Not the OP, but gain a little experience and then be willing to change areas (markets). I’ve found counterintuitively that working in high cost of living (col) markets with larger salaries is better than working in low col markets where nobody is willing to pay anything.
But my advice there might be stale as i bought a condo right before the 2020 price hikes. Being a new entry to a high priced market may no longer net the same amount of benefit. But you can run the numbers. For instance, if you move to a place where your rent doubles from 12k to 24k a year but your salary also doubles 55k to 110k, that’s losing 12k post tax to make 55k pre tax so it’s likely worth it.
But some markets have gotten very unaffordable, so the math may not always work. High col areas often find people unwilling or unable to move into them as well which lowers the competition a little.
I have other recommendations i could throw toward people looking to scrimp and save, but honestly none of them had as much effect on my financial life. Making more money by changing markets and job hopping made it so that i now am pretty financially stable in what’s considered a very unaffordable city.
Not the OP, but gain a little experience and then be willing to change areas (markets). I’ve found counterintuitively that working in high cost of living (col) markets with larger salaries is better than working in low col markets where nobody is willing to pay anything.
But my advice there might be stale as i bought a condo right before the 2020 price hikes. Being a new entry to a high priced market may no longer net the same amount of benefit. But you can run the numbers. For instance, if you move to a place where your rent doubles from 12k to 24k a year but your salary also doubles 55k to 110k, that’s losing 12k post tax to make 55k pre tax so it’s likely worth it.
But some markets have gotten very unaffordable, so the math may not always work. High col areas often find people unwilling or unable to move into them as well which lowers the competition a little.
I have other recommendations i could throw toward people looking to scrimp and save, but honestly none of them had as much effect on my financial life. Making more money by changing markets and job hopping made it so that i now am pretty financially stable in what’s considered a very unaffordable city.