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Chicago rents are much higher, so to be frank, 63k Columbus > 66K Chicago.
My brother and nephew live in northern Chicago burbs. Now my nephew makes several hundred thousand annually so it is a breeze, while his dad is a state of Ct retiree. But do look at rents on rent.com or like when comparing salary levels.
Yes, Chicago rents are higher than in Columbus, but not by a whole LOT. The median rent in the Columbus metro is $847, but in the Chicago metro it is $990. I would not be living in the actual city of Chicago. Most of the jobs I applied to are in the suburbs anyway, and I would be willing to commute up to about a half hour or so (not factoring in traffic).
Also, Columbus has a 2.5% income tax. Chicago has no such taxes.
I'm in Raleigh right now, because I'm making double what other employers would pay me at the moment. But I'm making some sacrifices to live here, and I'm not sure I can stay here long-term. So...it's not all about the money. Through investments, I'm in a way better financial position now than I was in August when I moved here. I just moved here as a safety net and to get my feet wet (I was living abroad until this year and didn't have much time to decide.)
So sometimes it is about finding the city that's perfect for you. While having my salary doubled is great, I'm confident that soon I can get that same salary in whatever city I want to live in. Just my 2 cents. I wouldn't live somewhere I didn't want to...it is not all about the money. And it sounds like nep can get the same salary almost anywhere.
I cannot get the same salary almost anywhere lol. In certain places, I would only be worth in the $50K's. In other places, I can get $80K's. But on average, in most places, I would say I can get around $65K.
I cannot get the same salary almost anywhere lol. In certain places, I would only be worth in the $50K's. In other places, I can get $80K's. But on average, in most places, I would say I can get around $65K.
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Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
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To be fair he does make a point. You don't want to swing too far in the other direction, it's ok to have one or two criteria that you want to stick with when you look at your options. For me it's moderate weather, everything else I can compromise on but that's my 'gotta have'. But you sound like you have a pretty fair idea of what your gotta haves are, so I hope you land a job in a place that meets those wants.
Yes, my career, apparently is way more specialized that I ever thought before. Here is how I can explain that...
Accountants are very common, but there are several main pillars of accounting: general accounting, cost accounting and tax accounting. I am in tax accounting, which only represents about 30% of these three pillars.
Within tax accounting, there are two pillars: public tax accounting and corporate tax accounting. 90% of these jobs are public and 10% are corporate. I am in corporate.
And to make matters even more specialized, the job must be at MY career level (staff/senior), which represents maybe 30% of all corporate tax accounting jobs.
30% x 10% x 30% = 1%
So, in the entire universe of accounting jobs, only 1% of all jobs are actually relevant to me. My career typically requires a corporate headquarters office for place of work. Corporate headquarters tend to be in larger metropolitan areas.
Your career is not as specialized as you want to think it is.
We have 2 Nieces that do the same thing and corporate headquarters are not required and no one is hired into either company as senior staff.
Your career is not as specialized as you want to think it is.
We have 2 Nieces that do the same thing and corporate headquarters are not required and no one is hired into either company as senior staff.
Well that's strange. Most jobs I have had were located at a "secondary" corporate headquarters. One was actually at THE corporate headquarters.
I love this new outlook!
Have you thought about looking in San Francisco? There is a city called Concord that is affordable and the BART commute is not bad from there. You could get a really high salary in the SF Bay area / Oakland and live comfortably from Concord. Vallejo would be another option. San Francisco and Oakland don't have as big of a city feel as Chicago or NYC.
Good luck with your interviews and job search! Don't sell yourself short and keep up the positive outlook!
I love this new outlook!
Have you thought about looking in San Francisco? There is a city called Concord that is affordable and the BART commute is not bad from there. You could get a really high salary in the SF Bay area / Oakland and live comfortably from Concord. Vallejo would be another option. San Francisco and Oakland don't have as big of a city feel as Chicago or NYC.
Good luck with your interviews and job search! Don't sell yourself short and keep up the positive outlook!
For now I'm just going to keep applying to jobs in NYC, DC, Philly, Chicago, Columbus, Rochester and Hartford. But if I need to expand even more later on, I will.
My goal is to apply to about 30 jobs per month (a job a day). When I was only looking in Columbus and Hartford, I was only able to apply to 6 jobs per month. That's when I became worried that that was not enough. So then I added five more cities to my search.
Yes, Chicago rents are higher than in Columbus, but not by a whole LOT. The median rent in the Columbus metro is $847, but in the Chicago metro it is $990. I would not be living in the actual city of Chicago. Most of the jobs I applied to are in the suburbs anyway, and I would be willing to commute up to about a half hour or so (not factoring in traffic).
Also, Columbus has a 2.5% income tax. Chicago has no such taxes.
Keep in mind Chicago area property taxes are 2-3% of the house's value per year, sales tax in Crook Co is going up to 10.5%, and many other taxes are likely to spike as well given the failure of govt here causing fiscal ruin. In the long term, If I can find a decent job, which is a big if, I am considering leaving the state.
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