As a European, I’m trying to plan a trip to the California and the West coast as it’s always been a dream holiday destination of mine and I’m now in my late 20s, with a stable job and a decent salary. I knew it wasn’t gonna be cheap, but now that I’m learning about hotel stays, restaurants, etc. I’m still blown away by how expensive everything is, not only in big cities but also around national parks. Are salaries in California that much higher? How else does a person with a regular job survive financially? Do you guys ever eat out, plan trips, etc.?
29 comments
California minimum wage is $15.50. It’s not uncommon for adults to live with 2-5 roommates or to still live with their parents. Also a lot of them will have multiple jobs.
“Are salaries in California that much higher?”
Chances are yes, but it depends on which European country you’re from.
“Around national parks” is the key statement. In the national parks themselves things are relatively reasonable, just outside of them it’s whatever the traffic will bear. The McDonald’s in Tusayan Arizona just south of the main entrance to the south rim of the Grand Canyon will charge 2 to 3 times a normal McDonald’s. How about 14 dollars for a McMuffin hash browns and one fries. We still have 2 sausage McMuffins or 2 hash browns for 3 bucks on the value menu here at home. Camping on federal lands or in national parks is a hell of a lot cheaper than hotels. There’s a reason so many Europeans rent RV’s for a week or two and stay in them to see America
The worst component of CA cost of living is housing. If you bought a home when it was cheap(er), that is not a problem for you. That describes a surprisingly large amount of people.
I haven’t checked hotels/restaurants in a while, but a few years ago they were largely comparable to other parts of the country with a similar tourist draw.
You have a job. Some people say you need a roommate, depends on your job. I didn’t
Salaries vary wildly across the country, but if you’re in the right industry your salary can be insane.
Interns – a position that’s generally unpaid – at tech companies can make three or four times the national median wage, just for example.
I’m pretty well off in a high COL region of the area. Hotels are pretty outrageous. Camping with a tent is how we travel often, very so I don’t waste all that money on lodging. We also shop at a grocery store and get stuff for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and muffins and fruit in the morning when we travel – even in low cost of living areas restaurants are often just as expensive as HCOL places. My eggs sandwiches in NYC were cheaper than in South Carolina.
When we don’t travel? We get take out pizza one a week. Sometimes we eat out on the weekends but probably only once a month.
If you are a maid that works for yourself? You can charge 40+ an hour. Cops here make over 100k.
We make more money in general, but our costs are high. Those higher wages get eaten up with higher health care cost and higher rents.
As a tourist, I did not find dining out in LA comparably different from back home.
The areas near national parks are going to be pricey.
You can stay in hostels in major cities
Accomodations are going to be pricey. Just the way it is
SF though, I definitely felt the pinch in my wallet there
Salaries in California are very high compared to the national average, because *everything* from businesses to housing to jobs are hyper-competitive with each other. The state currently has housing for about 40 million people but at least twice that amount of people if not more *want* to live in California. It’s supply vs. demand, and demand is *high*.
To your point, it seems nearly impossible to make it there with how bad prices are. Indeed, many native Californians are being priced out of the state entirely. Bay Area cost of living in particular is extremely hostile to anybody not making six figures because of their massive housing shortage. I’m less familiar with the situation in Los Angeles but I’m sure it’s more of the same.
I live out of my car and mainly park in the harbor parking lot just north of San Diego. I quit my full time job and moved to part time, since I wasn’t paying rent any longer
I was able to save a ton of money, even by working only 25 hrs a week and selling plasma, enough for a big cross country roadtrip. Once I’m back in CA I’m saving up for a van and I’m gonna do it all again
Pay is much higher, especially in the bay area
Late 20s? Roommates.
All of the Californians I know are in their 40s, they’re all homeowners living normal lives complete with trips, hobbies, etc.
I don’t know where in Europe you’re from, but in general salaries in the US are much higher. For example. Average 2021 annual wage (gross). USA $75K. Germany €44K, California $89K.
People forget that there are millions of people with low paying jobs who don’t live near the coast who are making it. Living near or on the coast (or NPs) is going to be more. Still, somebody’s got to make your bed at the hotel or cook your food for breakfast. Those people may have to live in less scenic areas but hey they do it and survive.
I went for 4 days then came home.
Seriously though, I’d move to Santa Barbara in a heartbeat if I won the mega millions
Have you tried not being poor?
California is huge. Not all of it is a high cost megapolis. Lots of cows out there, man.
Europe is much cheaper than USA on average. California is one of the most expensive states.
How do people survive financially in London, Paris, New York City, Sidney, San Francisco, Tokyo, etc…? It’s a combination of people being rich, people commuting in from where it’s cheaper to live vs being close to work, people getting by with less, or just being poor.
There are a lot of places in the world that are very expensive.
Shared apartment, second hand furniture and clothes, cooking instead of take out/eating out, public transportation instead of owning a car (car payments, insurance, gas, maintenance), no subscriptions besides a phone plan.
Salaries are a lot higher than Europe. My husband works for a company based in Belgium, he says he makes nearly triple what the engineers at HQ make.
The same way you survive financially elsewhere; Make more money than you spend.
Eat out all the time and plan trips quite a bit. Going to Japan in a few weeks.
I like to start booking stuff well in advance and over time so it’s less painful. Book the flights, the next month book a a stretch of hotel stays, the next month book the rest. Book activities here and there.
Also California has lots of great restaurants that aren’t expensive, particularly in the major cities and suburbs of LA, San Francisco, San Diego.
CA isn’t a giant monolith. Living in the middle of Beverly Hills or Santa Clara is very different than living in Fresno or Stockton. We have giant cities and tiny cities out in the middle of nowhere. I would say that New York City is as expensive or more expensive than Los Angeles or San Fransisco. The big difference in cost is that CA has four major metro areas where as NY state has one (maybe two.) The population of CA is also very high because of the weather, and high demand coupled with limited supply drives up prices.
So yes, it is expensive, and wages in most big metro areas are higher. For some. The guy working a McJob is still making minimum wage. But the difference is that there are some VERY highly paid industries in the state.
I live in CA. You asked a couple different questions.
1. Housing is the most expensive thing about California. If you’re a single person, you probably can’t afford live comfortably on your own unless you make at least $90k-ish, or live in a lower cost of living city. For those that make under that threshold, they likely have roommates or live with their family. There are some who make significantly less, but live on their own due to smart finances or frugal lifestyles.
2. People make more money in CA. It’s not entirely unreasonable for a college educated person deep in their career around their 30s OR someone who works in a trade to take home at least $70k.
3. Not everyone in CA vacations all the time and goes to touristy places. For fortunate people, they probably have 2-3 big vacations a year with a couple trips sprinkled in there.
4. But you’re likely underestimating how big CA is. For someone living in LA, the Redwood National Park is an 11hr drive…. That’s a trip some people might only do once in a lifetime… if at all.
So you’re likely trying to do something all in 1 trip (couple months) that takes the average Californian over the span of 15-20yrs to complete… so yes, it’s going to be expensive.
>Are salaries in California that much higher?
In certain sectors, yes. For example, the average Software Engineer salary in California is $138k USD, compared to about $68k USD in the UK.
> Are salaries in California that much higher?
Move away from the coast, live with family/roommates, be frugal, etc.
>Do you guys ever eat out, plan trips, etc.?
We eat out maybe once a week, though sometimes I’ll get lazy and eat out for lunch every day in a week. We do about 3-6 vacations per year, depending on how many nights away is considered a vacation. We could afford more, but we have young kids, so travel is difficult enough with their schedules (let alone not being particularly relaxing for us).
The minimum wage in California is $15.50 per hour, and it goes up from there. Idk where you’re from so I don’t know if that’s a lot more than the minimum in your country.
Also, as a California resident, if I’m going to a national park in California, I’m going to be camping, which is usually much cheaper.
I’m in California. I make over 2x what I was making in Ohio as an RN. Housing is the expensive part and going out you can spend some serious money. But I finally have a savings and some retirement account compared to living in Ohio.
Salaries are high.
I moved here from Norway, which already has an above average salary in Europe. My wife and I make almost 500k USD more than we did there.
My signing bonus alone, spread over 4 years of RSU’s, was almost 2x my entire salary in Norway.
I work in finance and my wife is in healthcare, so our salary is above average, but I know waiters at full service restaurants that earned 120k+ USD, mostly from tips.
I know some people making less than 90k USD, and for them the solution is often roommates, even as an adult. One of my friends is lives with 8 other people in a 4 bedroom house. But he would rather be poor in California than middle class elsewhere.
Another person in my social circle who works in accounting had previously moved to Atlanta for the sake of lower cost of living, bought a big house, and then couldn’t stand it and sold it to move back in with his parents in California after two years.
Restaurants here are much cheaper than Norway, and we make a lot more money than we did there, so I’m pretty happy about it. For reference, I have spent ~70 dollars at Burger King in Norway just getting four gourmet grill combo meals.
Eating out is a big thing here and pretty much the main social thing to do amongst the East Asian population. Sometimes we spend 300 dollars on sushi, sometimes we spend 5 dollars on a meal during taco tuesday, eating out can be expensive but it doesn’t have to break the bank, and we try to make things affordable enough to be inclusive of our friends who earn less money.