60k in wny. i love my small town. i love blo and rochacha. close to canada and great schools. oh and fuck that noise with 60k you can travel have a boat and live comfortabley
Never let money dictate where you live. I’ve had several friends move away from places they loved for big money only to be miserable.
That said, if you have no preference between a big city and here your 60k in WNY will go MUCH farther than 100k in a big city.
I had the exact option, had nowhere else to really move up in the company and 3% raises don’t really do justice when you’ve hit only lateral movements you know it’s time to seek out other options.
When the opportunity hit home for ~100k south of NY I weighed the options and despite the housing down here being hefty and traffic sometimes sucking (for the most part I avoid it everyday) I chose to move to NoVA and so happy to have done so.
Few reasons.
A) Fresh salary, ample room to learn and move up and get raises. Moving bonus cleared out any debt and the car payment’s I had.
B) The company I got with is incredible, loads of benefits and lots of expansion to be had.
C) Scenery is great, love the weather, and as much as I love winter I am going to be happy to have less of it.
D) Lack of snow down here
E) Not too far from home so it’s not really a problem to swing back to NY for a weekend if need be.
F) Just outside of DC, so much to do in this area, never bored.
G) Not Buffalo?
I love the idea of this poll BUT, do you really mean “WNY” or “Big City”?
Did you mean to say,“WNY or big city including big city burbs?”
Buffalo and big city is different than WNY and big city.
You could live outside of NYC or Chicago for a bit cheaper than actually living in the “city” itself.
Or vice versa.
True, I live outside of DC not actually in the city limits. I wouldn’t want to live in the city that’s for sure.
heh,average weekly income in Manhattan is $2800.I would love that.
I’m a realist though so I’ll go with 50k in WNY.
in the other hand…
nyc would be awsome and 100k there would be about equal to 60k here
LA-learn to swim
boston-100k would be more like 20k here
chicago- might aswell stay here in blo
tampa/miami would be good to but id rather be in nyc out of them all
This right here is the biggest problem with the area. 60k in Buffalo isn’t bad. Then what. Good luck moving up or finding another similar position god forbid you lose your job.
Big city = tons of companies jobs and options
WNY = better be self employed/doctor/lawyer/family/lucky sperm if you want to make real money in your 20s and 30s
Both seem like about the same quality of living, except you couldn’t buy a decent house in NYC for that. I don’t think I could back to living in an apartment. So Buffalo at 50k it is.
100K in LA is fair, you can do quite well.
Just if you budget your money proper.
you can, you just would have a shitty house, cheap hobbies, and going to vacation in niagara falls 
for me, given the two options, 60k in WNY for sure… that is much easier than 100k in NYC or boston.
More opportunity in a big city… Yeah, 60K is great in Buffalo but plan on being stuck at 60K for a long time…
I picked wny mostly because I do not like big city life.
But $60k in WNY goes a hell of a lot further than $100k in a big city
Well said. I personally wouldn’t leave for an extra $40K, because there is allot of opportunity in my job, and my wife has a fairly good job locally. Depending on your field there will likely be tons more opportunity/competition in a major metropolitan area.
Sometimes I think people who grew up in Buffalo, and stayed here there whole lives don’t realize that not every city has a job market with only 2-7 possible companies to work for in a given field.
Having lived in both NYC and Buffalo…
It’s quite the toss up, but at this age - Big City (or around one)
Get your exp, make your money, network, do whatever the fuck you want later.
Also, you can’t really say anything unless you’ve lived in both types of areas…
After careful consideration I would chose the 60K and buffalo for lack of traffic. I think I would want to kill someone and then the 100k wouldn’t do me good in jail.
What you aren’t looking at though is job security and benefits. Recent studies showed people who live in ‘big cities’ not only have higher job security (less likely their employer will skip town on them) but also enjoy above average raises.
Buffalo is great and all, but you’ll be stuck at the same standard of living for a long time. 60k is pretty good, out of college, or close to it. I’d take big city over it any day though.
I’d rather spend more $ on a house that will greatly appreciate in value then less $ on a house that will very very slowly appreciate. Plus lower taxes etc. I’ve lived in a big city and now I live in the suburbs of Vegas. Yes I still think Rochester/Buffalo is a great area, just not for everyone. Won’t know til you try.
60k in the BUF. I’ll be making that anyways and be able to have a great house on that much money and still be able to pretty much do what I want. A dollar goes a lot farther here than most places so why not take advantage of it, the Canadians sure as hell are!
Edit, i’m in civil service so I have no worries about job security or getting below average raises. There will always be a job here for me and the income for what I do is at the top of it range in the entire country.