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Let's talk about relocation!
DasUberEdward
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Backstory: I am currently a 21 year old male who just moved back home with his parents after a relatively unsuccessful three year stint in college (philosophy/pre-law). Although my last semester I became pretty disenfranchised with the whole ordeal and I've been forced to take a year off by the college. My fault really. Anyway now that i'm home there's really nothing at all in this town for me aside for the community college which I should have a small certification degree thing from in about a year. Job hunting like mad. No real finances to be concerned with.
Now. Onward. I figure I am not doing much of anything with my life at the moment and relocation could behoove me a great deal. I enjoy the idea of living in a metropolitan sort of place but i'd also need to find somewhere where I could finish up my degree.
My question is.
What sort of finances should a person have when considering relocation.
How far is too far?
Would it be smart to sell my car for extra cash when the time comes?
How far in advance will I need to start shopping around for places to live?
or employment for that matter?
Good alternatives?
Now. Onward. I figure I am not doing much of anything with my life at the moment and relocation could behoove me a great deal. I enjoy the idea of living in a metropolitan sort of place but i'd also need to find somewhere where I could finish up my degree.
My question is.
What sort of finances should a person have when considering relocation.
How far is too far?
Would it be smart to sell my car for extra cash when the time comes?
How far in advance will I need to start shopping around for places to live?
or employment for that matter?
Good alternatives?
DasUberEdward on
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But really this is just an "in general" question. Assume that I am willing to put up with some inconveniences and I do not expect to live in the lap of luxury. I will be off campus wherever I go.
To be quite honest, I can't imagine you being able to do this when you don't really even know what you're doing at all and couldnt even get through college... no offense.
Get a job before you move.
I think I already stated that I am job hunting and finishing up my current semester before I even begin to consider moving.
If I did not. I am stating that now.
Aside from that probationary status or not my records transfer just fine and display a more than satisfactory record to attend another school.
So thank you for addressing questions that were removed from my inquiry.
If you move to NYC, you need way, way more money than you do if you move to Portland. In Los Angeles, you will need a car; in Seattle, you can get away without one. And each and every possible college will let you transfer totally different amounts of credits and count different things differently, so that's something else you'll need to look into.
Also any tips for completely leaving everything you know behind would be appreciated.
I currently I pay 900 a month (my half) for my own room in a 2 bedroom apartment in a decent part of town (not fancy but chill). It's not large, but it's a fairly new building. I used to pay 700 a month for a really shitty studio filled with roaches in a crappy part of town. Add in your other expenses like food, electricity, water, cable, car insurance, health care, gas, recreation, women, bars, clothes, furniture, etc and it starts to get expensive.
I hear NYC is more expensive.
You move to other places and you pay 1/3 of what I pay for rent.
I want to do this right so I need to evaluate things and having first hand anecdotes to utilize for various cities would make things a lot easier.
I was paying 1040 for a tiny room (though our living room was big, kitchen was shit) with no closet space. I loved my roommates, but it was grossly expensive. And in addition, having to pay for more obvious things like food and everything else, I don't feel like listing everything, it just got to be a ton of money. Don't live there unless you want to experience NYC but really, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
I also don't need a car (which is absolutely required in LA). I also live two miles from the university (i.e. a five-minute bus ride, ten-minute bike ride, or twenty-five-minute walk).
In your case unless you've got a school to help you cover room & board, a job that pays enough to afford a place, or people you can live with, it's probably not in the cards to live in New York at the moment. But definitely put it on your to-do list.
Either.
2866.5
3822
5733
6688.5
saved up by next school year. That's with expenses, taxes and "fun" money taken into account and rumor has it there's a raise after the first month. As it stands I have my choice of hours ranging from part time to full listed there. So assuming I go just a bit above part time I'm likely to have about 4-5K saved up for a move.
Is that viable? Also how awful is the job market in the bigger cities these days. Are students also having a difficult time finding work?
Oh and best case scenario is that I sign up with a dining plan at a universe near a larger city to ease some of the burden. Lodging if necessary.
This place is goddamn expensive.
If you're serious about going back and finishing your degree, I'd start narrowing down your university choices this fall. Visit them if you're able, but definitely do the internet detective thing and see how cost of living varies depending on where you choose.
And the job market depends upon the city, but it will doubtless be different in six months' time. As far as cost of living goes, I don't think you can beat Portland for cheap, coastal cities (except maybe in Florida, but you really don't want to move to Florida until you're ready to die).
I want to be in a situation where I can actively job hunt but have some sort of cash cushion to keep things going.
Many folks seem to think that moving will change whats bothering them, and I believe studies have found that the beneficial effects are often temporary. Unless you're already over whatever lead you to leave college, you could just be moving those issues with you to a different sport on the map.
This isn't to say that moving is a bad idea, just that you should do it for the right reasons. As for questions, I can't really help on finances, it is entirely dependant on where you want to go, rent is going to vary wildly from place to place and the rental market in those places.
Distance is also a very personal call. How far is too far depends on how close you feel you need to be to your family and friends, where rever they happen to be. Don't under-rate the value of having a support system within a reasonable distance. Do you want to be able to see your family by hopping a bus for a few hours, or is being multiple time zones and a plane ride away going to work for you? You've got to consider that for yourself.
As for selling your car, again, this is destination dependant. If you move somewhere where you can walk, cycle, or take transit most places, or if the distance to drive the care is too great, than yeah, sell it. This is presuming its worth much.
Really i'm mostly searching for a more vibrant less oppressive place than the middle of ohio. A vast majority of my friends are gone and this place is culturally dead to say the least. So it seems that the benefits of staying at home are essentially free room and board. Which while nice I do intend to move out once i've got some cash and since I don't have any major tethers in this area I can't think of a good reason not to move to a place that is. . .well not ohio.
Aside from having a job already lined up. What would you consider to be good reasons to move? More importantly there really isn't a good way to line up work without having a skill in demand right?
Oh and my college thing was boredom mostly.
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So uh with that in mind. What are some happening locations where a youthful boy can blossom? Outside of Ohio i've only visited Toronto (loved it. that's when I decided I needed to get out to a big city) so i'm kind of at a loss but hope to begin visiting places in a month or so. I've got Chicago on the list. New York. Seattle. . .
If any of you could give me a break down of the sort of things that are prevalent in the various cities it'd be really awesome. Sorry for being uh uninitiated.
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I don't understand. Columbus is an excellent city located in the middle of Ohio that fits all your criteria.
-Relatively inexpensive
-Culturally vibrant
-Growing rapidly
-College town
-Transportation isn't a nightmare
Edit: Actually, the differences between not-Columbus and Columbus is like night and day. Even when you get just 20 miles past the connected suburb areas like Dublin and Hilliard, the general affluence takes a huge nosedive. I live in this dreaded area, but I try to spend as much time in the city as possible.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Plus it isn't in ohio :P
Newsflash: That's part of the difficulty of college. If I was a prospective employer and you told me you quit college because it was boring, I'd be wondering if I could rely on you to show up and work at my boring job every day. Because the odds are that you are not going to find a job more interesting than Philosophy/Pre-Law college classes.
That being said, if you really think you'd be less bored in a big city, I'd recommend picking one and moving there ASAP to look for a job. From the sounds of it, it looks like you've got ~$5,000, right? I'd save as much of it as you can, rent a very cheap apartment or preferably couch-surf with a friend, and do not spend any of that money on anything other than the cheapest groceries and rent.
Then, search vigorously for a job. Our age bracket has the highest rate of unemployment and it will not be easy to find a good job. But you must have some previous work experience (you have some money saved up). If your grades were decent and you can explain quitting college in your final year without looking like a lazy bum, you might be able to snag something. But you need to plan for at least nine months of searching. Which means you need to make an unemployment budget and stick with it. You need to make that $5,000 last as long as possible. And I would only sell the car if you're in a city with super-excellent public transportation - I know that in Austin, most jobs require you to have "reliable" transportation to work, and the bus routes only cover a very specific area.
Also figure out what you are looking/hoping for before you make decisions. It will be an expensive mistake to move to NYC and find out that "Oh, I really don't like such crowded urban centers." or to move to LA and think "I really don't like the sprawl."
One thing that makes relocating tough is that a lot of apartments don't want you if you don't have a job. And conversely, employers won't hire you if you don't have a local address. When I relocated, I mediated this problem by getting a crappy apartment in a sketchy part of town, and bending the truth to my landlord about my employment status. There are probably better ways of dealing with getting an apartment/job though.
That said, I realize why you want to get out of Ohio, but it doesn't seem like the best time to do it. Are you going back to your old college after a year or are you completely out of tha school? Getting that degree will be key to getting a job with most employers. I think you should save up the money for after you finish your degree (assuming that's part of your plans) and still have a long job search. At that point, decide which city you want to live and apply to jobs there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
Drew Carey was actually a member at one of the fraternities on my old campus (Kent, Ohio)
I lived in an apartment there for a year with two roommates so I guess I should point out that this won't be my first time living somewhere. It's just I was less than an hour away from home. Cleveland is about an hour from me and I have absolutely no interest in living there.
I have visited the major ohio cities because of friends who live there and yeah nothing really kept me terribly attracted to them. I do know that I enjoy the crowded urban feel after visiting Toronto and I especially loved the massive amounts of culture in the city.
Picking up and leaving right now is out of the question since i'm enrolled in school and working. Losing that stability would be a bit silly.
To say that I was bored is not quite accurate. I became completely frustrated with the education system and my school in some ways. I had a lot of friends who graduated with marketable majors and were unable to find work for over year and I knew that financially room and board were out of the question so i'd have to return home and attend a branch of my college instead of the main college and it just destroyed my motivation.
But i've addressed all of that and a move feels right for me.
Also thanks for the employment link i'll be looking into it.
Oh and no to Pittsburgh. I just can't. The ohioan in me won't allow it and all of my trips to the city were very. .meh.
Chicago also plays host to the University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul and Loyola. Those are the big four universities I hear about when I meet people here. All decent higher education facilities! (Although, every UoC student I've met hated their peers but loved their college, I can't claim to really understand this.)
I moved from Northern California to Chicago and well, the weather was a big change. People warned me so I was prepared but ultimately, the cold was still unpleasant.
The music scene here is huge as is the liquor-oriented crowd. Out of all the people I've met in Chicago, I'd say almost all of them absolutely love drinking at bars and lounges. I don't know if I'm just meeting people from all the same crowd, but man, do people here love to drink or what.
The biggest change for me was probably restarting my social life. I'm an early 20's male and I had a large number of contacts and close friends in California but this isn't really the case in Chicago. I've found it a little difficult to get out and meet people, but perhaps this is more of an issue with me. I'm not the type to go to bars on his own and I've joined a couple of volunteer groups and a club here and there. The people I meet are typically pretty nice, but I haven't really connected with a lot of people here. I hang out with coworkers but am trying to separate my work and personal life.
Er, also, Chicago drivers suck. There is no arguing this. They are unpredictable, they weave in and out for the worst reasons, people will swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid a little pothole and the salt in the streets will mess up your car pretty bad, and cars will merge lanes without looking. Northern California at least was uniformly aggressive while driving. You won't need a car to get around Chicago but it definitely helps. Chicago is fairly bike friendly and it's on the grid system so it's difficult to get completely lost. The public transit is solid!
While Chicago has a number of free events throughout the summer and fall, I can't help but shake the feeling that to really enjoy your time in Chicago, you need kind of a lot of money. Prior to this, living in a college town, it was pretty easy to get around and do fun things without a lot of cash. I may have a skewed view of this. Cover charge for clubs, public transit fees, cab rides, drinks, food, tickets to events, etc.
But the summers in Chicago are beautiful. It's green everywhere, there are dogs and their owners filling every park. Chicago is a very dog-friendly city. There are a pretty good number of parks worth checking out and hanging out in. The summer was a little cooler this year than expected, although the humidity was a surprise. I did not expect the Midwest to feel like Asia. The food in Chicago is quite delicious though! I think that the produce here is typically a little more expensive, but that's probably because they have to fly in a large amount of it.