RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 am
The consensus agreement seems to be:1. get a roommate or marry a rich/smart girl
Splitting the rent, or mortgage if one is living in a dual income household is a very common way to make housing more affordable.
It’s not the job change that you regret, it’s the apartment and car loan payment choices you made on the salary that you are earning in the HCOL area that is causing your current regret. Many of us were pointing out ways to overcome those decisions going forward. If you signed a one year lease for the studio apartment (no room for a roommate), then the suggestion was to use this first year or two to think about the next lease being a two bedroom apartment with a roommate that could potentially lower your monthly costs. Whether you find a friend or colleague to be your roommate, or find an ad for somebody that you can get along with who is also seeking a roommate – there are options.
Nobody said anything about having to marry a “rich” or “smart” person, but if you do meet somebody and fall in love, it certainly helps if they have an income to help contribute to the household costs – be it an apartment, or in the future a mortgage. Depending how you look at it, but financially a dual career/dual-income household can be “smart” and can lead to building a nest egg that will eventually make you as a couple “rich”.
The car loan and subsequent payments we were all pointing out is one regret as it could have been avoided. Yes, it’s nice to be able to have your very own first new car, but it comes at a cost – especially when it was timed around moving to a HCOL area, getting your own studio apartment with a high cost, and a new job. As I said earlier about the big three expenses of housing, transportation, and food: get one wrong, and saving/accumulating wealth will be difficult, get two wrong and you will struggle, get all three wrong – and forget about it. The housing alone in your HCOL area makes it difficult. Adding in the car payment with the 7% interest rate lands you in the realm of struggle. There are ways for that to improve, if you can lower your housing costs on the next lease, or if you just get out from under the car loan and take the loss by downgrading to a used set of wheels paid for in cash that can get you back and forth to work, or just rip off the band aid and pay it off ASAP. You also didn’t describe the city where you live, or if getting to and from work via public transportation from your apartment is a viable option.
It doesn’t sound like it is the job that you regret. Rather, just realize the two choices you made of housing and buying the new car with a loan have placed you in a cash flow bind with your current salary and HCOL area compared to your previous job (which you didn’t like) and lower cost of living area. It is all intertwined, but there are options to lessen the bind.
RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 am4. endure the labor for the sake of a 7.5% employer contribution and slowly keep moving in the direction that I have been
Yes, you will be back on the saving 15% track once you qualify for the employer match with your contribution, + the employer’s match, + a little bit going into the Roth IRA to take you to a total of 16-17% of your gross income. The Fidelity multiples of income graphic I posted earlier, is based on saving 15%. Contributing a lower amount for these two years of 9.x% into your IRA is not going to derail the overall journey that much as you will be back to the 15%+ level in two years. Maybe sooner if there is a nice bonus or pay raise. Again, going into the new job you were exactly where you should be regarding the amount of savings you have.
RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 am5. increase my value to current employer; need 1.5x current salary to live comfortably here
Increasing your value may or may not result in getting your salary bumped to 1.5x your current salary in the first year or two, but it does bode well for remaining employed and learning job skills to prepare you for other employment in the future.
Living below your means so that you can save and invest holds true no matter what career, or career goal one has. The salary dictates the budget and what you have to do to live below your means. The income you make currently should dictate your lifestyle choices. The big three should be chosen in mind of current salary: housing, transportation, food. If that means being lean and mean to make it to the end of each month so you are able to save 10-15%, so be it. If that means you can afford a car payment, and a new iPhone every year, and a two week overseas vacation every year, and a luxury apartment in a tonier part of town, or a 4000 square foot house in a great neighborhood and still save 15% or more – so be it. The common denominator for all of us is living below our means so that we can save and invest to grow our nest eggs.
RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 am7. Do a better calculation on tradeoffs between cost of living, salary, and location before moving somewhere
Bingo! This should be taught in high school and college to every student. Weighing the balance between housing, transportation, and food so that if one is a stretch, the other two are utilized to help make it work in the formative stages.
RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 am8. My budget is on fire but I can still (barely) survive at my current pace
Due to housing and transportation.
RedneckYachtClub wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:03 amI’m going to hang on to the car (at least for now). I’ll be looking at other job opportunities in low cost of living areas; the combination of this salary/location is not suitable for purchasing a home which disagrees with my long-term lifestyle goals. I’ll look for a second job
Do you have the time and energy for a second job? It could be just a short term option to get you through the next two years until the employer match kicks in, but hanging on to the depreciating asset of a new car with a 7% interest rate needs to be financially justified. All that comes to mind is the song “I owe. I owe. It’s off to work I go….” That’s the song you will want to drop, so you can sing a different tune.
CyclingDuo
