Cost of Living Survey

[Guest]

I'm curious how much it costs most people to live.

I am going to be graduating from college & living on my own, so why not do the research before life hits me like a bus?

 

I would like to calculate the minimum wages & expected bills & see what bare minimum life cost is as well as what comfortable life cost is.

If you have any life experiences you want to share related to money, please do. As long as it has no mention of politics. I know money is one of the few forbidden subjects for good company. So right now, you are all Bad Company. /s

Spoiler

For those that don't trust my embedded links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VsvZmIWxY

or the preview can just not show...

Thanks for your input! Just interested in life, y'know? No need to tell me anything if you don't want to.

 

If you just have some "Hey, I won't share my details, but here's some pro-tips" feel free to share. This thread is for the learning of money management & life costs.

[LordVetinari]

I filled it in, although my figure covers a wife and child.  I would suggest you also need to include transport (car and gas or metro pass etc) and medical insurance (as you are American). I would also include a sum for 'sundries' when budgeting - just for all the stuff you haven't thought of that can add up.

 

My only other tip is to be realistic when estimating your 'fun' expenditure - don't be a Scrooge to start off with and make an unrealistic budget. It will just make it harder to stick to. Of course it's the easiest place to save money if you need to, but don't be like 'i'll only have one take out every two months and go out for a meal/to a bar once a year' unless that is what you are currently doing.

 

For what it's worth - although I'm not in the US when I looked at moving to the US circa 5 years ago (seriously looked at it - had job interviews and filled out immigration paperwork) the cost to standard of living ratio was very similar between the UK and Massachusetts so there is some comparison there.

 

(Also, you included the Swiss Franc but not GBP? Dear lord)

[Chionele]

5 hours ago, fpo said:

I am going to be graduating from college & living on my own, so why not do the research before life hits me like a bus?

Then what you should do is focus on the local costs, not some completely random numbers across the world.

[dizmo]

What you're doing is smart in theory, but rather poor in practice. As @LordVetinari pointed out, you're going to get so many responses that aren't at all relevant to you. Expenses vary so drastically from person to person, and definitely from place to place. For example, right now the apartment I rent is $1,200/month. However it markets at $1,500/month, and the city I lived in before my apartment was $3,200/month. Though, in the last city I didn't need a car, so those expenses were gone. On top of that, the majority of the forum isn't even old enough to have lived on their own long enough to have a good grasp of what's smart and what isn't.

 

The best thing you can do is figure out where you want to live, and go from there. Then you can do a little research and get a realistic idea of how much you'd need to make, or what sacrifices you'd have to make to live there. I spent a couple of weeks researching the UK when I was contemplating moving there a few years ago.

 

Money shouldn't be a forbidden subject. I've always found that kind of an odd stance to take.

 

My tips:

• If you want to buy something, see if you can find it somewhere used/new but not from a store. Like a camera, for example. Then you not only spend less money, but if you need to sell it, you can often get more for it than you bought it for. Also works when you want to upgrade.
• Living with roommates is an excellent way to save a ton of money, which can be invested into other things. It can also lead to some truly memorable times. Just make sure they're good people, dicks will ruin that awfully quickly.
• Always buy quality, not quantity. If you want a belt? Save up and get a high quality one. Want a pair of shoes? Save up and buy something high quality. Same is true for virtually everything. If you buy something of lesser quality you'll have to either replace it much more frequently, or it won't work as optimally. It also loses any kind of residual value.
• Don't buy a new car.
• Find some sort of side gig to make money. Whether it's buying and selling, selling services, etc.
• Buy groceries that are on sale. Use coupons (I think that's big in the US). When I make my shopping list, I almost exclusively buy things that are on sale. Also get a Costco card if you live near one; Groupon usually has a 50% off sale every couple of months on the membership, and it includes a free roasted chicken and a few other things.
• Don't eat out often. It's expensive. In more ways than one.
• Move somewhere with affordable real estate. Invest early.

Do you have anything specific you're worried about moving out on your own?

 

Also...if you're finishing college, I'd hope you'd be going into a job that pays significantly more than minimum wage, otherwise why did you go at all?

 

30 minutes ago, LordVetinari said:

I filled it in, although my figure covers a wife and child.  I would suggest you also need to include transport (car and gas or metro pass etc) and medical insurance (as you are American). I would also include a sum for 'sundries' when budgeting - just for all the stuff you haven't thought of that can add up.

 

My only other tip is to be realistic when estimating your 'fun' expenditure - don't be a Scrooge to start off with and make an unrealistic budget. It will just make it harder to stick to. Of course it's the easiest place to save money if you need to, but don't be like 'i'll only have one take out every two months and go out for a meal/to a bar once a year' unless that is what you are currently doing.

 

For what it's worth - although I'm not in the US when I looked at moving to the US circa 5 years ago (seriously looked at it - had job interviews and filled out immigration paperwork) the cost to standard of living ratio was very similar between the UK and Massachusetts so there is some comparison there.

 

(Also, you included the Swiss Franc but not GBP? Dear lord)

So much of this. Food is the easiest place to curtail spending. Plus, it'll save you significant amounts of money later on when you have to try and find ways to burn off the extra weight you've gained or deal with medical consequences of such.

 

Did you factor health care into the difference? I'd imagine that would have had quite an impact.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Chionele said:

Then what you should do is focus on the local costs, not some completely random numbers across the world.

I may move to another country or region so I want to be prepared. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, LordVetinari said:

I filled it in, although my figure covers a wife and child.  I would suggest you also need to include transport (car and gas or metro pass etc) and medical insurance (as you are American). I would also include a sum for 'sundries' when budgeting - just for all the stuff you haven't thought of that can add up.

Yeah I'm not sure what money I will need so I'm curious what others may think. Thank you! 

2 hours ago, LordVetinari said:

 

 

(Also, you included the Swiss Franc but not GBP? Dear lord)

It was late haha. 

 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

What you're doing is smart in theory, but rather poor in practice. As @LordVetinari pointed out, you're going to get so many responses that aren't at all relevant to you. Expenses vary so drastically from person to person, and definitely from place to place.

Yeah. I'm not sure where I will live nor what I'll need. I'm interested in what other people's notes are to take that stuff into consideration. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

For example, right now the apartment I rent is $1,200/month. However it markets at $1,500/month, and the city I lived in before my apartment was $3,200/month. Though, in the last city I didn't need a car, so those expenses were gone. 

Yeah, that's some stuff I'm curious about. Someone may have the highest rent but no car and I'm curious what their notes are as well as the person that has the lower cost of living as well as a car and what their notes are. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

The best thing you can do is figure out where you want to live, and go from there. 

I will do research to the specific places but in the meantime I'm wondering what the mode is and just general information. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Money shouldn't be a forbidden subject. I've always found that kind of an odd stance to take.

From what I hear it's forbidden subject because if someone is poor you don't want them to feel bad because they can't afford stuff or if someone is rich it's embarrassing because other people cannot afford what they can. Idk. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

 

Do you have anything specific you're worried about moving out on your own?

Not in particular. 

I may fly to another country to live there so for one I'm budgeting what I might expect to have to pay for living whilst also paying for the flight. 

I have multiple citizenships so I can go to quite a few places. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Also...if you're finishing college, I'd hope you'd be going into a job that pays significantly more than minimum wage, otherwise why did you go at all?

Yeah I'm studying computer science. I probably shouldn't need to worry. 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

So much of this. Food is the easiest place to curtail spending. Plus, it'll save you significant amounts of money later on when you have to try and find ways to burn off the extra weight you've gained or deal with medical consequences of such.

 

Did you factor health care into the difference? I'd imagine that would have had quite an impact.

That's some of the conversation I may need to listen to. 

[LordVetinari]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

-snip- 

When looking at other countries don't be put off (or have unrealistic ideas) by the quoted wages for a job. Taken in isolation they would be meaningless - it absolutely has to be weighed against living costs and also the benefits/drawbacks of the culture and country you would be moving to. 

 

When I looked at moving to the US although the dollar amount I would be paid would go up (eventually - my qualifications aren't 100% recognised by the US) and taxes and property would have gone down, this was offset by additional costs of healthcare, the need for an additional vehicle etc etc. In the round, we would have had a few more dollars at a reduction in working conditions (in particular leave from work) and it didn't quite make sense.

 

It's cliché but even a simple spreadsheet is really helpful in comparing and organising budgets.

 

Also don't forget to cover any debt you currently have in your calculations. Student loans, credit cards etc.

[TetraSky]

My cost of living is under $1000 CAD per month.

Rent is shared with a roommate, $450 for my part, food is like... $100 to $200 per month for me, tops. I never order out, I do sometimes buy a frozen pizza or something similar, good enough for me.

My internet is $45 for 30/10, cellphone is $17 (dirt cheap pre-paid plan with barely any data(250mb) and only 100 minutes call time, but unlimited texting, which is what I do 99.99% of the time) and electricity is $100 per month for my part as well and lucky enough to live in a heated building

I'm on student Loans and Bursaries right now and get a bit over $900 per month.

Could I live more comfortably with more money? Sure. But I'm also investing my extras each month and it's going up nicely for some of them.

[Rybo]

https://money.stackexchange.com/ is a great resource for financial advice.  Use the search feature, though, rather than just asking questions: it's a near certainty that anything you can think of to ask about has already been answered multiple times.  

 

One important thing to force yourself to do: pay yourself first.  Don't make a budget and then squirrel away whatever's left over.  Squirrel something away -- say, 15% of your take home pay -- and THEN make a budget with the remaining money.  

You might think it's difficult, but you'd be amazed at how easy it is to spend money.  I make a 6 figure income and live in an area that doesn't require it and could easily live paycheck to paycheck without living extravagantly.  So learn quickly to put something away. 

And if you put it into a savings vehicle like a 401k or an ETF, you'll have a leg up on most: the 5-10 years it takes most people to realize they need to start investing could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how much you make during that time of your life.  

Beyond that, one good piece of advice is to take any raises you get and invest them rather than integrating them into your budget.  Like I said, it's easy to spend money, so that 5% raise or that end of year bonus can be gone in a snap if you're not careful.  

There are obviously limits to this -- you don't necessarily need to live like you only make $20,000 per year when your income tops $100,000 per year -- but the idea of 1) paying yourself first, and 2) saving any bonuses or increases in income rather than "growing into them" should be very handy guiding principles.  Everything else is just minutia.  

[sub68]

side note japnesse currency is YEN

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, sub68 said:

side note japnesse currency is YEN

 

I wasn't sure haha. They call RMB Yuan as well so I wanted to be on the safe side than the wrong side. 

 

INB4 forgot GBP HAHA

[Chionele]

12 hours ago, fpo said:

I may move to another country or region so I want to be prepared. 

To another region, or to all the other regions? Once again, all this is completely irrelevant, paints a very incorrect picture and most likely won't even match your own lifestyle, so all the data you might collect has no real bearing to reality.

If you want specific data, you look up specific data. Even something like Numbeo is a good start when trying to assess CoL in other locations.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Chionele said:

To another region, or to all the other regions? Once again, all this is completely irrelevant, paints a very incorrect picture and most likely won't even match your own lifestyle, so all the data you might collect has no real bearing to reality.

Every Survey sucks. I know that. I'm just collecting information to think about. Better to learn from someone that lived it than figure it out on my own.

6 minutes ago, Chionele said:

If you want specific data, you look up specific data. Even something like Numbeo is a good start when trying to assess CoL in other locations.

See, I knew I'd get some good information! haha

[trag1c]

I would try to narrow down specific cities as a broad comparison rather than countries and even provinces/states. In Canada and I would assume most place the cost of living can vary greatly between even towns/cities that are more or less adjacent to each other. Another reason to look at cities rather than anything else is your median wages will differ between cities. Choosing a city also makes it easier to gather data specific to what you're looking for. Not to mention you can also find more information on other things such as crime rates, health care, transit etc. 

 

I know at least for Canada the biggest hot spots right now for anything to do with tech is Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary (somewhat, a lot of oil patch tech) and a tiny town named Cochrane (Garmin Canada has there HQ there. A lot of startups and more industrial tech companies are moving there due to a lot of subsidies for tech.) So if you were looking for a junior software dev position these would be the obvious places to do so in Canada.

 

Vancouver and Toronto have disgusting cost's of living but you also typically have higher wages as well. Out here in Calgary (Cochrane is like 15-40 minutes depending on where in the Calgary you are coming from) you can easily live on your own on the median 55000 $ CAD that a junior developer makes. 

 

TLDR; Look at what cities within a country/region have jobs related to your field and then do the analysis for those.

[WhitetailAni]

I pay no rent, no mortgage, nothing on groceries, nothing on electricity or gas, etc. because I'm in 9th grade.

[YellowJersey]

@fpo Start a spreadsheet where you list and categorise all your expenses (break mine up into "necessities" (rent, food, gas, etc) "luxuries" (electronics, eating/ordering out, non-essentials), and "professional" (on-going professional expenses like license fees, and so on). I tally mine up every month (so I have total expenses for that month, total expenses to date for that year, necessities for that month, necessities to date for that year, luxuries for that month, luxuries to date for that year, etc). I started doing this about five years ago and it's really helped me figure out how I live within my means. If you have more than one bank account, I recommend starting another spreadsheet where you list all your balances and all money coming in and going out.

 I have five years of data now, so it's a huge help in making sure I don't spend more than I earn.