Moving Cities? Nominal vs. Real Income is Important | Sanuber on WordPress.com

I’ve been missing in action this past month, sorry about that. I’m in a weird moment between undergrad and grad school and have been squaring things away in Miami before moving to New York City for grad school. Moving cities gave me the perfect way to get this blog started back up: exploring how my wallet is going to be affected by looking at nominal and real income in Miami and New York City.

I am moving from a mid-size city with a high cost of living over to a large city with an even higher cost of living. The only areas with higher CPIs are San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California and San Diego, California.

This probably should concern a student like me, who will probably be strapped for cash while I’m studying. But somehow, I feel like I am already used to being tight on money, even though I make around the national average — which is supposed to be well enough. Turns out, even though Miami’s cost of living has nothing on the ridiculous prices of New York, San Francisco, and San Diego, it is still WAY out of line when compared to the average income a Miamian makes.

I love Miami — it’s home — but when you compare real average income in Miami versus New York, that is after you calculate for price inflation, you notice that money in Miami just doesn’t last. This might be because of Miami’s history of being a rich kid’s playground, or maybe it’s young age compared to New York, or maybe its poor infrastructure… I’m not sure.

Whatever the reason, if you have the choice to live in Miami — and weren’t just born here — I would definitely recommend having an income closer to the New York average that the Miami one.

Originally published at sanuber.com on March 16, 2018.