same $100k income, fresh start from San Diego
changea dispatch from
rochester
NY
43.16°N
77.62°W
Rochester is the city that Kodak and Xerox built, with a quiet college-town soul (UofR, RIT, Eastman School of Music). The Garbage Plate (cheeseburger, mac salad, home fries, hot sauce, on one plate) is the closest thing to a citywide handshake. Frederick Douglass made his home here, and the Susan B. Anthony House is downtown. The Finger Lakes wine country is right next door.
the verdict
cheaper each month than San Diego
Rochester is the kind of cheap that changes the math. Same salary, a different life on the other side.
a quick ledger.
$1,534/mo
47% cheaper than San Diego(vs $2,890/mo)
5.85%
$287/mo less in state tax than San Diego
vs 9.3% in San Diego
$6,312/mo
$1,644 more than San Diego
gross of federal tax. a comparison, not a paycheck.
$273k
73% cheaper than San Diego
vs $1010k in San Diego
1.1M
vs 3.3M in San Diego
field notes, weather & such.
147
pleasant days a year, in rochester.
San Diego gets 332 pleasant days a year, so you'd be trading some sunshine. Winter asks for something in return: 48 days under 20° here, 0 in San Diego.
But the calendar thins out: San Diego stays 5.8× busier.
58/100
23% lower than San Diego
vs 75/100 in San Diego
Closest outdoor draw: Letchworth State Park, 44.2 mi.
69/100
30% lower than San Diego
vs 99/100 in San Diego
18
67% fewer than San Diego
vs 55 nonstops in San Diego
neighbors of rochester on the map of tradeoffs:
compare rochester with:
