Why wouldn't this cost of living hack work for California?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Right now we live in Florida (put aside that I'm in school to be a PMHNP and that my wife currently works from home as one). If we went back to "bedside" why couldn't we live in Vacaville and commute to San Francisco (we each have about 10 years ICU experience) or live in Carson City Nevada and commute to Sacramento (or at least I could my wife could keep her current home based PMHNP, telemedicine job). In this way we could benefit from the high California pay (currently I make $45,00 no benefits working nights in the ICU) while minimizing the higher cost of living. Actually, I think living in Nevada and commuting to Sacramento might be the better bet even with relatively less pay in Sacramento than San. Fran. Currently, although I only live 32 miles from work in Orlando it takes me about an hour going one direction, but two hours with traffic going home.

Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
On 6/6/2019 at 8:26 PM, 2Ask said:

Dude, have you ever visited Puerto Rico? Has snorkeling on the Caribbean side, hiking in the rain forest, hiking in the desert forest, wild horses, and you can get your choice of a large selection of 2 bedroom beach condo for 100K.

(My dad owns a house near Guaynilla with a view of the lagoon and mountains in the backyard and of the guayanilla bay in the front yard. Very little hurricane damage in case you wondered. My brother visits frequently and knows all the snorkeling spots. Culebra, an island off the east side of PR has the most beautiful beach and Coral Reef- I was there snorkelling as a teen ans still rememeber)

Puerto Rico would be great, but I barely speak enough Spanish to function in central Florida and don’t forget I have to earn money. Also, my SO will not leave the US even on vacation. Thus, while Kauai may be nearly impossible PR certainly is.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
3 hours ago, klone said:

Where are you envisioning yourself working? If you're planning on working at a clinic as part of a practice, that's not going to fly. You will have to submit your notes the same day. As a new practitioner, they will often build larger chunks of "admin time" into your template until you get faster.

I talked to my my SO and she said at least half of the providers don’t close out files for more than a week. At my clinical site the policy is 48 hours, but many clinicians exceed this. I’ve been told they are counting on me to staff a branch office that few of their other providers will go to because it is so far for them, but much closer for me. I may be slow, but I’m willing to work about 16 hours per week “off clock” and go where 90 percent of their staff will not.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Well, technically you won't be working "off the clock" because in general, APNs and LIPs are salaried.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
9 hours ago, LibraSunCNM said:

Is this a serious statement? You seem to be completely out of touch with reality.

What’s the point in retiring, if you cannot do what you want. My parents saved their whole life for retirement then my dad died and my mom soon followed. Retiring leads to getting old and getting old leads to dying and dying to me don’t seem like all that much fun.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Just now, myoglobin said:

What’s the point in retiring, if you cannot do what you want.

That's the whole point of retiring. So you can do what you want, not work.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
4 minutes ago, klone said:

Well, technically you won't be working "off the clock" because in general, APNs and LIPs are salaried.

I’m going to ask for $53.00 per hour no benefits 32 hours paid per week with a schedule of M ,TueThur,Fri. I haven’t had health insurance in 25 years why start now.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Well, good luck to you

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
16 minutes ago, klone said:

That's the whole point of retiring. So you can do what you want, not work.

What if you don’t want to do much besides hike and snorkel in Kauai? I do see where you are coming from, but for me that ship sailed along time ago. The best I can hope for is a job I can do and stand four days per week and three days per week to do what I love.

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55 minutes ago, myoglobin said:

Puerto Rico would be great, but I barely speak enough Spanish to function in central Florida and don’t forget I have to earn money. Also, my SO will not leave the US even on vacation. Thus, while Kauai may be nearly impossible PR certainly is.

Puerto Rico is part of the US- it is a "commonwealth". Pretty much everyone speaks at least some English as it is a school requirement from Elementary school on.

I would not suggest working in PR. I would suggest planning some nice budget conscious week-10 day vacations there to "scratch the itch" for snorkeling and hiking while living and working in Florida. If you love it and want a condo there, they are not prohibitively expensive. I also suggest hiking trips to the Smoky mountains- NOW- next few days you have off- it would be a nice male bonding adventure with your son. I'm headed for Yosemite next week with my teenage son just as soon as school lets out for summer.

If it was me I would rather seize the day and have adventure NOW. I'm going snorkeling NOW with PTO days. Trip all booked for Sept. And I don't have to move away from my family and live and work in Hawaii to do so.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

Those are good points. After all even my own likely delusional target date for Kauai us about 5 years.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

Also since this is a post about "Califonia Hacks" to get ahead. although this wouldn't work for me (for a vast reasons listed above) it could for someone. There is a show on Amazon Prime called "Traveling to the West" (this guy Traveling Robert started in Tampa and pulled his mini camper to the LA area in about a week to fulfill a dream of attending two RV shows in the same week). Anyway, he stops by this place in the middle of California called "slab city" where numerous people truly "live for free". You can watch it here

Anyway, although the commute to LA or San Diego would be "fierce" it might be done by a husband wife or "buddy" team where one person drove each way (say one on the way to a shift and another on the way back). Surely, not the existence for everyone, but perhaps for some it could represent an opportunity not otherwise obtainable (say perhaps if you had poor credit and couldn't lease or you just prefer being away from "the hustle" of the city preferring a sort of hellish Mad Max nightmarish landscape (actually some parts are quite beautiful).

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Specializes in OB.
8 hours ago, myoglobin said:

What’s the point in retiring, if you cannot do what you want. My parents saved their whole life for retirement then my dad died and my mom soon followed. Retiring leads to getting old and getting old leads to dying and dying to me don’t seem like all that much fun.

Sounds like you've got it all figured out then! Good luck.

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