M – I never said the answer to every money problem a person in an expensive city might have can be solved by moving to a cheaper place. And I never said that “complex and diverse problems can be resolved with generic one size fits all answers.” I said if you have “serious money problems” ( a general phrase by design which could represent any or all of the bulleted problems in the article) then it doesn’t make sense to insist on living in a very high cost of living area. There aren’t many money problems (especially “serious” ones) that can’t at least be HELPED by moving to a place where you can afford to spend less or save more money. You may not choose to do that for a variety of reasons (you like your job, your family is there, your spouse can’t/won’t move, whatever), and that’s fine and understandable–but it’s a CHOICE you’re making. That was my point.

The statement above presupposes that any financial problem that someone living in a “expensive area” has is related to the cost of living of their home region/city rather than to a plethora of other factors that could be the cause. Or that any financial problem, whatever its cause, could be solved or would have been avoided or will be mitigated by moving elsewhere AND that moving elsewhere would be possible/ doable/ beneficial for that person.

I don’t intend to sing the praises of living in what may be considered “expensive” areas (though I easily could). My point in regard to the above statement is simply that it is the manner of living and of managing money, as well as the suitability of a locale to one’s financial and other needs(which indirectly affect finances), and *not* some generic COL figures about a particular part of the country, that ultimately makes the difference in one’s financial situation or one’s resolution of financial problems.

I assume the point of focusing on who’s responsible for a problem is so the problem can be acknowledged and then resolved. But that type of resolution simply can’t be achieved by applying one solution to a wide range of problems experienced by a very large varied group of people.

The answer to *every* financial problem that’s experienced in an expensive area, no matter what its cause, is *not* moving to a cheaper area from a high cost city. How could it be? Complex and diverse problems cannot be resolved with generic, one size fits all answers.

Moving can often be a financially disastrous choice, especially during times of financial strain, and not all financial problems benefit from or require such drastic measures. The wide variety of financial scenarios and financial problems people experience are much more complex and diverse in cause, nature, duration, and resolution than the black and white statement quoted above allows for.

The transportation makes a lot of swing shift jobs undoable – I found some great janitor jobs at Intel but they get out at 1 am which is too late to get a bus back into town. (And even if I could get back into town, I’d have to transfer to another bus or to a train which quit running at 1:30.) The job I have is (mostly) swing shift but it’s right on a bus line and I can get home at night.

Without a car, and with scheduling constraints, managing two jobs is pretty difficult unless you can get a very creative schedule.

When we came to the US, there was a woman in our plane. Back in St. Petersburg she was a history teacher and a tour guide. Obviously, there are no jobs in the US for a Russian history teacher, and she knew it. When people asked her what her profession was she would say half-jokingly “I am a scullery maid” meaning that she had no marketable skills. Her first job in the US was in a nursing home – washing old ladies feet or something like it. She did it while her husband was learning English, so that he could get an engineering job later. When she saved enough money, she opened a tailoring business. She didn’t even know how to sew, but she hired some girls who just finished sewing courses and needed their first experience. Since they were inexperienced, they were willing to work for less. She was also watching them and learning from them. As soon as they got some experience, they left for better-paying jobs, but by that time she learned how to do most of the work herself. Eventually she opened several such shops. She is retired now. Her husband still works part-time even though they are quite wealthy. They also do additional work buying books in used book stores and house sales and selling them on amazon. It doesn’t bring them much money, but she says “if we don’t work, we feel like we are going senile”.

There are plenty of immigrants from poor countries who come to the US, often when they are not young and often not knowing English. Most people do manage, and eventually work for more than minimum wage and save some money. It is tought, and it requires a certain mindset, but it is doable.