Cost of Living Comparison

Sometimes in life, you need to just pick up and start over in a new city.  Whether it's a new job, a new love, or just the need for a change of scenery, moving can often be a scary endeavor.  You could almost think about it as a leap of faith.  One of the most overlooked concepts when moving to a new city is it's cost of living.

Cost of living can be easily thought of as purchasing power for the basics of life.  If two cities have the same average $ value for a wage, and it costs $1.39 for a gallon of milk in one and $1.89 for a gallon of milk in the other, you could assume that it's cheap to live in the first city.  It might be far to say that the first city has a lower cost of living.  With that in mind, I found a nice site that lets you easily compare the cost of living in major cities around the world.  Site here.

A simple comparison between NY City and Washington DC will provide a varying array of results from consumer prices, rent, restaurants, groceries, and overall purchasing power.  In this particular example DC was lower than NY in all category except Consumer prices.  This type of tool is especially useful if you are going to compare a job opportunity in another city.  Say you are currently making $40,000 and you get a job offer for $45,000 in another city.  This would constitute a 12.5% increase in pay, however the city you are moving to has a 20% increase in the cost of living making your real wage go far less than when you were in your first city. 

Wages and costs are relative just like much of everything else in this world.  Don't accept absolute values, but instead, find ways to compare them and make an informed decision.

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Hitting the 70 degree F weather now!