A nurse, a tradesman, a kiddo and a dog. Can we have a nice middle class life?
Hi all. Family of 3 + a dog planning to move to California and trying to narrow down the perfect place for us. As stated in the title am a nurse with several years of experience and my partner is a union tradesman. We have a 5 year old boy.
Obviously California from top to bottom is expensive and we expect that but we are wondering if we can have a nice life in Santa Rosa without feeling squeezed all the time. We love hiking and being outdoors which is our main draw to the area, along with the perfect weather as well as the proximity to the Bay Area. I’ve also read Santa Rosa is very family friendly.
I’m wondering if any nurses or other middle class professionals can weigh in on their monthly expenses, how much they make monthly, and other financial aspects of living in this area. In Western NY I currently make a little over 100k and my partner makes about 75k. We expect our pay to go up a bit in California.
Wondering also if we will ever have any chance of home ownership as we own a home in our current location and love it. Any and all insight is appreciated.