This post is going to get me heated. Fair warning. I’m jumping into the “Why don’t you just move then?” argument that gets brought up anytime someone, especially someone with a lower income, talks about the cost of living in their city.

First of all, let me just get this off my chest now, y’all can shut the fuck up telling people to “just move” like it’s a helpful solution for people working for poverty wages and living expenses being so high. Literally, shove those words up your own ass. Shove them up each others asses for all I care! Just find an ass and plant these comments FIRMLY in there.

I feel better.

Now let me really get into this.

Rent

Rent itself is usually the largest expense in our budget. Therefore reducing it can have the biggest impact. That is hard to achieve when rent everywhere is so high and only increasing. I’ll base most of these numbers off of where I live, which is considered to have a reasonable cost of living.

Currently, in Las Vegas, the average one-bedroom apartment is around $1,500. 3 bedrooms can rent for $1,900 or more. Comparable homes for rent are usually $300-$500 more than that.

Now let’s look at the wages to afford that. From the same article on ApartmentList.com, to afford a one-bedroom apartment, you’d need to have a salary of around $55,000 a year.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average hourly salary in Las Vegas is around $36,000 or $17-$18 an hour. Before taxes mind you.

Imagine making $12 or the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour trying to pay for a one-bedroom apartment.

It’s simply not possible.

Moving In Fees

By some miracle, let’s say I found a place to apply to. That now requires an application fee, which is anywhere from $25-$75 per person, and an admin or holding fee which is another $100-$250.

Then, again, by some miracle, I’m approved! Now the deposit is anywhere from $0 to one full months rent.

Let’s talk honestly for a second. When you are low income, access to credit has many barriers. When it comes to qualifying for an apartment, your credit is what dictates how big of a deposit you pay. If you don’t have sufficient credit history, it costs more. It doesn’t matter if you’re debt-free.

Your penalty for not having access to credit is to pay two months’ rent upfront. So anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 just on your rental deposit and first month's rent alone.

Utilities

Most utilities require a deposit of some kind. Internet charges for the hook-up and equipment. Electric charges a $50 fee to hook up. So on and so on. Here in Las Vegas, we only have one company for electricity, one company for water, and one company for trash. There is no shopping around. Whatever price they set is what we have to pay.

Sometimes, if the previous tenant didn’t pay, your new service can be put on hold. How fucking crazy is that?

Now, this is just to set up the service. You still have to pay those bills when they come due. Older appliances use more energy and if buildings haven’t been kept up with, likes like water leaks or cracks in window and door frames can cause you to use more energy and therefore a bigger bill.

Many utility companies increase rates almost yearly too, which we have no control over.

Moving Materials

You gotta pack things, right? That costs money.

While there are tricks (like asking grocery stores for their boxes on truck day), sometimes you have to go pay for boxes and tape and wrapping paper. That gets expensive.

On top of packing material, are you going to need a moving truck?

If you don’t have transportation then yes you do. Now you have the truck rental fee, plus rental insurance plus gas to budget for.

Travel

Speaking of transportation, if you’re moving out of state, you have a whole other set of expenses in the form of travel fees.

The cost of gas to drive somewhere, plane tickets, baggage fees, shipping boxes, pet travel fees all have to be accounted for. Maybe for one person, it’s doable (maybe), but tell me how a family of 4 with two parents working minimum wage jobs come up with all that on top of still taking care of current expenses?

Yes, moving to Oklahoma might save on rent, but some people literally do not have the funds to fucking get there.

Missing Work

Moving takes time.

If you’re moving within your city, you probably have to plan around your work schedule. That means you might have to take time off, which now costs you money. Especially if, like most service jobs, you don’t get PTO.

If you’re moving out of state, now you either have to take time off to travel to your destination to apply for work or take time off to do virtual interviews before you move.

Childcare

If you have kids and they aren’t old enough to help pack and move boxes, what are you going to do come moving day?

Chances are they’ll need child care, which again costs money.

Once you’re moved, enrolling kids in new schools or daycares can come with its own set of fees as well.

Childcare is also an important factor to consider about moving. If you live near family, or at least people you trust with your kids, that can cut back on childcare costs significantly. So what Todd Bumfuck is saying is that it makes more sense to move away from an entire support system to a lower cost of living city and pay for childcare, which can equal a full months rent or more, just to save a few hundred on monthly expenses? The maths not mathing here my guy.

Groceries and Other Supplies

Stocking a new apartment is stupid expensive. If you move locally you can at least move over your pantry and fridge items as well as you know, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc.

If you’re moving out of state, that probably all gets left behind and you have to rebuy everything in your new location.

The cost of moving just grows and grows.

This is all just the list of things to be considered if you actually are moving. The costs that people never realize are there until you actually move. It’s easy enough to say to save for application fees and deposits but did you actually factor in everything that costs money when someone moves?

Now let me dive further into some of the bullshit arguments that don’t consider everything we just mentioned.

“But what about roommates?”

“Shove it up your ass!” she screams. *deep breaths* Okay, yea, let’s tackle that one.

So you want to split costs and get a roommate. In theory, a great idea actually. In practice, it fucking sucks.

More and more management companies are changing the rental criteria to make it harder for low-income folks to qualify. Many in Las Vegas now not only require people to make 3-4 times the rent but they require that of each individual applying. Meaning if the rent is $1,900 for a three-bedroom apartment, all three applicants each need to make $5,700 ($1,900 monthly rent x 3) gross income MONTHLY to qualify for it. The gross monthly income of someone making $7.25 an hour is $1,160 ($7.25 x 160 hours).

I make $16.50 an hour and I literally do not qualify to rent from a substantial amount of apartments in my city. It wouldn’t matter if I moved in with 3 other people.

And this is just from my perspective as someone who doesn’t have kids. Opening the door to a roommate situation with children involved requires a whole other level of safety that isn’t considered in the, “Then get a roommate.” comment.

“Just get another job.”

*screams into pillow*

Tell me how a single parent with two kids is supposed to manage another job and added childcare costs?

Tell me how a full-time student with two part-time jobs already is supposed to manage another one?

Tell me how someone with a disability is supposed to find a job that will actually accommodate their needs?

Oh, what’s that? I’m sorry you’re pretty silent now.

The go-to idea for making literal survival manageable should not be taking on more work. It should be liveable wages to start with.

“Buy a house and don’t worry about rent.”

*silently stares in rage*

Do you know how fucking stupid this sounds?

You can’t afford $1,500 a month nor do you qualify for it, but you could totally save 3-5% of $405,000 (the current average home price in Las Vegas, which is literally a new record for the city) for a down payment plus closing costs and fees on $7.25 an hour and take out a 30-year mortgage. Come on! Interest rates are so low!

Lower interest rates don’t mean shit when the home is overvalued to begin with.

Per BankRates mortgage calculator let's see what that mortgage would come out to.

Based on the average home price in Las Vegas, with a 3% down payment the mortgage is slightly over $2,000. I don’t claim to be the best with math, but that seems higher than renting. Just for funsies, let’s see what the mortgage would be with a more traditional 20% down payment.

Hmm. Still, about the same as renting only now, I had to save $81,000 as a down payment. I make $16.50 an hour and clear around $27,000 after taxes. For the sake of math (that pesky math) let’s round up and say $30,000. I’d have to save over double my current YEARLY salary on top of current living expenses just for the down payment.

Homeownership comes with a whole other set of fees too. You have PMI, which is additional insurance you have to pay if you have a low down payment, you have homeowners insurance, property taxes, HOA fees, closing costs, an ALTA survey is sometimes required to make sure property lines are correct, and any repairs or remodeling that the previous owner didn’t take care of.

*big inhale and…* HOW IS SOMEONE MAKING $7.25 AN HOUR GOING TO AFFORD THIS LITTLE FUCKING LIFE HACK BRO?

We all know it was a bro that said this.

“Learn a more profitable skill.”

HOLD ME BACK!!

Lord my patience is being tested.

Yes, learning new skills is great. Vital even. That doesn’t mean it’s the solution to making the cost of living affordable.

Sure, there are tons of free resources online to learn something that could help you make more money, but free doesn’t mean people have the time to do it. May I refer you back to the single-parent of two kids? How are they going to juggle everything that comes with that life on top of learning bookkeeping or how to become a software engineer?

Another part of this skills thing.

Where do y’all think higher-paying jobs are?

Just lean in. I’ll tell ya. Little closer.

THEY’RE IN HIGH COST OF LIVING PLACES.

Sure, more companies are going remote, but cities still tend to have far better job opportunities. That means a higher cost of living.

Cities also often have better public transportation which is important if you don’t have a car. They have access to better healthcare, which is important if you have chronic health needs.

There’s easier access to better grocery stores and food options.

So no, just “learning better skills” does not automatically equate to better pay or better living conditions.

Before I pop a blood vessel...

There are few ways to mitigate how insane rent or home prices are right now. Short of a major housing bubble burst (which, btw is horrible to know what if the bubble burst and people were in horrible financial situations, I could finally afford rent where I live.), it doesn’t look like housing prices are going to ease up.

Neither are groceries or gas, or childcare, or taxes or basically any other living expense we know. The “hacks” people try and give aren’t hacks. It’s judgment disguised as advice.

“Well, I did this so why is it so hard for you?”

Well, dipshit, I’m not you.

Neither are the millions of people making poverty wages who cannot catch a fucking break.

Before you talk out your ass about what people should be doing, like “just moving” to control expenses, realize you are extremely privileged to see moving as a minor inconvenience rather than what it is, a financially unobtainable dream.

(If you enjoyed this blog post or my content in general, feel free to send an iced coffee my way via my Buy Me a Coffee tip jar or hire me for your next blog post.)

Why The “Just Move” Argument Doesn’t Help People Struggling with Cost of Living Increases