Where have all the moneys gone? Long time passing?

I wrote a post on here a long time ago that attempted to justify and explain the costs of living in weber county, Ut.


--I don't think the numbers have changed. I think I'm still pretty accurate in my conclusions to that piece, but there are a few line items that I think have changed over the years (I wrote it in 2013).

Medical insurance, for example, has changed a little bit since then, but if anything it has only dropped $100/mo or $1,200 per year in an ideal situation. Mostly, people get by by having their employer pay part of their insurance, which equates to instead of $350/mo of insurance premiums they pay closer to $80/mo which is outside the realm of what I was using those scenarios for anyway. --If you didn't cut your budget, pinch and save, and take advantage of every little thing out there, then you would need around $12.00/hr wages to be single and live on your own. If you had other expenses, like medical bills or college tuition or otherwise, then you would need more money or more penny pinching.

I don't think wages have changed any over the last 3 years in weber county. They've stagnated. People survive by advancing their career, or super penny pinching.

I felt like doing another one of these posts only with salt lake county, where wages are higher, but expenses are way higher, but I think my experience and ethos as a home owner, renter, and landlord in the county gives me credibility to say: Wages are higher, but expenses are much must higher.

I chose weber county as my study area originally because I knew it was cheaper to live there than in other places, but still provided a reasonable life comparable to other places in the U.S.--plenty of things to do, shopping centers, and opportunities because it is a metro area. But I also know that in weber county there are a lot more opportunities to get ahead than in SLC. You can reasonably pinch pennies without suffering a loss.


Well, I'm getting off track here because the summary of my post has taken up the majority of this article.  I'll have to do a follow-up later. ******************************************