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

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 8, 2019

23 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:
OP, you need to get this debt paid down before you can even think of Hawaii. That is an insane amount of debt and literally no savings at the age of 50.
My husband and I have a dream to live in Hawaii some day. We absolutely love it there. But, we are also actively working towards that goal financially.
I cant quite grasp your thought process on all of this. It seems like you are extremely impulsive. You have all of these get rich schemes that put you further in debt mentality.
I think you need to listen to Dave Ramsey as well. He’s very good. The absolute only debt I have is my mortgage. And I’m actively paying that down so when retirement age comes I can sell this house and have that money to use towards our Hawaii dream. This is why buying is better than renting. You are throwing money down the drain every month on rent. And how will you rent out your house if you rent?
Im with your partner. I absolutely would not be comfortable with your amount of debt. I would be telling you Hawaii is off the table as well. Maybe if you showed her you were working towards paying it off....... You also could not afford to work part time while pursuing your Masters.
Are there other reasons you feel you are a terrible icu nurse? IV placement does not make one a good or bad icu nurse. I have very rarely had to place an IV in the icu. Maybe once every 2-3 months. I’m not good at it because it’s not a skill we practice on often.
OP, if you want to actually make Hawaii a reality, you need to refocus. I’m also wondering how you will snorkel and hike everyday if you have to work full time until you are 70?
This California idea is another not well thought out plan. You are simply seeing dollar signs and not the actual cost.

Please stop spreading the lie. Renting is not throwing money away and buying isn't necessarily always best, especially when you have fools buying with zero down and are paying 40 percent or more on their income per month on a mortgage.

So many people lost their homes because they overbought or didn't have business owning in the first place.

hardworkpaysoff, MSN, RN · Jun 8, 2019

Get a travel contract near or in HI or maybe travel to Kauai a few times a year.

Work some strikes. Pick up overtime so you can pay your debts and get closer to your dream.

I would scratch the idea of CA/NV and stay in FL personally. Work your tail off in your upcoming NP role and find a position w/ a good vacation package to get to Hawaii.

Best of luck!

klone, MSN, RN · Jun 8, 2019

I agree that home ownership is not the be-all, end-all, and it's a perfectly reasonable fiscal option to rent.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Jun 8, 2019

Live in Sacramento. Work in Sacramento. UC Davis pays good. Kaiser Sacramento pay is equal to pay in Bay Area. It’s the same contracts. Getting a job in kaiser Sacramento is the hard part. Probably have to start in San Francisco.

Maybe look wat UCLA per diem pays I think around $90 now

allnurses Guide · Jun 8, 2019

17 hours ago, myoglobin said:
my SO will not leave the US even on vacation. Thus, while Kauai.

Funny you mention this and it did make me laugh because My So/husband is the same way. He scores very high on the spectrum, makes good money and is a generally decent guy. But knowing how hard it is for someone to stay long term with someone on the spectrum my hat is off to her.

I too have plan to live in another place I believe will feed my sole -but that's for when I retire. I am currently working on paying off all my debt (about $50,000.00 to go + the two houses that are earning more equity than the payments) and retiring with about 1 million in cash and equity. Wyoming is the place I want to go. My husband refuses to leave California but he is not in good health. I owe it to him and our son to take care of business here before I make any big moves.

Hppy

Etak, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2019

I haven’t read all of the responses but of the ones I have, they ring true about the commute. The pass between NV/CA is regularly shut down in the winter, and even when it’s not, you can count on chain control at any time from November to April. (They even got a huge snow storm this last May). With chains, that three hour commute becomes 6+ hours.

Vacaville to SF is a brutal commute unless you are driving in the middle of the night. Vacaville is also too far out to even use the often unreliable BART without commuting into the East Bay or Concord. You’re also going to have to factor cost of parking and bridge tolls into a Bay Area commute. You’d probably have an easier commute from Vacaville to Sacramento, honestly.

Lastly, Sacramento housing isn’t yet as expensive as places like the Bay Area, you might find it easier to just live there or in a suburb east of Sac when you factor in cost of commute and quality of life with those other commutes. SMF is also a great airport if you’d be flying to FL regularly.

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Jun 8, 2019

On 6/5/2019 at 1:29 PM, myoglobin said:
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.

One trip out there and you would figure out why this won't work. Everything, several hours away, is ridiculously expensive. Think about how much of your life would be spent in either commuting or away from your family.

LovingLife123 · Jun 9, 2019

11 hours ago, ThePrincessBride said:
Please stop spreading the lie. Renting is not throwing money away and buying isn't necessarily always best, especially when you have fools buying with zero down and are paying 40 percent or more on their income per month on a mortgage.
So many people lost their homes because they overbought or didn't have business owning in the first place.

Not a lie. Some people absolutely cannot afford to buy. But the OP has specific dreams that require a large sum of money. Yes, he is throwing his money away in rent. He’s renting a 6 bedroom home in a gated community. He could actually own a 2 bedroom in a decent neighborhood and sell it and use the money to finance his dreams.

Owning is better than renting in real estate. Not everyone can do it, but it’s better.

myoglobin, ASN, BSN, MSN · Jun 9, 2019

I do not have the ability to own in terns of DTI especially now that I am PRN. My SO will not purchase home with me due to debt issues and doesn’t want to move. If she buys home it will be with her own money and credit.

klone, MSN, RN · Jun 9, 2019

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneyunder30.com/renting-is-not-wasted-money/amp

umbdude, MSN, APRN · Jun 9, 2019

48 minutes ago, LovingLife123 said:
Owning is better than renting in real estate. Not everyone can do it, but it’s better.

I used to think that too but I don't think it's necessarily the case if someone pays a reasonable rent and simultaneously put a lot of money into savings.

It's true that buying a house helps build equity, but typically only if you buy the house at a reasonable cost. People I know who bought between 2000-2007 (during the last real estate bubble) saw their equity evaporate before they even know it. Timing of selling a house matters too.

Also, having a house means you park a lot of your net worth in a very non-liquid asset. Further, there are costs to upkeep the house and fix unexpected things. People I know who rent can call up the landlord when things go bad, and they can pick up and leave for a job if they want. There's some value in that as well.

Having said that, I'm not great at saving money and I was lucky enough to buy a house a year after the real estate crash. Having that house helped me build the net worth that I otherwise wouldn't be able to. So I'm really glad I did it.

I have a friend who rents a cheap apartment and saves most of what he earns (he probably makes ~90k and is very frugal). I have no doubt that he's amassed a considerable sum of money and could probably pay 60%-80% down on a house if he wanted to, but he just doesn't feel like it.

umbdude, MSN, APRN · Jun 9, 2019

I still think that if OP can move, OP should be able to find a PMHNP job that pays $100-$120k as a new grad at a pretty low COL location. If you live frugally for 2-4 years you could pay the debt off without trying any hack. Then do telepsych from Kauai while trying to build your business, if that would work.