4 ms·

I'd like to contrast that with my own personal story. After college, I got a job that paid $60K in tech. Wife got one that paid $50K. So similar total income. H

I'd like to contrast that with my own personal story. After college, I got a job that paid $60K in tech. Wife got one that paid $50K. So similar total income. However, We moved to a city with a lower cost of living and no state income taxes. We lived with family for the first year and saved up enough to put a down payment on a house. We got the house for $160,000 (cheap cost of living for the win). Our mortgage was only $800 a month, but we poured over $4K a month into it and paid it off in 4 years. We did not have student loans, but the extra we paid into the mortgage could have gone toward that. Once the house was paid down, we only paid $5K per year in property taxes for the house. We were living on less than 40% of our income. We both had good health insurance, but there are also high medical expenses. For us the cost of living of a city and state were game-changers.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
A once-in-a-lifetime domestic relocation credit (which pays for moving costs and your first N months of living expenses in your new place, as well as a return ticket in case things go south) would be a great idea for labor mobility.
sanderjd 8y ago
Thanks for sharing your anecdote! A couple questions: how did you pay for college without incurring debt, and what jobs did you get for those salaries in a low cost-of-living (presumably small-town?) area?
- test6554 8y ago
  My parents paid for the first year and a half, and then I got a job and paid for the rest. Tuition was like 10K per year at a public state school. I also tested out of a couple classes due to advanced placement in HS. One of us was doing software/web development and another was financial accounting (CPA). This was not a small town, it was a suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The farther out you move from the city, the lower the cost of living, but we had a 30-40 minute commute. Neither of us wanted to pay for cable so we saved like $8K over a number of years skipping out on that.
  - sanderjd 8y ago
    Thanks for the data points! I suspected one or both of you might have chosen a geographically transferable profession that requires limited or no post-grad like accounting or nursing. I think these are the best kinds of jobs to target. What else fits into this category? Maybe software / web development fits too, though I don't think it's so geographically transferable. I wish teaching (which is what lots of my college friends do) was one of these, but alas, it pays extremely poorly. I guess outlying suburbs of somewhat-but-but-wildly-bustling metros are viable as low-cost / high-employment places to live, though I'm not sure requiring long commutes that aren't well suited to mass transit is a great solution for most people. Most people with tons of college debt that I know worked the entire time, so YMMV on that one. The people I know without debt are actually more likely to have not worked (because their parents were paying).
- dllthomas 8y ago
  > how did you pay for college without incurring debt Another option for keeping college costs down is to start out at a community college and then transfer. With teachers there interested in teaching the material, the education can sometimes be better than entry level classes at a 4-year school.
tuesdayrain 8y ago
Seems foolish to pay the mortgage off so quickly instead of paying the minimum and investing the rest.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

A once-in-a-lifetime domestic relocation credit (which pays for moving costs and your first N months of living expenses in your new place, as well as a return ticket in case things go south) would be a great idea for labor mobility.

sanderjd 8y ago

Thanks for sharing your anecdote! A couple questions: how did you pay for college without incurring debt, and what jobs did you get for those salaries in a low cost-of-living (presumably small-town?) area?

test6554 8y ago
My parents paid for the first year and a half, and then I got a job and paid for the rest. Tuition was like 10K per year at a public state school. I also tested out of a couple classes due to advanced placement in HS. One of us was doing software/web development and another was financial accounting (CPA). This was not a small town, it was a suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The farther out you move from the city, the lower the cost of living, but we had a 30-40 minute commute. Neither of us wanted to pay for cable so we saved like $8K over a number of years skipping out on that.
- sanderjd 8y ago
  Thanks for the data points! I suspected one or both of you might have chosen a geographically transferable profession that requires limited or no post-grad like accounting or nursing. I think these are the best kinds of jobs to target. What else fits into this category? Maybe software / web development fits too, though I don't think it's so geographically transferable. I wish teaching (which is what lots of my college friends do) was one of these, but alas, it pays extremely poorly. I guess outlying suburbs of somewhat-but-but-wildly-bustling metros are viable as low-cost / high-employment places to live, though I'm not sure requiring long commutes that aren't well suited to mass transit is a great solution for most people. Most people with tons of college debt that I know worked the entire time, so YMMV on that one. The people I know without debt are actually more likely to have not worked (because their parents were paying).
dllthomas 8y ago
> how did you pay for college without incurring debt Another option for keeping college costs down is to start out at a community college and then transfer. With teachers there interested in teaching the material, the education can sometimes be better than entry level classes at a 4-year school.

tuesdayrain 8y ago

Seems foolish to pay the mortgage off so quickly instead of paying the minimum and investing the rest.