California dreaming ....don't think it will happen for me this life time (Los Angeles: job market, buy)

[Elle Oh Elle]

Originally Posted by munchitup

I dunno about that.

The stuff is expensive, but are they really paycheck to paycheck? Where do you get these sources?

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by Elle Oh Elle

The stuff is expensive, but are they really paycheck to paycheck? Where do you get these sources?

Just because you have some money leftover from your checks every two weeks, doesn't mean you ain't living paycheck to paycheck.

I consider you living paycheck to paycheck if after two missed paychecks you're almost desolate. A month of no checks can mean the beginning of the end for your stable life in LA.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

Just because you have some money leftover from your checks every two weeks, doesn't mean you ain't living paycheck to paycheck.

I consider you living paycheck to paycheck if after two missed paychecks you're almost desolate. A month of no checks can mean the beginning of the end for your stable life in LA.

And.... this is not the case for the "vast majority" of SoCal / LA residents. Maybe a majority, but probably not even that much.

[bophisto]

Hard to say for sure. I would say it depends a lot on what area you are talking about. There are a ton of poor people in this city though, but one wouldn't know it from hanging in the nicer parts of town where every other car is a new BMW or Mercedes. Our unemployment rate is 10.3% a full 2% worse than the national average..

[BarcelonaFan]

Our unemployment rate is 10.3% a full 2% worse than the national average..

A lot more are underemployed too.

[kttam186290]

There are tons of affordable areas around Greater L.A. where you could live...Lancaster, Palmdale, Canyon Country, Castaic, Fillmore, Moreno Valley, Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet, Corona, Redlands, Victorville. They are all between 40 and 60 miles out from L.A., but they're affordable and many people take advantage of that!

Not everyone can afford to live in Malibu or any of the other coastal towns and it's nothing to mope around about. If you like California, try one of the more affordable inland towns and make it work!

[bophisto]

Yeah that is true those areas are a lot more affordable than the L.A metro area...but the thing is once you move that far out are you really going to be enjoying the things that SoCal has to offer?


Temecula is really nice with their wineries,etc ..I don't have too much experience with the other areas and I agree some of them might be decent places to live. But 40 to 60 miles out is a long drive in traffic...and there is pretty much always traffic.

You are right though that there are affordable areas in California ,and what most people know from the media about California is L.A for the most part...not too many movies where the characters live in the Inland Empire. This is why it's bad to get all your information from the media!

[Elle Oh Elle]

Originally Posted by bophisto

Yeah that is true those areas are a lot more affordable than the L.A metro area...but the thing is once you move that far out are you really going to be enjoying the things that SoCal has to offer?


Temecula is really nice with their wineries,etc ..I don't have too much experience with the other areas and I agree some of them might be decent places to live. But 40 to 60 miles out is a long drive in traffic...and there is pretty much always traffic.

You are right though that there are affordable areas in California ,and what most people know from the media about California is L.A for the most part...not too many movies where the characters live in the Inland Empire. This is why it's bad to get all your information from the media!

It seems most of them do. They simply find a job over there (that's another issue, most of that work tends to be aerospace or manufacturing related) and come back to see LA or SF every weekend. In reality, you wouldn't be missing out on anything. People do the same thing from various parts of LAC. In SGV we're about 35 miles from Santa Monica already. The issue is that when you're living there, the environment doesn't have much until you drive all the way out. Most people commute anyway, but such a commute is definitely not recommended for people who are just starting out driving. Residents of Palmdale are usually traveling elsewhere because it's undesirable to stay on weekends, according to my dad who has worked there for three years.

[drshang]

If you want to get in the 100k category, the quickest and easiest way is to learn programming and become a software engineer. In a lot of ways you don't even really need to study it for a 4-year degree as long as you learn it really well or have "some" college degree. Low end for crappy programmers is going to be 55-60k. Mid range ones hit near 100 fairly quickly especially if they are reasonably good.

Maybe some of you need a level of pragmatism in your career options, if LA is your dream city consider pursuing a pragmatic career in a dream city, or a dream career in a pragmatic city. Perhaps pursuing a dream career in a dream city is simply a ticket to a subpar financial existence.

[EuroDuderino]

Originally Posted by drshang

If you want to get in the 100k category, the quickest and easiest way is to learn programming and become a software engineer. In a lot of ways you don't even really need to study it for a 4-year degree as long as you learn it really well or have "some" college degree. Low end for crappy programmers is going to be 55-60k. Mid range ones hit near 100 fairly quickly especially if they are reasonably good.

I can't find the specific post atm, but a couple weeks back or so s.o. mentioned that job marked in L.A. was quite saturated even for all sorts of IT professions. So I'm not sure how "quick & easy" still applies here.