26M considering Indy -> Nashville
26 year old guy, got a job offer in Nashville. White collar engineering position, I would be making a little north of 80k.
I currently live in Indianapolis. Salary is 71,500. Currently live alone, paying 1550 total (base rent + all utilities, internet, parking). No debt (planning on buying a car soon however, already planned out financially), I save an average of 1200 a month and able to max my Roth IRA every year.
With that pay in Nashville (also knowing my take home would be more because no income tax in TN) would this lifestyle still work financially? Looking at spending no more than 1800 for everything on a studio or 1 bedroom. My job would be right next to the Legislative Plaza downtown, would like to walk to work if possible. However especially if rent and parking downtown is generally crazy high I’d be ok with a 10-15 minute commute. Besides downtown, please suggest are some areas within this price range that would have a decent population of young professionals in 20s. I have heard traffic is pretty bad for a smaller city so preferably somewhere I could get downtown from without using the freeway.
While the job situation seems ok (lateral move, would be slightly better or the same as my current one), Nashville and Tennessee in general doesn’t excite me and does not seem like a huge upgrade over Indy based on my research.
What is the dating scene like for a 20s young professional? In Indy a lot of women my age are more conservative/religious and looking to just settle down quickly which narrows down the compatible dating pool quite a bit. I still get 1-2 dates per month here from using the apps which I think is good as it gets for a shorter indian guy.
My main gripe with Indiana in general is the Bible Belt culture. Even in the city asking "are you married" and "what church do you attend" are common icebreaker questions. And outside of the city it's safe to assume that basically everyone is the type who spends every sunday in church/bible study or at the very least is from a religious upbringing. It really seems like in Tennessee this would be very similar or worse. This type of thing is not a dealbreaker for me but it definitely feels othering as a non-christian brown guy so I'd prefer my next city to not be in a bible belt-y area which is why I'm a little bit skeptical of choosing Nashville.
In general, is it worth it for someone my age? I get the impression that Nashville is mainly a tourist town (don't drink or go to bars much and not into live music, but both are things where I'd tag along if I knew someone who was doing it) and most of its reputation comes from being a fun place to visit, but I also see it's consistently on the list of top cities for young professionals.