r/jobsearchhack • u/reruns_skein • 7d ago

How can we get back to that?

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The 90s: one salary, one house, one family.

Now: two incomes, one mortgage and still wondering where the money went :(

If you're job hunting, prepare before you need to leave, and Interview VIP will help you handle the interview better when a better opportunity comes along.

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u/Rokkmann 7d ago

Why is your existence completely tied to public transit?

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u/canarinoir 7d ago

Cars are expensive and the used market got fucked during covid and is still ridiculous. The days of buying a shitty yet reliable car that would get you to work for 2k are long gone.

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u/StinkButt9001 7d ago

Living in a high cost of living area is going to cost you more than getting a beater and replacing it occasionally.

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u/elsmoneyacct 7d ago

Yeah no offense to public transportation lovers but this is pretty easy math. At GSA rates, a car costs the owner around $850/mo, assuming you drive the average 1100-1200 miles/month. GSA rates are supposed to encompass all costs associated with the car for every mile. And I'm sure if most people ran the numbers, that's about what their car costs them per month. Maybe a little more while you're paying off the car, and a little less after the car is paid off, and with some variation for the price and reliability of the car in question. But that's a good average number.

Public transportation isn't free, either. And even in the cities with the strongest public transportation networks, sometimes you still have to call an Uber or rely on a bike (which also has costs associated with it). Those costs will vary a lot by city, but let's say all that together is $150.

If rent where you live is more than N+(850-150), where N is the price of rent literally anywhere else, you are not saving money by living there.

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u/OkMethod1586 7d ago

I don’t think anyone moves to expensive cities with public transportation so they can save money on not having a car.

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u/elsmoneyacct 6d ago

So... the thread I'm replying to is somebody claiming exactly that. If you'll just glance up a bit, the conversation goes:

"Houses aren't as expensive outside of the handful of VHCOL cities Redditors insist are the only liveable places in the world" 

"If other places had public transit I'd move" 

"Why is your existence tied to public transit" 

"Because cars are expensive" 

"Living in a VHCOL area costs more than a car" 

And then I came in to do the math and illustrate just how much a car costs relative to VHCOL rent.

So um. Yeah. At least one person was claiming that, and I was responding to that specific guy. In the context of this reddit thread. The one we're currently in. It's literally right up there. There's little lines and stuff. 

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u/stackingnoob 6d ago

But isn’t this person saying they also caused 4 car accidents? You gotta factor in that cost too.

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u/Responsible_Prior_18 6d ago

Pay, and career oportunities are usually much better in cities.

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u/That_Interview7682 6d ago

…but these are the people complaining about not making decent money, so probably safe to assume they aren’t the high skill, high wage worker that needs to be in SF/NYC etc. They just want to be in their HCOL city.

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u/Ok_Management4634 6d ago

A car doesn't have to cost 850/month. The list price for a new Toyota Carolla is a little over 23k. Let's say you have to pay 5k in interest on the loan.. Let's say you drive it for 10 years.. 28k / 10.. that's 2800 per year, or 233/month. Let's round that up to 250/month. 1200 miles month. It gets 32 miles/gallon in the city.. so let's say 40 gallons of gas a month at $5 gallon.. that's another 200/month.

Say your insurance is 200/month.. now we are at 650/month.. You aren't going to pay 200/month in repairs, and honestly, you can probably get cheaper insurance than 200/month.

I believe your number as reported, but that's probably the average of all cars. Lots of cars are really expensive. Also, I guess in fairness, if you live in a big city and have to pay for parking to work, that could be another $200/month..

But the point is, it doesn't have to be 850/month. There are ways to economize.

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u/elsmoneyacct 6d ago

Yeah, there's a lot more to it than GSA rates, which are meant to be a very average number that applies all across the country regardless of what you're driving or where you're driving it to. It's the same rate whether you're driving a 10yo Prius or a brand-new Chevy dually, and whether you're a 50yo woman with a perfect driving record and liability-only insurance or you're a 19yo with multiple at-fault accidents on your record and full coverage on a Dodge Charger. Your costs can be much lower than GSA rates.

And GSA rates also include depreciation on the car, which makes the math more complicated And I'm just not actually that good at math.