Six months of cost-of-living research, one Austin scouting trip, and a lease deadline. The decision Jay actually made — and why it isn't either of the two options he'd been agonizing over.
A friend of mine making $60,000 in Chicago says she can't save money. I ran the actual math on what $60k looks like in Memphis, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati — line by line, every expense category. The savings are real, but only if you can keep your salary.
Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Memphis. The four cities the spreadsheet keeps recommending that nobody mentions at parties. Real numbers, real tradeoffs, and an honest take on the asterisks each one comes with.
Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington — nine states have no income tax. The pitch is real, but it's about half the size people think it is. A state-by-state breakdown of what actually replaces the income tax, with real numbers from a guy who actually checked.
Four days, three apartments, one trip to Barton Springs, and a fairly specific opinion about Austin traffic. The numbers say it's a $900-a-month win. Whether that's enough to actually move is a different question.
A 22% rent hike on a Logan Square one-bedroom turned into three days of cost-of-living research and a serious case of the spreadsheets. The first post in a series about whether to actually do anything about it.
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