4 ms·

I really think GP is oversimplifying, and I have lived in economically disparate areas with the same salary in each. I moved from southern California where I ma

I really think GP is oversimplifying, and I have lived in economically disparate areas with the same salary in each. I moved from southern California where I made roughly $60k. Then I move to the Southern US. I changed industries and settled in at $50k. In terms of raw salary, I made $10k less, but my money went infinitely further in the South. I wasn't hurting for money in CA, but I had to be much smarter about my financial choices towards the end of the month. In the South, I always has leftover money at the salary. I mean, that 740 sqft apartment in CA for $1200 really sucked compared to that 2 BR house I was renting for $850 in the South.

T-hawk 10y ago
His point is that commentary on the cost of living tends to oversimplify. Different regions don't just have a linear multiplier that applies to all expenses, but that's what these surface-level shallow surveys tend to imply. What escalates in expensive areas is really just housing and other costs related to physical space, like parking and transit. As he said, Amazon costs the same everywhere. So do your cell phone and computer. Utilities, food, gas, clothing, medical, all of those really don't vary all that much. They might swing by 50% between the cheapest and most expensive areas in the US, but that's nowhere near multipliers like 3x that people try to claim from just the housing data point.