Lazy Man and Money

Costs of Living in California

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One of the things I was most concerned about moving from Massachusetts to California was the costs of living out here. I had 30 years to research every optimal deal around Boston. I didn’t have to sign up for The Grocery Game, because I had been living it for years.

I’m not quite as efficient out here in San Mateo county. Here are the ups and downs thus far:

– Housing – I have to rent, there’s zero chance of me buying a home. Renting isn’t that bad overall. It’s probably about the same as Boston.

– Utilities – This is going to be a pretty big win for our household. With the ideal weather I don’t expect that we’ll use the heat and very few places even come with air conditioning because it’s simply not necesssary. Our cable and Internet bill will be about $15 cheaper. In fact the package is actually cheaper with HBO – a solid bonus.

– Transportation – My fiance used to pay $200 a month in gas to drive to her job. Here, she’ll get $65 towards a metro pass from her job. That means that she’s going to have to come out with something like $20 to supplement that subsidy. My costs are going to go up as I am now the one that has to travel, but my math says it’s about 2 gallons of a day or about $100

– Food and Materal Possessions – Food and clothing is taxed in California! That’s a shock to us who have lived in Massachusetts where it’s exempt. We aren’t talking about a 5% state tax either, it’s 50% more or 7.5% overall. I haven’t been able to find the same grocery deals that I found back home, but Costco is about the same price as home, and I’m hopeful that Wal-Mart will be my friend on the grocery front. On the plus side, my job has lunch, snacks, and soda brought in daily. If I’m there late (7PM-ish), they’ll bring in dinner as well.

– Gym – The gym will be $10 less for my fiance. That was a great surprise, because the real estate for running a gym is more expensive. While she wants a full gym, I will take advantage of the small fitness center in the apartment complex – a savings of $40 a month for me.

All in all, I think the costs of living will be a little more expensive, but we really need to put together a budget before we are sure.

Finally a Job Offer

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Thank goodness, I finally have an offer for gainful employment. It’s not as gainful as I would have hoped though. Once again, it looks like I’m going to have to a discount to what the general market is for my skills. While it’s more money than I made at my previous job, with the increased costs of living, it turns out to be less in my pocket. At least there’s some good perks like lunch brought in every day and free dinner if you stay late enough. It’s incredible how standard that is around San Francisco.

It’s a job that I think I can really excel at. It’s going to be a challenge to try to save money in this environment.

Just moving in…

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So I just moved into the new place today. As you may be able to tell from my previous post, I’m not buying a place, but renting instead. I’m running into most of the usual surprises you move into a new place. Since I relocated everything I own, the moving company isn’t coming until tomorrow at the earliest. That means no lights in much of the house or a bed. There’s no trash barrel as well.

Of course without a TV, I can’t get cable installed and that means not only no cable TV, but I have to piggyback on other people’s Internet connections. I figured there might be a million people with open networks being in an apartment complex in Silicon Valley, but oddly there’s just the one. I hope that borrowing someone else’s Internet connection doesn’t make me a bad person. It’s just temporary.

Housing Prices in California? Hold your hat!

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Today I opened up a Homes and Land magazine to see what the prices are along the peninsula. Wow, was a mistake. As an owner of a condo in the MetroWest Massachusetts area, I could get a 1000 sq. ft place for a mortgage and HOA payment of $1800. My fiance owned her own 1200 sq. ft. place around Fitchburg, MA for $1100. Those are serviceable prices to pay for home ownership.

Back to the Homes and Land magazine… I note one home at 716 West Capistano Way, San Mateo, CA that’s 2 bed/1.5 bath, 1650 sq. ft. The price is a tiny $1,125,000. So after putting $200K down, payments are only $6,000 a month.

I know, maybe I can downsize a bit. A couple of pages away there’s another gem. This one is 3 beds/2 bath and even has a 2 car garage. It’s 1220 sq. ft, so about the size of my fiance’s 180K appraised condo. It’s listed as a “great fixer upper, ideal for contractor or buyers who are looking to fix or flip.” I wish I could show you the picture of this place. I have to believe that someone is inside holding it up, because it looks like it could fall at any minute. That’s a tiny $600K.

What could 600K get us in Framingham, MA or Marlborough, MA? It would get you a new construction 3000+ sq. ft 4 bed/2.5 bath palace. It’s a good thing I don’t plan on buying here. It would take me years to amass enough for a down payment.

[Originally published Sep 19, 2006…]

Apartment hunting in California!

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Things are moving along out here. I owe quite a few updates as I’ve been kind of distracted setting up everything.

I think we may have found our new apartment. It’s nice townhouse about 1050 square feet, but has the big bedrooms that our furniture from Boston requires. It’s very odd that you can find big bedrooms in Boston, but in California, good luck getting a 2 bedroom place that will fit your furniture if it’s bigger than average. The rent is $1900, which is a pretty good price for a pretty updated place on the penisula.

The big win for me is the amenites. It includes a fitness room, heated pool, and spa. I’ll save $40 a month in gym fees alone. I’m trying to get my fiance to not get another gym and use what’s available to save more money, but that’s looking like a losing fight. I’m a big fan of swimming and living south of San Francisco will give me much more swim time than I could get in Boston. Even in the hottest day in Boston the pools top out at 78 degrees. Here they are heated to about 82-85 degrees it seems. It really makes a big difference.

It’s an odd coincidence that the cost of living will be about the same as my mortgage in Boston. I won’t be able to rent my condo out for that $1900 (likely more towards $1400) and I won’t get to deduct my mortgage interest from my taxes. Doing the math out on that and I think it’s around a $9,000 yearly loss in just housing costs. I just did a little math and if I get my expected salary (which is looking pretty good about now), I should make $16,000 a year more after taxes out here. My fiancee will probably make about the same amount more. So it looks like there may be about 23K ((16K * 2) – 9K) in it for the wallet. Of course that’s based on the assumption that only housing is more expensive. It will be interesting to factor in the other areas.