Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

With the talk of how expensive it is to live in the metro NY area, and how we chose to live here, I have a question.

For those of you who moved from NY did you:

-Have any credit card or loan debt when you moved?

-Take a pay cut not equal to the COL in a new place?

-Pay for your new house/condo/apt by selling an existing one?

DH is always saying that he would move from NY metro if we did not have "NY debt."

Is this a valid reason for staying?

WTYT?

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Do you mean as in you incurred this debt in NY so you need the NY salary level to pay it off?

I would think that the COL difference would make up for the salary decrease at least a little.

I see what you're saying, but I never thought of it that way. I was thinking of moving out of the immediate area, but this was not a factor in my decision.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

We moved OOS this past summer so DH could finish his PhD.

We had no debt except student loans, which are a small amount.

DH actually makes more money here, but he makes under 20k as a grad student stipend, so its not like it makes a difference. I took about an 8k pay cut. I think most of it is made up by COL and the rest is made up in the fact that I commuted 20 miles each was to my job on LI and about 2 miles each way here.

We were renting on LI and renting here. We decided to take a year to get to know the area before we bought. We are starting the house hunting process now, but if we had owned on LI, the sale would have easily payed for housing here with only a small mortgage.

I dont think tha having "Ny debt" is a valid reason for staying. Wherever you move, most costs besides housing etc, will be the same. I honelty dont think moving OOS is a money saving decision. Salaries are less, clothes still cost the same, and here food is actually signinifantly more exoensive then on LI (when was the last time you payed 6.99 a pound for chicken breasts?).

Move if you want to, stay if you want to. I dont think $ should be the deciding factor.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Have any credit card or loan debt when you moved?

We did not have any debt. We had saved my salary for years. We were also carless in NY...so when we moved we bought mine in cash and put a lot down on DH's truck.

I now carry 4K on a credit card, 0%, my sister had a destination wedding that we attended last summer. I couldn't not go, but we are budget people and this wasn't in our budget.

-Take a pay cut not equal to the COL in a new place?

We went from 2 income, to 1 income. DH is a restaurant manager. While he was getting his degree, he worked in the city for privately owned restaurants. He did well...but there was zero room for growth unless he went to a chain restaurant.

He now works for a chain and is paid slightly higher then what similiar salaries are in NYC. If we were both working we would be doing very well compared to the COL here.

-Pay for your new house/condo/apt by selling an existing one?

never owned a home. Still have our "housefund" for when DH reaches a level in his career where we are set in a location.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Interesting insights, thanks!



( $6.99 for chicken? oy )

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Re: COL

I frequent another message board, and this topic comes up there All.The.Time.

Several posters swear that in some areas, you can make the same salary as NY, LA or Chicago, however, COL is still cheaper (ie. houses under $200K), cheaper rent, bigger apartments for cheaper rent, etc.

I think bottom line we all have to do our homework before making a decision like this.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

We lived in SC for about 5 years...and we both had some bills to pay off-nothing crazy $200 on a credit card. I think that things tend to balance out depending on where you live.

In the south, the COL is less, houses, cars, etc. But the cost to eat and go out is more. So yes you can pay 1000 for a 2 bedroom luxury apartment but to go out on a saturday night it costs 200. Where here you pay 1300 for a 2 bedroom apartment and 100 to go out.

These arent exact numbers. We were down there and DH was getting paid ALOT less doing the same thing he did in NY.

Im sure that in other states it is the same-and different depending on where you are.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Plus certain lower COL areas just don't have anything to do, or the restaurants suck. It's cheaper where my parents live in the Hudson Valley (although prices are definitely rising).

Most of the restaurants are of the TGIFriday's variety. Who wants that all the time?!

Certain areas you have to drive really far too to malls and grocery stores and such, and there is not a whole lot of variety, the stuff is more cheaply made, more "discount-type" stores, etc. etc.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

My husband and I have had conversations about the $ aspect of moving out of state. I assume from the question that you'd be taking a salary cut to move out of state. In our situation, my husband would be taking a huge cut but I probably would not b/c the prices for my services are very similar throughout the country. Also, would we move and then say, well now that we are out of NY, we should be able to get more house than we did in NY, then just buy something for the same price we paid here ,except it would be a bigger, fancier house? We would save on things like taxes and car insurance but I am not sure if that is enough to warrant leaving NY.

My real reasons for not leaving are that I was very homesick when I lived in Pittsburgh years ago and, though I am sure others will disagree, as a Jewish person, I think that my life outside of New York would be very different. I now live in a religiously mixed neighborhood, and in a lot of places outside of NY I think that the areas are more defined and somewhat segregated.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Kerie, you brought up some good points. I am not Jewish, but have many friends who are. I know some of them were discriminated against in certain areas of the country because of who they are.

ETA: Although this can be argued both ways, because anyone who says that there is not a lot of racism/discrimination on Long Island has their head inside a box!

Message edited 2/9/2008 4:06:33 PM.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Kerie- it is funny that you mention Pittsburgh, because that is where we moved to.

I do find the neighborhoods here to be rather segregated. I live in Squirrel Hill which is a predominantly Jewish area, but I am not Jewish. This area and also Shadyside where I work can also be defined a largely graduate student and medical professional area. I read that 50% of people over 25 have masters degrees or higher. Buth neighborhoods are more segregated- I can name a Irish area, an italian area, etc.

I miss NY and I hope to move back evenutally, but I was pleasantly surpised by this area.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

When we moved OOS, DH was unemployed, so we had some debt, he got a job and it was less than half what he was making in NY!! but he proved himself very quickly and it was raised to almost his NY income.

We bought a townhouse there, but we used an inheritance for the downpayment.

We were in Southern CA which is a high COL, but I still found it to be cheaper than NYC.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

-Have any credit card or loan debt when you moved? When we moved we had student loan debt and DH and a tiny bit of CC debt

-Take a pay cut not equal to the COL in a new place?
We moved down with DH's NY salary which was great b/c I moved down unemployed...Dh lost his job in July and got a new job that he did take a paycut from, but not a huge one...and he is getting a raise soon which should be equal to what he was making in NY.

-Pay for your new house/condo/apt by selling an existing one?
No we bought our house, by saving...we had some $ saved for a down payment, and we ended up with a brand new 5 bedroom house.

DH is always saying that he would move from NY metro if we did not have "NY debt."

Is this a valid reason for staying?

Idk, we left NY b/c we wouldn't be able to afford a house and or the taxes...we wanted to be somewhere that if either one of us lost our jobs we wouldn't struggle to pay the bills, even with pre-exsisting debt. So far we are doing pretty good. I think we made a good choice to leave

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

We both have school loans and we have a little CC debt, soon to be paid off!

Between a better quality of life, good people, better homes, better jobs (although I am still looking for one, there is no way we would be able to have me out of work in NY), we love it! NO REGRETS!!!!!!!!!

We have had no problem finding restaurants (not chainy types) and we love our DRs too!

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

-Have any credit card or loan debt when you moved?

We had a car loan and leased another. We have since paid off one and bought the other.

-Take a pay cut not equal to the COL in a new place?
No-DH and I both kept our NY salaries. My salary has since increased by 40% in 3 years.


-Pay for your new house/condo/apt by selling an existing one?

No, had saved while living in NY.

I agree with PP though, food is more expensive, I shop deals though and stock up, so I dot think I pay significantly more than I did in NY.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

when I researched moving OOS, the places where DH and I would even consider were either the same COL of NY or we would have to take a paycut (for our industries) for the lower COL places.

for us it wasnt worth it to move from our families.

I would first look at places you would want to move; then see what you would make living there - it may be more than NY, may not.

good luck!!

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

DH and I had no debt when we moved to VA. I took a $15K pay cut which I am still trying to get used to DH was able to move on his NY salary. We where able to but a huge down payment on a house here. So while our COL is much less here we are not happy & will be moving back to NY within the year.

Re: Spinoff: NY debt & moving out of state

We currently do not live on LI. We are now upstate in the capital region. When we moved, I took about a 17k pay cut. This is DH's first job, but his pay is comparable to what he would make on LI. We moved upstate because of his job.