Reply to Leaving the US because it’s just not affordable anymore

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Things are ridiculously priced here.

We just got back from visiting friends working in Japan. Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo all had considerably less costly drinks, restaurants, groceries, train tickets, site admissions, etc. than in DC and other cities here in America.

We were getting three course meals for lunch in a Saturday in Tokyo for $12 all in. [/quote]

The Japanese yen is at an all-time low against the USD,so it was cheap for you. Now compare those costs to a typical Japanese salary.[/quote]

That's the key.

I left the DMV for a lower COL area about 10 years ago and lasted about 3 years.

The pay cut you take is huge. HUGE. Yes, my rent was $625/mo on a whole-ass 3 bd, 2.5 ba house to myself, but the average salary in that area was $43k/yr. I made more than that at my first job out of college. We also get spoiled being so close to everything in this area. We have 3 airports within 90 mins of each other. I can literally visit WV, VA, PA, DC, and MD all in the same day. Last weekend I left my home in VA to drive to DC to get my "medical gardening supplies", met a friend in Baltimore for lunch and gave them a ride back to my apt in VA where we got ready and drove to our college roommate's wedding in WV.

Lower COL places have fewer things to do and no public transportation to use to do those things. Concerts and theater shows only hit the biggest city, usually the state capital, when on tour. If you live in TN and want to go see Beyonce in Nashville, TN, there's no walking a few blocks from your house to catch the metro into the city. You're driving across the state and getting a hotel room, but because Nashville is a big city, it's a high COL area, so prices are the same as DC. Except whereas dropping $350/night on a hotel now with my DMV salary is nothing to me, dropping $350/night on a hotel room when you're only making $42k/yr is a LOT. Also, when all your DC area friends are booking luxury vacations and asking you to join, you can't. You literally cannot afford it, so you start losing friends and spending your time drunk scrolling on Insta and hate-liking the photos of them doing things you used to be able to afford to do before you moved to a cheaper state and took a job paying you pennies.

Want to know why the people in smalltown USA are obsessed with Jesus and local HS football? Because that's all you have. Going to the game on Friday night and church on Sunday IS their social scene. You may not be religious or believe in God, but you're going to church on Sundays because if you don't, 1, you're a total outcast, and 2. you miss out on all the hot town gossip.

I'm still looking for the magical lower COL area that's very close to a big city for entertainment but not in an area so poor that my salary makes me feel super poor. [/quote]

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