Can we afford to live there????

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
I have a question about living expenses, specifically living expenses in CA.

Here's the situation: my husband (73) and I (67) currently live in NW PA (snow belt!!) and this winter in particular has been tough. We have 3 "kids" (44, 42, 40) who live in Brea/Anaheim Ca area. We lived in Riverside, CA for many years and my husband retired in 2001 and we left. We've traveled around a lot and lived in South TX for about 8 years until we came back to PA (we had lived and worked her for about 20 years) to be with other family members back in 2008. We didn't think we'd ever move again but we're considering going back to CA to be closer to our kids.

California isn't the cheapest place to live. We know that and it's probably foolish of us to think about living there again because we know we're going to be on a fixed income. We don't necessarily want to be right in the thick of congestion and traffic again so we're thinking about a distance of maybe 40-45 miles away.

Anyway, my question is: can we live on $4300/month? We don't necessarily want to buy a house again. That would involve insurance, utilities, taxes, and upkeep.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm assuming some of you must live in CA so you would have some insight. Thanks.
 

Colleen

Here is a cost of living Price Index for 2014 updated just 6 hours ago. I've chosen San francisco as an example for you which means I presume that anywhere 50 miles out of a city will cost considerably less. , this is on the first link...and on the second link I've posted, you can click on any city in the world, and get a price comparison cost of living index index...Hope this helps a bit for you..

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/san-francisco


On this next link you can also enter your current city at the top of the page and compare it to the city or town where you'd like to live to get an example of comparative prices...


http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index
 
I come from a family of California pioneers and can tell you this: My son moved to Texas and has no desire to return. I just stay because I'm stubborn and refused to be pushed out by all the newcomers naturally causing prices to rise, rise, rise, rise...
 
That Guy....we lived in S. TX for 8 years. My husband would still be there if he had his choice. I found it very hot, hot, hot and HUMID all the time:( I was still working at the time (I was the oldest out of 60 girls) and the girls I worked with were all native Texans and very unfriendly. When I quit because we were moving to PA, one of the girls came to me and said (and I quote!)..."It's good you're going back where you belong." YIKES!! Anyway, I KNOW how much cheaper it is to live in TX, but our kids are in CA so I guess we'll just have to suck it up and decide do we want to be close to them or not.
 
I live in Colorado and don't have an interest to live in California at all, but, I have a sister who lives in Texas, and personally I'll take California over Texas any day, LOL. Not crazy about the scenery (or lack of) and heat for sure...I like being outdoors, not stuck in an air-conditioned building or swimming pool for survival. :hair: Here's a page that may have some helpful info, maybe one city is preferable over another...http://seniors.lovetoknow.com/Affordable_Places_to_Retire_in_California
 
Colleen said:
That Guy....we lived in S. TX for 8 years. My husband would still be there if he had his choice. I found it very hot, hot, hot and HUMID all the time:( I was still working at the time (I was the oldest out of 60 girls) and the girls I worked with were all native Texans and very unfriendly. When I quit because we were moving to PA, one of the girls came to me and said (and I quote!)..."It's good you're going back where you belong." YIKES!! Anyway, I KNOW how much cheaper it is to live in TX, but our kids are in CA so I guess we'll just have to suck it up and decide do we want to be close to them or not.
Click to expand...

My son is in Austin and has adjusted through the homesickness and climate acclimation. I agree it's HOT and HUMID and MEAN. Austin is pretty "cool" (certainly not temp-wise) but it's still Texass.

I know there are folks living in Texas and some are native and love it. I mean no insult. There are, of course, good and bad, friendly and mean people everywhere. Although I must say the friendliness I discovered in Texas was a very thin veneer. Don't mess with Texas are words not to be taken lightly.

But, I couldn't resist while at a big time BBQ responding to a blowhard state senator when he tried welcoming me to The West with, "I'm from California, senator, and it's a lot further west than this place!" Community relations were never better . . .
 
Colleen said:
I have a question about living expenses, specifically living expenses in CA.

Here's the situation: my husband (73) and I (67) currently live in NW PA (snow belt!!) and this winter in particular has been tough. We have 3 "kids" (44, 42, 40) who live in Brea/Anaheim Ca area. We lived in Riverside, CA for many years and my husband retired in 2001 and we left. We've traveled around a lot and lived in South TX for about 8 years until we came back to PA (we had lived and worked her for about 20 years) to be with other family members back in 2008. We didn't think we'd ever move again but we're considering going back to CA to be closer to our kids.

California isn't the cheapest place to live. We know that and it's probably foolish of us to think about living there again because we know we're going to be on a fixed income. We don't necessarily want to be right in the thick of congestion and traffic again so we're thinking about a distance of maybe 40-45 miles away.

Anyway, my question is: can we live on $4300/month? We don't necessarily want to buy a house again. That would involve insurance, utilities, taxes, and upkeep.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm assuming some of you must live in CA so you would have some insight. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Coleen---Assuming that you have no large debt like a home/car $4,300 monthly should be adequate DEPENDING on WHERE in California you choose to live. Rents vary considerably from one area to another. If you need or desire more GUARANTEED monthly income and have a bit of cash stashed away, take a serious look at Joint Single Premium Immediate Annuities.
 
Bullie76 said:
What about AZ or NV? Obviously a longer drive to your kids but not that far.
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As a matter of fact, my husband and I were talking about that this morning over coffee. I'm sure it would be cheaper to live there then CA. If we know our kids, we're the ones that will be doing the traveling to see them...no matter where we live. When we lived in Riverside, they lived in the Tustin area and we only saw them at our house if we invited them to dinner :)
 
We lived in the foothills NE of San Diego, place called Poway, for 20 years; both had to work, two jobs for me and one for the wife; hated the crowded freeways, hated the Santa Anas every year, hated the fires every year, hated the constant noise from traffic and police helicopters. We paid $12,600 for our house, sold it for $91,000 to a guy who sold it two years later for $126,000. We moved to Colorado and did great on a single income, retired here and are doing quite well on a pension and SS; our cost of living is probably 50% of what it was in CA; taxes are very reasonable; job market is good; the only downside is that there are as many urban "fruits and nuts" in CO as CA, maybe they followed us here! We would never, never in a million years even consider the thought of moving back to California.
 
In anticipation of the inevitable your part of the CO problem remark: my wife is a CO native and only left to join me in at my various navy ports; we got trapped in San Diego by the economy when I got out and it took a good job offer in CO before we could afford to move so we aren't transplants, just took a while to get back here.
 
Colleen said:
As a matter of fact, my husband and I were talking about that this morning over coffee. I'm sure it would be cheaper to live there then CA. If we know our kids, we're the ones that will be doing the traveling to see them...no matter where we live. When we lived in Riverside, they lived in the Tustin area and we only saw them at our house if we invited them to dinner :)
Click to expand...


Take a look at this rental in Fresno, California. http://www.westwoodbluffs.com/ Compared to Sothern California or the San Francisco Bay Area it's a real bargain.
 
Lon said:
Take a look at this rental in Fresno, California. http://www.westwoodbluffs.com/ Compared to Sothern California or the San Francisco Bay Area it's a real bargain.
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Thanks, Lon for the link but we're not interested in Fresno or condo/apt. living.

We've been doing a LOT of research in the last couple days and have decided to cross off CA from our relocation list. I'm pretty sure we're going to take a look at Kingman, AZ next month when we go to CA. We are retired so we're looking for a slow, quiet life in a small town. We've been through Kingman a few years ago so that's what brought it back up in our minds. We like that there is VERY low crime compared to CA and we can get way more of a house for the money.
 

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