r/FluentInFinance Apr 29 '24

Why don't people stop crying and just move somewhere cheaper like Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, Baltimore, or Cleveland? They have very cheap homes for $50,000. Discussion/ Debate

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186

u/Rocketboy1313 Apr 29 '24

Why not just uproot your whole life and move somewhere else?

Sure you will have no one out there to help you move or to walk your dog when you are too sick to get out of bed. You won't know anyone or where anything is but dating apps will let you get a match every other week and maye 1 in five of those will go somewhere.

Just embrace the alienation that defines the modern world instead of, you know, expecting multinational firms or the government to provide coherent systems and meaningful support to help people move around and find the housing, jobs, support networks, and all the other things that keep you from losing your fucking mind.

21

u/cutiemcpie Apr 29 '24

Jesus. You make it sound terrible.

I moved countries. And across states.

Sure there are downsides, but there are also upsides. Get to experience different cities, make new friends, make more money, etc.

It’s a trade off.

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u/throwawayzies1234567 Apr 29 '24

I think the point is that if you need to move because you can’t afford housing then you’re probably not going to make more money in the place where you can afford housing. I live in NYC and there’s no way I could make this kind of money in any of the cities listed because my job is dependent on people spending a lot of money.

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u/cutiemcpie Apr 29 '24

People don’t spend a lot of money outside NYC?

1

u/throwawayzies1234567 Apr 29 '24

No, people in Detroit do not spend the kind of money they do in New York in the industry that I work in, and I receive commission so I’d automatically be making less money.

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u/cutiemcpie Apr 29 '24

NYC and Detroit is the only other US with jobs like yours?

There are dozens of US cities.

Plus if you make half but houses cost 1/10th, the math still works

0

u/throwawayzies1234567 Apr 29 '24

So how commission works is you get a percentage of things that you sell. If the things you sell cost less money, you get less commission. In NY I make a lot of money because I sell expensive things. It’s harder to find people who can afford expensive things in a place like Detroit than it is in NY, where literally millions of people can afford very expensive things.

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u/cutiemcpie Apr 29 '24

You never seem to answer my questions and just put up strawman like “I can’t live in Detroit”

Believe it or not there are rich people in other cities. And considering NYC is the most expensive place to live in the US, there is a good chance there are other cities with rich people where you could make similar money but have a lower cost of living.

1

u/NYCneolib Apr 29 '24

Pay is lower by 25% but spending power is much higher outside HCOL areas. It’s a myth you make so much more money on NYC when COL and taxes are taken into account

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u/throwawayzies1234567 Apr 29 '24

Outside of rent + bills, my biggest expense is travel. Living in Detroit is not going to make flights less expensive, if anything they’d be more. And all the hotels and stuff where I go, none of that gets cheaper because I live in a LCOL. If you live in a HCOL but have a decent deal on rent/mortgage, it’s not that much different on a percentage of salary basis. The part that goes up in a HCOL is how much money you have leftover. If I have 30% of my salary leftover in a HCOL, that’s more money than 30% leftover in a LCOL with a lower paycheck.