4 ms·

Hello fellow Huntsvillian! Don't let the secret out! :P I also live in Huntsville and I live very, very well here. A 50+% pay raise to move to a "tech center"

Hello fellow Huntsvillian! Don't let the secret out! :P I also live in Huntsville and I live very, very well here. A 50+% pay raise to move to a "tech center" (SF, SV, NYC, etc.) looks nice on paper until you really start to work the numbers and realize that you would actually come out worse off in many ways. * A mortgage on a 3,500 square foot house, on a 1/3 acre lot in a very nice neighborhood runs me a hair over $1,200 a month. Including taxes and insurance. Everything except the HOA, and that's an extra $30 or so a month. * I live in a nice family-oriented area with great schools (my kid's school even has an app, and I get daily progress reports!). Don't have to worry about violent crime. My biggest annoyance is the teen with the loud scooter. * Utilities are dirt cheap thanks to TVA. * Property taxes are dirt cheap. Income taxes are on the low side. Sales tax is a tad on the high side, but it's not bad. * I have a 20 minute commute to and from the office every day, maybe 30 on a bad day. I'm home every night for dinner with my family. And while Huntsville won't win any awards for high culture (although there is actually a surprisingly vibrant arts scene here considering its size, not really what I was expecting to find), Nashville and Birmingham are only 90 minutes away in either direction - great for a day trip (we do Nashville day trips fairly frequently). Atlanta or Memphis are weekend trips of a few hours away. And I can be on great beaches in a few hours as well. With my extra income, I can afford to save and do fun things. After our daughter was born, we needed a larger car, so we bought one and paid cash for it. We go skiing in West Virginia during the holidays. We did two weeks in Hawaii for our honeymoon, a week in London a few years, a week in Jamaica, a week in Costa Rica, 10 days at Disney World, etc. A lot of this is possible because my cost of living here is so low that it allows me a large amount of discretionary income. We have our problems, sure. No place is perfect, but every time I go to look at the trade offs, the math always works for me to stay put here. Even if I were to change jobs, it would probably be something remote unless it was to a city of not-crazy cost of living. No one has yet shown me that I can live the equivalent lifestyle in SF or SV that I live here on an average developer's salary.

ryanwaggoner 8y ago
equivalent lifestyle in SF or SV That's exactly the point. Living the equivalent lifestyle of Huntsville in SF or SV is astronomically expensive. But living the SF or SV lifestyle in Huntsville is impossible. To each their own!
logfromblammo 8y ago
Chattanooga is also a reasonable day trip. Panama City Beach or Pensacola Beach is 7 hours away--good for a long weekend trip. Plenty of freshwater recreation thanks to the aforementioned TVA's hydropower/flood-control dams. Karst, if you like spelunking. The cost of the ticket is basically one's ability to acquire and retain at least a "Secret" federal security clearance. The political scene sucks. The corruption is as bad as Illinois, except red instead of blue. As the tech community tends to lean liberal vs. libertarian, by my assessment, no matter which side of that you think you're on, you will be frustrated and dismayed by overwhelmingly (religious) conservative politics in Alabama. The federal districts are gerrymandered to pack one district and crack everywhere else, and the state and local lines are drawn almost as badly. Be prepared to work with smug Trump supporters, and to hide your political beliefs from your workplace. That "blue wave" from the midterms didn't even wash over anyone's toenails. Every ballot is at least 40% uncontested races. But the money is good, and it spends easily. If I went to SF or NYC, I'm sure I'd be just as frustrated by the dirty hippies, scarf-and-peacoat hipsters, and money-grubbers as I currently am by the Bible-thumpers and armchair quarterbacks. There may not be anywhere in the US that I wouldn't be surrounded by howling yard-apes--of one tribe, or another--that always seem to pontificate more often than they ponder.
- mcguire 8y ago
  "The cost of the ticket is basically one's ability to acquire and retain at least a "Secret" federal security clearance." Keep in mind there's also a giant stack of NASA goobers here. There's quite a few of us with nothing but a public trust background check. The politics have their upsides: where else do you get to laugh at people who voted for a fellow for senator who had been removed from his position as a state court judge. Twice. And when asked what church you go to, you can have endless fun saying, "Starry Wisdom." Honestly, I lived in Austin for 20 years, and the only thing I really miss is Half Price Books. (And possibly the PCL.)

ryanwaggoner 8y ago

equivalent lifestyle in SF or SV That's exactly the point. Living the equivalent lifestyle of Huntsville in SF or SV is astronomically expensive. But living the SF or SV lifestyle in Huntsville is impossible. To each their own!

logfromblammo 8y ago

Chattanooga is also a reasonable day trip. Panama City Beach or Pensacola Beach is 7 hours away--good for a long weekend trip. Plenty of freshwater recreation thanks to the aforementioned TVA's hydropower/flood-control dams. Karst, if you like spelunking. The cost of the ticket is basically one's ability to acquire and retain at least a "Secret" federal security clearance. The political scene sucks. The corruption is as bad as Illinois, except red instead of blue. As the tech community tends to lean liberal vs. libertarian, by my assessment, no matter which side of that you think you're on, you will be frustrated and dismayed by overwhelmingly (religious) conservative politics in Alabama. The federal districts are gerrymandered to pack one district and crack everywhere else, and the state and local lines are drawn almost as badly. Be prepared to work with smug Trump supporters, and to hide your political beliefs from your workplace. That "blue wave" from the midterms didn't even wash over anyone's toenails. Every ballot is at least 40% uncontested races. But the money is good, and it spends easily. If I went to SF or NYC, I'm sure I'd be just as frustrated by the dirty hippies, scarf-and-peacoat hipsters, and money-grubbers as I currently am by the Bible-thumpers and armchair quarterbacks. There may not be anywhere in the US that I wouldn't be surrounded by howling yard-apes--of one tribe, or another--that always seem to pontificate more often than they ponder.

mcguire 8y ago
"The cost of the ticket is basically one's ability to acquire and retain at least a "Secret" federal security clearance." Keep in mind there's also a giant stack of NASA goobers here. There's quite a few of us with nothing but a public trust background check. The politics have their upsides: where else do you get to laugh at people who voted for a fellow for senator who had been removed from his position as a state court judge. Twice. And when asked what church you go to, you can have endless fun saying, "Starry Wisdom." Honestly, I lived in Austin for 20 years, and the only thing I really miss is Half Price Books. (And possibly the PCL.)