OT: America's cheapest states to live

I'm kind of wondering how they came up with those home prices. I bought a new house for less than half the cheapest listed average price and my total utility bill was just over $100 last month but I didn't run the air conditioner very much.

Gasoline costs about $2.95 here. I saw it for 2.85 at one station in Greenville. I guess they only got averages for high priced homes in the larger cities. Then they left out other details.

I like to see a list of cheapest high mileage lap dances with good looking dancers.

What this kind of "ten most X" reporting neglects to include really has an impact on rankings. In the example from CNBC, the report neglects to address the impact of wages on "livability." Oklahoma may be very "cheap" when looking only at costs, but since wages in OK are also among the lowest in the country, disposable income in OK is actually less than most states. No spending $ = no good clubs

I lived for a decade near Nashville, TN. In spite of its Music City status it really was a very inexpensive place to live (low taxes - property and sales, low housing costs, and cheap TVA power). But for most people in Nashville, salaries were also very low. So Tennessee may cost less than some states, but most people there make so much less than average that they actually have less left over from their paycheck than people who live in NYC or San Fran. Not much money to spend = few clubs

It is the $$ left over - after paying the rent, car note, utilities and buying groceries - that pays for lap dances! I think that the quality and number of strip clubs in a particular area is an indication of real livability. Only in an area where many guys can pay their bills AND have money left over to regularly hit the clubs and buy VIPS will strip clubs proliferate.

LA - high cost of living, but lots of very highly paid people = COI!

Dallas702 makes a good point.

Perhaps a ratio of income vs cost-of-living is a better barometer of a good place to live (although the CNBC report was only looking at the single aspect of cheapest state to live in).

I lived in Dallas, TX for ~10 yrs in the 2000s and I recall a fellow coworker telling me had looked it up and that the N. Texas region was #2 (at the time) in income vs. cost-of-living. I did not look at the data myself but his statement was consistent w/ what I perceived of the N. Texas region.

I agree with PC, Texas is the only decent one for SCs. Also, many good points by Dallas, and I'll add another: the list does not discuss taxes. For example, yes many 'cost of living' items are comparatively cheep in Idaho, but IME, Idaho has comparatively high taxes.

For what is worth, found the following info form a link from a Forbes.com article:

Best States to Make a Living

These rankings are based on an analysis that considered:
Average wage and unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Cost of living data from C2ER (formerly ACCRA)
State tax rate information from Tax-Rates.org
The Workplace Environment rankings from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index poll
Going from best to worst, here is how all 50 U.S. states ranked for 2013:

1. Washington
2. Virginia
3. Colorado
4. Texas
5. Wyoming
6. Minnesota
7. Nebraska
8. Utah
9. Kansas
10. Oklahoma
11. Arizona
12. Iowa
13. Massachusetts
14. Missouri
15. Indiana
16. Michigan
17. North Dakota
18. Nevada
19. Pennsylvania
20. Idaho
21. Ohio
22. Illinois
23. Georgia
24. Tennessee
25. Wisconsin
26. Maryland
27. Delaware
28. Florida
29. California
30. Kentucky
31. Arkansas
32. Louisiana
33. Oregon
34. Montana
35. New Mexico
36. New Hampshire
37. Connecticut
38. North Carolina
39. Alabama
40. Maine
41. South Dakota
42. Alaska
43. Vermont
44. West Virginia
45. New Jersey
46. South Carolina
47. New York
48. Rhode Island
49. Mississippi
50. Hawaii


http://www.money-rates.com/research-cent…

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmi…

I started my working career in high cost cities, saved what I could, then moved to a low cost city (Detroit area, coincidentally also has great strip clubs). When I moved to Detroit area, I took a 25% pay cut, but bought a bigger house for half what I sold my old big-city house for. Car insurance, restaurant meals, taxes, and many other expenses are half what I used to pay. Lap dances are the same price but much higher mileage. A beer in a strip club can be as little as $2 (happy hour in Toledo) vs minimum $8-12 in the big city. My 401K is much bigger than the people around me and my retirement should be quite comfortable if we don't have another financial meltdown.

That’s what I’m talking about Ermita :) – make your $$$ and then live somewhere cheap where your $$$ will go farther (and of course move to a place w/ good SCs)