jim rozen writes:

In article , Gunner says...

I live in California, ableit a rural area, but work in the urban
areas.

That's the key. Work urban to make urban wages, but live
rural to take advantage of lower housing (and other) costs.

The commute kills ya though. Around here it's folks you
see who get on the train up above poughkeepsie, for a two hour
ride into manhattan. They make a living but they spend four
hours of it riding the train each day. This doesn't count the
time it takes them to *to* the train at each end.

Jim

And driving is worse. At least on the train you might have the chance
to chill and read a book or something. If you're into a 1.5 hr drive
each way, it will suck the life out of you.

10 yrs ago I had a gig featuring a 1 hour each way commute through the
worst Washington DC traffic there was. Once as I sat in the endless
traffic I estimated the time and mileage was using up something like
$5,000/year of net pay, not counting the gas money which is probably
where the real money is, or spiritual wear and tear for that matter.

The really bad thing was we had to hit the road at no lather than 5:30am
in a carpool to have a hope of beating traffic. In the winter it was
dark when leaving and dark when getting back to the carpool lot so on at
least one occasion I was so tired I forgot which way I was going; got in
the car, started it to leave, thought I had just got there to go to
work, shut it off and got back out before realizing it. I was glad to
get out of there, they stiffed me the health insurance they never
exactly promised and had real SOB's as clients.

Gregm