Pay at a small town daily

Absolutely. It's much cheaper to be in the Midwest, or the South or the Rocky Mountain region. New England is one of the most expensive places to live in the nation. If you're trying to live on $23,000 in New England, you are beyond screwed.

And yes, credit card debt was something I have never had to worry about. I'm sure that's part of why I've been able to make a steady profit in this job.

 

And for me, living in Iowa, $600 gets you one of the nicest apartments there is. Actually, my current apartment is too nice for me. I can easily afford it, but I don't need anything this nice and would rather move to an average one and add another $1,200 to my bank account.

 

I have a few friends who had great resumes coming out of college who insisted on sticking around the Big East Coast Metro Area even if it meant working for a weekly. I initially went to the Midwest where I got paid more because there were more jobs available and living expenses were so much cheaper.

I just don't think that a single person with college loans can necessarily afford to work for a weekly in a major metro area. That's an option that's off the table financially.

 

There is almost no way you can do a car AND insurance for $150/month.

My car payment is over $200/month for a Ford Focus, and that was paying $5000 down too. Then, you tack on insurance and you're probably up to $250-300.




$300/month for an apartment is about right though, especially in a small town. I had a 2 BR townhouse type place a mile from the lake for $350/month.


$50 for cellphone is getting the VERY bare basics, probably no texting and very low minutes.

 

What part of the Rockies might I ask? Just from my experience, in my section of the Rockies in Colorado, it isn't cheap. Actually, it's ridiculous.

 

Gotta sacrifice!!!!

(or make more money)

 

Yes. That's kind of how it works.

 

I'm pretty sure a Ford Focus wasn't the cheapest car you could have theoretically bought.

But if you want to bump the car budget up a bit, that's fine, we're still coming in with the bills paid.

 

With $500 down, a five-year loan at 7.5% interest, you could borrow $4500 and get a car payment that comes out to less than $100/month.

Walk on to a used car lot in a small town with $5000 to spend, and you'll drive off with something usable. IIRC, my first car was a used Chevy Lumina that I paid $4,900 for (granted a few years ago now) and got another 150,000 miles out of it before I sold it to my cousin for $500. That was many years after it was paid off.

And of course, you shouldn't have a car payment forever. If you get a good one, take care of it, and drive it till it rots rather than trading it in for something shiny, you'll be payment-less for at least as many years as not.

 

Idaho, Utah, Montana. Colorado would not likely be cheap.

 

It isn't cheap. I pay $483 with all utilities for my bedroom in a 3-bedroom town home and that is a steal. The other units are going for about 2-2,500/month. Our landlords just love us for some reason.

The only downside living in arguably the busiest ski resort town in North America. Tho, Vail-Avon is probably more expensive. Whistler I'm sure is right up there too.

 

This is the problem Rick, and believe me I understand the industry, I have lived it for the last 10 years, and I never had the illusion of making it rich in journalism, was even prepared for poverty: But how long, as college and university trained professionals, should we be expected to live at or below the poverty line just because we like what we do?
What other line of business requires the training that journalism does, requires you to work the shit hours, and for the length of time time before seeing much improvement in that pay cheque, just because we like the job? It sure shouldn't mean that we should be making less than a burger flipper.
Is what we do rocket surgery? hell no. But that shouldn't mean we have to live in a shithole (I've lived in many shitholes and the only time I came close to paying as little as $300/month is when a really good friend of mine took pity on me and allowed me to rent a room in his house for a year), drive a complete POS (a POS that is more often than not a requirement of the job) and live a no frills life, just to get by. And not just for the first couple of years, more often than not it goes well into a career.
And sure, get a second job. If you have time. I have never held a job in the industry that has allowed me the time to get a second job when I needed it. I could get one now if I needed it, but for the first time in my career I don't need it.
I made well less than $30,000 for the first six years of my career (I actually took a pay cut to move UP in the industry) with next to no luxuries -- no cell, no credit card, relying on the charity of friends when I went out, etc. -- and I still woke up in debt. Between rent (except for the one year, never less than $450/month and always with a roommate), car payment/consolidated debt payment ($200 a month, was going for reliability over constantly plugging money into repairs), insurance ($120 a month in that sixth year, because I am a male in Alberta it started out at almost triple that, it's only been since then that a non-discriminatory system has been instituted in the province, but that's another rant), gas for the car (the super cool Buick Century I was diving then actually got far better mileage than the Jeep I drive now), food, and utilities that became a juggling act, there wasn't a whole lot more to cut.
This is working the small towns, and the places where jobs were available when I came out of college.

It's not as easy as saying, well cut more if there isn't much more to cut.
I don't argue if you live in say Idaho or Iowa or Wyoming you should be able to make it on what little they pay us. But it's not an option for everyone, and it shouldn't be an excuse to pay us as little as they do everywhere.