Has anyone ever relocated?

[lmnop7854]

I live in NY, and I have been wanting to move to the Southwest for a few years now. The possibility exists, since I keep receiving hits on the resume I have posted on Monster. And I seem to do pretty well in the interviews, but they can never pay me enough money. Plus, now my dad is dying of ALS (lou Gehrig's disease) and he needs to be able to see me and his granddaughter as often as possible, so moving across the country right now is not really in the cards.

Has anyone ever relocated from East to West? I have an opportunity in San Francisco ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - not pay, but cost of living) and they would have to double my current salary for me to be able to live there.

Just wondering if anyone out here has ever done it successfully, and not jumped ship and ran back East.

Lisa

 

[MrsGorilla]

Nope. I know that's not very helpful, but there you go.

Seriously though, I've lived here all my life. I was in Chicago for 6 months for my job one time, but even then I knew that was temporary. It was fun while it lasted. It's not that I would be against the idea of moving somewhere else (somewhere else with a cooler climate, most likely ) but the fact is we probably never will because both of our families are here and we don't want to take our little pumpkin away from her grandparents/cousins etc.

Sorry to hear about your Dad. That disease is pretty horrible. Someone my husband knew from his old job (and was fairly close to) just died from that last year.

 

[NJudson]

I have not, but if I were ever to lose my job there is not much if anything in my home area for the profession that I'm in. If I were to stick with my current profession then I'd have to relocate. I'd really hate to move out west just because of the nightmares I hear about the cost of living and housing prices. From what I've read and people I've spoken with I think my $80,000 home which is 47 years old, 3 bedroom 1650 sqft would go for at or over $500,000 in certain parts of California. That just boggles my mind and kinda makes my stomach turn. You'd have to quadruple my salary in order for me to live out there.

 

[hooks]

I live in the mid-west. My place of work hired a couple of consultants from washington state. One of them had a 750,000.00 dollar house that was 1200 sq feet. lol i couldn't imagine that.

 

[Alloyd]

I live in California... Just north of San Diego. I moved 45 Minutes up North from Down Town and still, 14 years ago paid 118k for my house. I sold it for over 350k 4 years ago and paid 450k for my new house and it is well worth over 750k. I went from doing Computer Consulting (Not doing Access Work) to NOW I do Real Estate loans as a senior Mortgage Consultant for a living. The creative financing options available are awesome, but still, someone needs to make great money to be able to really afford some of the homes here.

--Alloyd

 

[Groundrush]

I used to live in South Africa & one day I resigned from my dead end job & flew out to the UK

I never went back

That was 14 years ago.

 

[Rich]

I used to live in South Africa & one day I resigned from my dead end job & flew out to the UK

I never went back

That was 14 years ago.

Don't you miss the sun ?

 

[Groundrush]

Don't you miss the sun ?

I do sometimes, but that's what Spain & other holiday destinations are for

 

[Ron_dK]

I live in NY, and I have been wanting to move to the Southwest for a few years now.
The possibility exists, since I keep receiving hits on the resume I have posted on Monster. And I seem to do pretty well in the interviews, but they can never pay me enough money.

Sorry to hear about your father Lisa.
My story in a nutshell:
I started my working carreer in the Netherlands, and worked and lived in France, Italy and back to the Netherlands. I feel happy with this, since moving from one place to another broadens one's horizon. It's not so much that I runned from one place to the other because of Euro's ( €€€), but more because of getting more experience and take on new challanges.
The thing I felt as the biggest burden was to move my furniture and personnel belongings from one place to the other, but since I'm sort of settled now in NL that's all forgotten. I do not regret any single step in moving around and feel it as an addition to my knowledge and experience.
I can only suggest to go for the opportunities that one get and put the
$$ on the second plan.

 

[lmnop7854]

Sorry to hear about your Dad. That disease is pretty horrible. Someone my husband knew from his old job (and was fairly close to) just died from that last year.

Thanks - it is not a nice disease. He just wastes away, and there was no warning, so it wasn't like he could do things that he never did before, and make up for any lost time. He just started losing his motor skills. Right now, he is in a wheelchair full-time, and he now can't lift his arms long enough to even hold the cell phone for long. He won't be able to hold the baby unless we prop her up on him. And I am not looking forward to what is coming.

Lisa

 

[lmnop7854]

I started my working carreer in the Netherlands, and worked and lived in France, Italy and back to the Netherlands. I feel happy with this, since moving from one place to another broadens one's horizon. It's not so much that I runned from one place to the other because of Euro's ( €€€), but more because of getting more experience and take on new challanges.
The thing I felt as the biggest burden was to move my furniture and personnel belongings from one place to the other, but since I'm sort of settled now in NL that's all forgotten. I do not regret any single step in moving around and feel it as an addition to my knowledge and experience.
I can only suggest to go for the opportunities that one get and put the
$$ on the second plan.

I am not very knowledgable about the economy is Europe - is there a huge difference in the cost of living from one country to another? Like from Italy to France? Did you ever move to a place where the cost of living was considerably higher than where you were moving from?

Lisa

 

[MrsGorilla]

Thanks - it is not a nice disease. He just wastes away, and there was no warning, so it wasn't like he could do things that he never did before, and make up for any lost time. He just started losing his motor skills. Right now, he is in a wheelchair full-time, and he now can't lift his arms long enough to even hold the cell phone for long. He won't be able to hold the baby unless we prop her up on him. And I am not looking forward to what is coming.

I know with Jim's friend the progression seemed to be really fast. How long ago was he diagnosed?

 

[Ron_dK]

The cost of living in the various countries in Europe do differ, but it's mainly depending on what city/area you're in. When I moved from France to Italy
my net income dramatically decreased since I was moving to some of the subsurbs with Milan. Milan is one of the most expensive cities in Europe and I came from a small village in France where some of the taxes where very low.
Moving back to the Netherlands I experienced that most of the taxes
( including income tax) where much higher in comparison to those in France and Italy. But at the same time I made a little promotion so that some of the losses where compensated.
But again, I was not in it for the money (only), but made great friends in france and Italy and I still correspond with some of them. Guess that's what I gained over all these years

 

[MrsGorilla]

I am not very knowledgable about the economy is Europe - is there a huge difference in the cost of living from one country to another? Like from Italy to France? Did you ever move to a place where the cost of living was considerably higher than where you were moving from?

I always thought the cost of living was high in New York too, or is that just around NYC?

 

[lmnop7854]

I know with Jim's friend the progression seemed to be really fast. How long ago was he diagnosed?

December 2004. Usually the average time frame from diagnosis to death is about 3 years, although in some cases, the disease goes into a kind of remission all by itself, and some people live for years with it in an arrested state. There is a man that lives right down the street from my dad who has it, and his wife has MS. They both seem to get around pretty well, but I don't know the progression of their diseases. I just know that he keeps losing faculties, and I know how it will end.

I always thought the cost of living was high in New York too, or is that just around NYC?

Just around NYC. I live upstate, actually in Western NY. Rochester is about 60 miles east of Buffalo, which is about a yard and a half from Ohio. So Rochester is like a big small town. The economy here is really quite fantastic - if you make a moderate income, you can afford a decent house. However, you must deal with the fact that 92% of the time there is more than 50% cloud cover, and winter is pretty much 8 months long, from first snow to last snow. The temperature can get down into the single digits in winter, and in summer (the whole 2 weeks in July) can get up to the 90's, with about 150% humidity.

So getting an opportunity to move to where there is sunshine and a moderate climate is hard to pass up.

Lisa

 

[lmnop7854]

But again, I was not in it for the money (only), but made great friends in france and Italy and I still correspond with some of them. Guess that's what I gained over all these years

I understand about not being in it for the money, but did you have any moving situations where you wondered if you were going to be able to feed and clothe yourself? That is pretty much where I am at. The amoutn of money I pay for housing in Rochester is probably less than half of what I would have to pay for the same thing in SF. That definitely concerns me, so money then becomes the object.

Lisa

 

[Ron_dK]

The amoutn of money I pay for housing in Rochester is probably less than half of what I would have to pay for the same thing in SF. That definitely concerns me, so money then becomes the object.

Lisa

I hear what you're saying, but I think that the differences in cost of living between NL, France and Italy are not in the range of 50%. I reckon it's
closer to some 15-20 % in extreme cases ( Milan vs France).
Nowadays, all these countries have the same currency which makes the comparison easier, plus the fact that if I would be assigned to the Italian office I would get compensation for the high cost of living. That's something
I didn't get when I moved to Italy some 9 years ago.

 

[MrsGorilla]

Just around NYC. I live upstate, actually in Western NY. Rochester is about 60 miles east of Buffalo, which is about a yard and a half from Ohio. So Rochester is like a big small town. The economy here is really quite fantastic - if you make a moderate income, you can afford a decent house. However, you must deal with the fact that 92% of the time there is more than 50% cloud cover, and winter is pretty much 8 months long, from first snow to last snow. The temperature can get down into the single digits in winter, and in summer (the whole 2 weeks in July) can get up to the 90's, with about 150% humidity.

Rochester sounds perfect to me! Well, maybe I would like a little more summer than that, but I would be happy if the temperatures never reached above 90. Seriously, living here isn't too bad if you could snip July and August out of the calendar. We usually have a run of several 100+ degree days and you feel like you're about to fry after being outside for 10 minutes. There was a joke circulating a while back about Oklahoma in July being so hot that what determines a valuable parking space isn't how close you are to the door but whether or not there is shade.

 

[RayH]

I moved from the UK to Oregon about 4 years ago and have never looked back.
Salary doubled, house size tripled, car size doubled and waist band, well, increased!!

 

[lmnop7854]

Ok, well now it is getting more difficult. I looked up the address of the business on Google, and the location of where I would be working is like right on the bay. It isn't exactly in SF, either - it is across the bay, in an area they call East Bay, which is more reasonable in price for everything. I would be looking out my office window at the water. How wonderful would that be?

Then I looked up real estate, and found a few houses I could rent for about 1.5 times what I pay now, but they are very lovely, and not far from work.

And then I checked out the weather. 40s - 60s in the winter (if you call that winter), and 60s to 80s in the summer. Balmy and mild, every day of the week, and barely a drop of rain during the summers.

About 10 day care centers located within 5 miles of work.

How does one know when to make the move? How do you know when it is the right thing to do?

Thank you all for your help so far.

Lisa