Its all relative tho. You can’t compare them by saying “100k isnt a lot of money compared to big cities”. In Buffalo, 100k a year can go a long way. You can buy a decent house and car with 100k a year here and still have stuff to save. Hell, you can get a condo downtown in the city for only 300k here.
If you are living in a big city or long island, 100k is gonna get you a small apartment and a OK car since most of your money is to your rent. In Southampton, Long Island where I spend some of the summer each year, 100k a year will have you doing side jobs gardening on some guys 35million dollar mansion to make rent.
If you live in long island and make 100k, you are around average. A buddy of mine is a damn garbage man in NYC. He just bought a house in Massapequa Park. Awesome neighborhood. House needs a lot of work, but he is very handy. Not every town has smug rich people living there. And, if you live there with a wife, who makes at least 60k a year(very likely), you can afford a nice house in a good neighborhood. 160k household income is not a bad start. Pick up a house that needs work, fix it up, sell in 5-10 for a sick profit.
If I told you how much my parents paid for their house >10 years ago, and what it is on the market for right now, your jaw would probably hit the table. They did the same with the last house we lived in.
Townhouses are also a very reasonable option as far as buying goes. Might suck to spend that much money to end up sharing your walls, but at least you are not pissing away $1200+ on rent, getting nothing in return.
NYC is special becuase you can live outside and take the trains in each day and night becuase they have an awesome transit system. its harder to get around other cities. I frequent Chicago and have spend a few weeks in suburbs outside the city(20 miles outside down the major highway 55) where most people commute from. The trains stop at midnight so you need to have a car and tho they do have trains in and out of the city, its harder to get around. Driving can be anywhere from 1 hour to 3 1/2 in and out of the city. Personally, I love Buffalo. I get out of work and in 8 minutes I am home.
I guess what I am asking is, WNY is not a city but you asked which we would choose.
Did you really mean WNY or a big city or Buffalo or a big city?
Or, in or near Buffalo or in or near a big city?
OMG this IS confusing to type.lol
I mean the guy who drops a million bux(no loan) on his neighbors house just because he doesn’t want someone living next to him - rich. They can buy things without having to think about it or worry. Though the “Old Boston” rich folks spend their bling on non flashy things(Old Brownstones, Paintings, Antiques).
AWDrifter - I suppose I mean around the area. I live basically in the Amherst of Boston but the houses around here are 2x+ as much for the same thing. I make 2x as much here than I could in Buffalo(if they even had these kind of jobs available), my op was thinking basically that both locations end up being similar pay:cost of living ratio.
Period. I know people who live in Queens, commute to manhattan and make about 55k a year. There is tons of things to move and expand to and one person is in marketing I know moved out there 5 years ago. He spent 4 of the 5 years making 45k, living in a studio in a shitty area and almost did nothing. He now works for VH1 I think and makes 5x more than what he did before. He went there becuase its a lot more of an opportunity than WNY if you want to take the risk and hit on your lifestyle. Not my life style becuase in Buffalo, making 55k goes a long way esp since I just graduated and dont pay for gas. Everyone has their own choices tho and own ideas of a good life.
WNY pretty much has the same standard of living costs wether you are in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, hell even Albany is pretty close.
Amen to that. I switched companies and got a 20% raise just because I already had contacts to sell to and knew my competition. The great thing is that there are 4 other companies I could go to in a 10 mile radius and they would loooove to have me.
Exactly why I like living in a small city with a huge IT industry around it. I make almost 2x what I was offered to start out at in buffalo. I also do not deal with the hustle and bustle of a big city.
That lifestyle is the exact reason why I didn’t go back to LI/NYC
I like having a job making decent money, and just being able to relax where I am. I don’t wake up worrying if I will find a parking spot at the train station. I don’t worry about missing the train. I don’t walk all over NYC to get to my building. No asshole neighbors competing over who’s benz is worth more, or who’s kid is wearing the most expensive sneakers.
Down here, I get to live my life and enjoy myself without bother. The money I make/spend is the least of my issues.
I made the Buffalo -> DC switch and then back to Buffalo.
They treat IT people so much better in DC…not to mention flip on the radio and 60% of the commercials are targeted at IT people…Buffalo is still old school when it comes to business.
I will probably be back in DC/Virginia area in a couple years once im married…and once a few DoD projects kick off.
Sadly no…GF finishes school shortly and moves in next month…
I am sort of waiting for the DoD datacenter consolidation project to jump start…they are building something like 15 huge data centers world wide and consolidating all the existing ones into the 15 or so…
Gotta up their bandwidth for the new FBI Facebook huh?
Government spending is amazing. The county I worked as a network engineer the past two years spend crazy amounts of money buying Carrier class routers, switches, 10GB fiber ring we put in to all the buildings, and other crazy stuff.
We have other goverment customers now who have like triple redundant phone systems and data networks. Its so amazing the amount of money even the smaller departments have access to.
I go with 60 and blo…(in general). Seeing how I took a position here and chose to stay here after college rather than syracuse. On a plus note, my company is large enough and i can go to dif. states working for the company
cost of living i work down by nyc and the realestate market is crazy houses you can get here for 60-70k are goin for 180-200k. i was looking through a realestate magazine there and there were fixer uppers goin for 120-140k that fuckin crazy
