Cheapest would be to move somewhere cheaper, rent, AND get a roommate.
Just as Americans are making themselves go fat by thinking that they need to eat more than they need to, they’re also making themselves poor by thinking that you have to have your own solitary living place, regardless of financial might.
Can you break those down? Rent will be lots cheaper outside of CA. Utilities, insurance, and food less so.
I think you likely should move somewhere cheaper and/or pursue other employment. It’s going to be very hard to live on $10k a year anywhere in the US, and as you mention, it’s a dying field.
My wife’s software company went under, and she was all set to take another brutal software job. But then she took a free Vocational Aptitude Test at a local college, where they said “No question, you should be doing something health-related!” “Say whaaaaa…?” “Yep, anything health-related…”
She took less than two years of classes* while she could work part-time, and bingo! Got her pick of great jobs. I was surprised how much a Physician’s Assistant makes right out of school. Same with Respiratory Therapist and other medical jobs. And she could choose between a full-time or half-time job at one hospital, or a 70% flexible-schedule one at another.
2 years and she was making more than I did as a business exec.
*At our local tech school. Supported by state taxes, so it was dirt cheap.
Why? A PA or Nurse Practitioner (NP) are basically Masters-level medical providers, while Nurses (RN) are more a bachelor/associate level provider, and LVNs are basically certificated high school graduates or maybe associate degree holders.
That might be a rough job right now…
Let me offer some encouragement. People everyday move to new places with absolutely no support system or friends/family. Think of what people did just a few short years ago when they spent their last funds to hop on a boat and come to America. THink of the people dragging themselves up from Latin America to get here.
Heck; I did it 23 years ago with no family, friends or long term job prospects…its not that hard especially with the internet access you have. You can virtually apply for, interview with and accept jobs online now. Even Amazon will hire you sight unseen, just fill in the form, show up at the meeting and start training for the job.
You can get an apartment on line too, just look over craigslist or some other website.
Really, its the best thing you can do for yourself, and it will make you a better person.
Honestly, the OP should not do anything until after this emergency is over. Once things return to normal, it may be that you can find a better job in your current location. In the meantime, as a local, you should have some support system.
There may be other work-from-home medical/hospital jobs you could check into. My wife works from home in patient accounts. That sort of job requires the accuracy and knowledge of medical jargon that you already possess. It might not be that big a change for you, and seems to be a field that is not shrinking. Many of my wife’s co-workers process claims, some troubleshoot claims that have the wrong diagnosis codes or wrong medical procedure codes. My wife frequently works on getting the physician’s provider numbers registered with the various insurers. There is constant turnover of physicians and constant change with the insurer’s websites, so there is continuous demand for people who can keep the processes working. I have a sister-in-law who works for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and they also hire gobs of work-from-home full-time staff who look over medical claims and make sure that all the medical information is accurate. They all make quite a bit more more than $10K a year. We live in the rural midwest, so I would think those sorts of jobs would be in Nebraska, too, if that is somewhere you are looking.
Sometimes people are almost forced to live in areas like Los Angeles because thats where the best careers in say the entertainment businesses are. So they might not have a choice if they want to stay in those careers.
I think I could agree with that. THat is not the case for the OP though, she can work anywhere in her current field.
Even if its in entertainment, people make that choice everyday. Do I stay homeless in LA as an aspiring actor, or do I go to the midwest and get a job where I can afford a home? Some choose to struggle with the hardship of being unemployed in paradise, while others struggle in a mundane job with a home in not-really-paradise.
Staying in those careers is a choice.
This is a good idea. I don’t think medical coders are in a dying profession like medical transcriptionists.
Around here, in Middle TN (where the cost of living is rising as it’s getting more popular to live), you could be making triple in entry-level C/S what you’re making now. Do you have a “support system” in CA, besides the job that’s driving you further into poverty? Because they don’t seem very supportive if you’re sinking further and further underwater.
I’d say find a place that suits your wants and needs and make the move, the sooner the better. Frankly, at the rate you’re going ($50K in savings + $10K/yr - $36K/ in expenses) you’ll have exhausted your savings in 2 years.
StG
The cheapest states to buy a house: Arkansas, Indiana, West Virginia
The cheapest states to live in: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas
States with lowest cost of living: Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma
Arkansas looks like a winner. But you are now in metro Los Angeles, which lacks weather. (I grew up there.) The flyover states have WEATHER. Nebraska has blizzards. (I spent a couple of winters nearby.) Even Arkansas will shock an Angeleno in winter and in storm seasons. Be aware that low-cost locales may be rather lacking in medical and safety services. Parts of Mississippi live at third-world levels.
I’ll suggest looking at prices around Tucson AZ, Albuquerque or Las Cruces NM, and El Paso TX. Warm, clean, vibrant, and with inexpensive outlying communities IIRC. And consider buying a modular home on a small lot. Those can be pretty cheap.
I left L.A. long ago and am now in a low-cost (for California)
I’ve moved to other locales for a different job 10 times in my life (OK, so they weren’t really better) most of them far away from friends and family. If you can make friends with people you work with, or find some kind of good social group (better yet, a church) you have connections to help you settle in.
Surely you can find a place with lower taxes than CA. And look for a better job if you can. Our local community college has signs advertising free CNA classes.
Well entertainers I know have resumes everywhere and travel to be in different shows. So maybe this month they are in LA, next month in Kansas City. I guess they couch surf or I read about one actor who had an RV. One local live theater has an arrangement with a nearby apartment complex which gives a low cost month to month rent.
Good friend of mine does this and no, it’s not good at the moment. Although one thing I never knew is that, absent a global pandemic of lower respiratory virus, RTs do a tremendous amount of their work on babies. If there’s anything wrong with a live baby, chances are good it’s a lung problem and the RTs work in the NICU keeping preemies going a very large percentage of their time. So he’s kind of used to being in a difficult line of work.
Yeah, wife and daughter are both working in hospitals. I’m sure they’ll go viral, bring it home and share generously.
Consider Arkansas. I’ve lived here most of my life (Little Rock area), and it’s better than advertised. Our property taxes are considerably lower than a lot of other states, the weather is good most of the year (except the too-hot summers) and it’s got everything you need. If you want to talk about it, feel free to PM me.
Not everybody likes the same climate. If you’re at this point open to looking anywhere in the country, consider what kind of weather you personally like.
College towns are likely to be relatively expensive compared to surrounding rural areas. They are however much easier places to find roommates, if you’re into that.
At least some (maybe all) states which have very expensive areas to live in also have cheaper areas. If you like the overall political, social, or weather climate of a specific state, consider cheaper areas within it: even if those cheaper areas have different politics, social attitudes, or weather than the more expensive ones (which is pretty common), you may be easily able to access the amenities of the more expensive area. And you might benefit from the state’s attitudes towards health care and other social welfare assistance.
If you’re moving to someplace where you’ve never spent significant time, don’t start off by buying even if you’re thinking of buying eventually. Rent first. Once you’ve been living there a while, you’ll have a lot better idea both whether you want to live in that general area at all, and which particular neighborhoods you like or want to avoid.
If/when you are thinking of buying: talk to the neighbors first. That’s not a bad idea even before renting. (Right now, of course, it might be difficult.)