yin/yang

Why am I still up? It's because when I got home earlier I just collapsed on the bed and was out like a light, then got up three hours later. Haven't even showered yet. Gross, I know. I'll be showering right after I'm done with this post.

Things that happened yesterday (and today so far):

During break at work, I was outside with the geek crew (all us dudes that work recycling computers all day) and some of the locals started complaining about Florida, saying things like "It's too hot here" and "The jobs don't pay enough" and so on. I chimed in a few times stating that New England isn't exactly a walk in the park either, but they were convinced otherwise.

It's kind of funny, actually. These guys wanted cold weather and wanted to wear snow jackets and wanted the things New England has. All I had to say was "Hey man, you can have it. All of it. Go ahead." I said this without hesitation.

And never mind the fact that you'd have to get a job that pays $6000 more a year just to equal what you get for take-home pay in Florida.

Quick math on that using $30,000 a year job ($15 an hour) as an example:

Connecticut has state income tax in addition to federal tax. A single person working and living in CT gets 26% taken out of each check on average. 30k a year is actually $22,200 a year. A small one-bedroom apartment is $800 a month on the low end, totaling $9600 a year. Take that away from what you make and you end up with $12600 take-home per year before tax refund. You are left with $969.23 in your pocket per month before other expenses like food, electric, heat, etc.

Florida has federal taxes only without state income tax. A single person working and living in FL gets around 18% (possibly less) taken out of each check. 30k a year is $24600 take-home. A small one-bedroom apartment is $500 a month on the low end, totaling $6000 a year. Take that away from what you make and you end up with $18600 take-home per year before tax refund. You are left with $1430.77 per month in your pocket before other expenses like food, electric, heat, etc.

In FL you keep $6000 a year more for the same job, living in the same apartment under the same conditions, more or less. This is why I said you'd have to make over $6000 more a year in CT just to see it in your check if going from FL to CT.

On the flip side (from CT to FL) it means that if you had a 30k job in CT, you could feasibly take a 24k job in FL and still make the same.

And you wonder why some New Englanders are so damned irritable. 🙂

The most interesting complaint I heard about FL is that "The weather is the same all the time - it never changes!"

All I could think of was Sunny and warm with room temperatures outside most of the time is a bad thing?

Guess it depends on your point of view.

To each his own, I suppose.