In 2023, I graduated into a volatile job market, but thankfully, I landed a job.<\/p>\n
I was living in New York, with an inordinately high cost of living, which made staying untenable.<\/p>\n
Moving to Texas, with its much lower cost of living, allowed me to succeed.<\/p>\n
After graduating with a bachelor’s in computer science<\/a> in 2023, a software company offered me an exciting job that paid $60,000 a year.<\/p>\n The catch? I had to move away from home.<\/p>\n I had grown up on Long Island<\/a> all my life, but the company didn’t have an office within commuting distance of my parents’ house. Moving felt daunting. Moving across the country? Even more so.<\/p>\n But I felt like I had no choice because of the difficult job market<\/a> and the rising costs in New York, so I packed up and moved to Texas.<\/p>\n The East Coast was nearly impossible to afford <\/p>\n I did the math. The average rent for an apartment in most East Coast states<\/a> is $2,000 to $3,000 a month.<\/p>\n Over the course of a year, on average, that would be $30,000. This was half of my annual income \u2014 before accounting for any other expenses.<\/p>\n New York State income taxes<\/a> are also high, plus there’s federal tax on top. Already, with back-of-the-napkin math, I found that I would be left with less than half of my annual salary before accounting for food, insurance premiums, utilities, and rainy-day savings.<\/p>\n After all that, there would be next to nothing left for student loan repayments<\/a>, and I wouldn’t be able to save any money to eventually buy a house.<\/p>\n Texas was the much cheaper option <\/p>\n Researching my options, I learned the company had an office in San Antonio. As I researched this unfamiliar city, what I found astounded me.<\/p>\n Even in a large city like San Antonio<\/a>, rent averages $1,000 to $1,500 a month. Texas also has no state income tax.<\/p>\n I would have significantly more of my annual income to spend and save if I lived in Texas with the same job.<\/p>\n I decided to move across the country to Texas <\/p>\n Though the numbers were promising, I had never been south of Virginia until my move. I had no clue what San Antonio was like and had no family or friends there for support.<\/p>\n I found my apartment in this new, unfamiliar city remotely. I scanned Google Maps. I made a list of apartments with ideal locations and read their tenants’ reviews. I focused on ones with two to four stars to avoid being misled.<\/p>\n As part of my research, I looked at crime statistics<\/a>. I was happy to see it was very low. I then narrowed my commute down to five minutes.<\/p>\n I’m financially comfortable in Texas <\/p>\n After the move, I paid about $1,250 a month for a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment with an in-home washer & dryer, community gym, and pool.<\/p>\n There is a rule in personal finance called the 50\/30\/20 rule<\/a>. Ideally, you should spend 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and save 20% of what you earn. Living in Texas, I easily spent less than 50% on needs and saved more than 40% of what I earned.<\/p>\n All of that would not have been possible on the East Coast at my entry-level, new-grad salary.<\/p>\n