Increase Your Income by Temporarily Moving to a More Expensive City

Here's an interesting comment. It was left on my post titled Yes, Moving to a Cheaper Cost-of-Living City Can Make You Rich, but it actually turns the advice around. It's from someone who lives in an affordable market who's thinking of moving to a higher-priced market to get a salary bump, then moving back to the lower-priced market (hopefully with the same, high-priced market salary) to be better off financially. His thoughts:

I have wondered about moving to a more expensive city, temporarily, just to have the extra money, and then moving back to a less expensive city. I currently live in the Indianapolis Metro Area, and it is VERY affordable. I do quite well, being a fairly young guy. I am at the age where a typical person would have about three or four years of experience under their belt after going to college, but I have nearly eight years and am just finishing college. My pay is inline with someone of my experience level with college, for the area. But, I looked at a couple of jobs in New York City last night (it was the first time I ever looked at jobs outside my metro area, for some reason), and the salary for a job similar to mine paid more than twice as much.

I know that it would certainly cost more to live there, but what if it were just for a short stint, maybe two years. I could see about building up a some money, keep my current home and rent it out, and then move back in a couple of years. However, while I think NYC might be exciting, I would probably stick with Chicago, as it is only two and a half hours away...I could possibly even stay where I am and just rent a small place up near Chicago and come home on the weekends.

I'm not sure this will work, but it's an interesting concept. Anyone out there tried this or have any thoughts/suggestions on it?

Comments

[John Wilks]

I plan on doing just that. I'm in an incredibly cheap area now where I'm attending College and living. Once I have my Bachelors I'll move to Boston or New York, work for as long as I need to to get established. After that I might go international and travel (that's only if I find a great company) And of course then I'll want to start taking things easier once I get older. I'll probably end up living in Connecticut and commuting to Boston or NY.

For me temporary might mean 5-15 years.

[Lord]

It is a good plan and many middle America companies will be strongly attracted to your big city experience. The difficulty will be returning to a specific area. There may simply not be anyone locally that needs and wants your experience. If you remain flexible about where you end up though, you shouldn't have any problem.

[Jason]

Another alternative to consider is traveling full-time...

I've been out of college for about a year and a half now, and my job has my traveling across the country full-time for work (i.e. in another state M-F and home on the weekends). I was raised in Detroit but I have seen almost every state in the country. You really get a feel for what is out there and the experience is irreplaceable.

However, being a road warrior is not for everyone. While the frequent flyer miles and hotel points are nice, being away from friends and family for extended periods of time may wear down on you.

This plan works very well for someone early in their career and willing to relocate. I started my career in the Midwest (Iowa) with a low cost of living. I moved to California (Bay Area) with a pay increase then moved to the South where the cost of living was extremely low (Houston).

I don't believe this plan works well once you get to a certain level in your career (mid management and up)

[D]

You could also get a good job in Chicago, then convince them after a year or so that telecommuting from Indianapolis is cool...

Many companies are getting a lot more flexible on this as bandwidth becomes a non-issue.

[Blaine Moore (First Time Homeowner)]

A friend of mine just got a job in NYC and is renting out in Jersey City - not only does he make more money, but he actually has a lower cost of living. He was in Ithica, NY before that.