you're kind of right.
But I can buy a 6,000 sq. ft 6br/6ba mansion with a basketball court for about $500,000 in the midwest. Out in the country, about an hour out of the city. There are some really insane deals out here if anyone really had the money.
That same house in LA (in the right area - west LA, the hills, Los Feliz) would be $4 million at least. In SF? Turn into three 2br condos at $1.5M each if it's in a cheaper area, otherwise leave as is and sell for $6 - 10 M.
A $500,000 house might cost $3,000/month mortgage + taxes, all in. $100,000/yr could get you there in the midwest.
If you want that same house in SF, you'll want $36,000/month to spend on a mortgage. I guess you could get by on $43,000/month take-home, which would be $800,000, maybe $900,000/year.
It really all depends on what you want. No, a mansion isn't a must. But you can take a step down - $230,000 is enough for a nice 4,000 sq. ft. house in the midwest (small but nice town). If you're making $80,000/year, you can easily afford that. If you want a big house or land, then yes it keeps scaling.
TL;DR depends on the mix of goods you want - cars and food --who cares, about the same cost anywhere. Bigger house? That's where the money matters. As big as you can imagine, at less than $200/sq. ft for very high end finishes. It's not prime location but not everyone wants prime location.
This is true.
I live near SF and make 150k/year as a software architect and pay approximately $3000/mo for rent. People hear "150k" and automatically assume I am super rich. After taxes and rent, I have about 60k/yr to spend. Sales tax is over 9% here, and cost of living in general is quite high.
Why am I here, you ask? I'd rather live here and work on something interesting and make 150k than write Java in the midwest and make 60k/year.
I'm trying to network and do the groundwork for being able to make at least 100k while working remotely. I'll go live in asia and invest everything and retire after 15 years.
>The sooner you understand how useless everyone is, the easier life will be.
Life mantra right here. No one knows what the fuck they're doing, and they'll act like they do.
It was an example I'm sure.
>I'd rather live here and work on something interesting
Anybody says shit like this is a loser
Making 60,000/yr in SoCal feels a lot like making 50,0000/yr in Ohio.
You're right. I assumed we were talking a twenty-something person just renting an apartment. I guess I'm really just tired of people thinking every major city has the rent prices of San Franciso or something. You can live in Downtown LA for $1200/month. Paying an extra ~8k in rent per year (compared to somewhere where its $600/month) doesnt come close to the kind of devaluation that people on Veeky Forums are always talking about that comes with living in a major city.
Yes, you're talking about disposable income, or relative income.
Example - I lived in London working as a gym instructor - £1k per month approx.
But living costs take at least half that.
Rent, rates, taxes, commuting = £600+ per month, so started cycling to work, but still - £500,
Left with £4-500 disposable income.
I still had to buy food and stuff too.
Then I got a gym instructor job at a hotel out in the sticks (10 miles to nearest town) - I still earned approx £1k a month salary, but the job was live-in - £120 per month total costs* - so left with disposable income of £880.
*That's for 3 meals a day, a room with own bathroom, all bills, power, heating, etc and full use of gym/pool/sauna/jacuzzi, etc, discounts at restaurant, cafe, bars, and on hotel rooms, and no commuting.
Tl;dr - perks are underrated, and if you are in an entry-level job for now anyway, particularly in the leisure/tourism/service industry, live-in jobs are the ultimate hack for cutting living costs in the immediate short term IMHO.
Hotels, country pubs, cruise ships, merchant ships, etc
Salaries mean nothing. What you save in a year is what matters. When people ask how much money I make I tell them 80k a year since that's how much goes into my investments.
>maybe 30k a year difference in cost of living
Probably closer to 50k. Bay area rents are around 3k/month, while equivalent rents in midwest are ~1k-1500; can't find a home in the bay area for less than $1m, but most homes in the Midwest are easy to find for $300k or less (depending on the metropolitan area). Add to that the cost of parking, gas, food, day to day upkeep of property, etc. And you're probably looking at a situation where you'd need to be making at least $50-75k more pretax to have an equivalent lifestyle, not least because living in a high col area precludes you from a lot of tax savng investments like 401k and iras.
>Example - I lived in London working as a gym instructor - £1k per month approx.
>But living costs take at least half that.
how the fuck did you like in london on £1k? are you in the 1970's?
Step all over them.
I'm 23 and I paid off my college loans in 2 months. All because of low ass living costs.
I work in Korea and my salary is $2200 a month. Company pays for my rent. But because of living cost and convenience of location. I save over 60% of my paycheck.
Last year I saved $12,000
that was after a vacation to Japan for a week, paying 2k loans and getting LASEK surgery. I wasn't trying to be frugal either, i drank most weekends and I pay Dutch style with my girlfriend.
Not even counting the national pension i will get after I leave korea, another $2000 per year worked.
I know i won't be in Korea long term but banking $30k by next year is gonna set me up with a nice cushion for my future. All this was because of cheap ass living.
Even if I made double my paycheck working back home I would struggle to save $1000+ I'd have to worry about rent, car insurance, gas, bills etc.
I highly recommend researching living costs wherever you go and factor it all in.
I worked as an analyst in Hoboken making $40k a few years ago. Right now I work as a waiter in the burbs. I'm saving sooo much more money now. When you work in the city you need to pay crazy rent, train pass, always pressured to go out to office happy hour bullshit and lunches. Now that I work as a server I just drive ten minutes to work, pay basically nothing for rent, and everyone else is poor so they don't usually ask you to go out. Feels good man.
Person A lives in a great city with plenty of night life, things to do, restaurants to visit, cute girls, world class museums and art galleries to visit.
Person B lives in a shit hole in the middle of no where Tennessee.
His life sounds way more fucking fun than yours
>fails to understand the concept of floors and ceilings in econ
>paying for rent
Just buy a toyota sunraider. Invest your money and at very attainable 7% annual return youd be a millionaire in 5 years
Well youre an idiot and thats not what theyre asking you
They're asking him how much money he makes, not his income.
If his income is 80K/year but 60K goes to rent, food, utilities, and taxes. He's no better off than someone making 50K and lives with his parents.
National average for my current job is
>hey user heard you got a new job. How much do you make
>hurr durr well my total investments and net after my gross minus deductions...
>girl visibly cringes and walks off to talk to a man without debilitating autism
>spends hundreds a weed on golfing.
Noice
Central city is for rich people
If you're not rich, then either get rich or get out
But with bigger living space person A would be wise to get a tenant or rent a room out for profit
I agree
>per month, post tax
That was the average wage at the time (10 yrs ago). But yeah, the point has been made by Londoners for years, with only slight improvements.
>Londoners got an allowance of a few extra grand a year because of living costs
>Londoners had to push hard to make a case for a £7.50 p/hr minimum wage at least
>now Londoners are saying it should be more like £10 p/hr minimum wage
>Those in rural areas or up North, go 'hurr durr what are you spending your money on, Londonfags'
>Londoners reply 'living in a rented room and eating a lot of pasta, you cocksuckers'
London desperately needs more social housing or 'rent control' which doesn't even seem to be a concept here.
>wage goes up
>landlords increase rents because people earn more on average
>and so on, and so on...
I'm actually looking at Africa or Latin America,
Since the rent is so dirt cheap...
I've seen places as low as $20-30 per month.
I could earn that online in my sleep.
doing esl im assuming? i was considering doing it with my girlfriend, we both need a change in pace. how'd you go about it? do you need a teahing background or just cert?
If you are white you are going to get eaten alive. The third world usually has no electricity, plumbing, food safety, structural standards or police. Only on the internet do you see retards saying 'Dude I got a place on the beach for 200 dollars a month' like its something to be envious of.
my logic is pretty simple: as an entry level worker making much more than the industry median (60k with a fucking film degree of all things, but nyc) now that i have my very first non-internship, i will have much more negotiating power with my next job, whether if i move to LA or bumfuck nowhere.
i could be wrong though. is this true or not really? it seems its a much stronger benefit when just starting out to begin work in a high paying metropolitan area.
> 75k in manhattan
you either 1. need a girlfriend to share the load of rent or 2. roommates.
only way to realy live and work in manhattan under 90K.
It depends on what kind of person you are though. If you have no awareness of your surroundings then you'll be in trouble. Every 3rd world country has its own sliver of normality (like 20% of it, usually capital cities), where electricity, plumbling, food safety, structural standards and police are acceptable, more or less. Obviously if you're going to some villages that might not be the case. YOLO.
Yeah ESL
For my job a bachelors degree was the minimum. I had a TEFL cert and some volunteering teaching exp to fluff up my resume.
If you work with kids well I highly recommend it and it's a great way to travel and you will live financially comfortable in basically any country you pick(excluding western countries)
appreciate the feedback, good to know. seems a lot of people here recommend esl for traveling while making some cash. and i do enjoy being around kids, but have next to no teaching background (some corporate "curriculum development" however).
is it necessary to know anything more than english if you wanted to live and teach in south korea?
is it possible that if my girlfriend and I both wanted to do esl we could work i. the same school and share the same apt (since ive heard that many south korean esl programs provide housing)?
Bollocks.
I live in Phnom Penh. It is mainly the old white sexpats with previous health conditions that croak here.
Low ass cost of living is fucking king over high wage plus high cost of living if you're young.
After college I worked making $16 CAD an hour and paid off my student loan, later on I got in on the very tail end of the Canadian oil boom and now I have nearly $20k in the bank.
I am fortunate to live on an ancestral family property so I only have to pay utilities and taxes.
I know not everyone has this privilege, but keeping costs low provides a great sense of financial security.
I lived in Phnom Penh for three months, near the Russian market.
Good times.
When are you finally going to overthrow your government?
>bollocks
Never mind you're probably one of those tattooed English scums chasing slum pussy.