scrubbedexpat091

I don't know what the cut off is for age, but I am medically unfit for service, that was what they said back in 2003 when I tried to join, now that my health isn't not as good as 2003, its unlikely they would change their mind...lol

I tried for the Army and Air Force back in 2003.

ddsrph

J
The reason I mentioned the military is it worked so well for me. I joined the AirForce right out of high school, did four years, then college on GI Bill. After college got a Navy scholarship for Dental school, and retired from Navy Reserve.

I now live in Tennessee and think it might be a good choice for you. Even living in a larger TN city like Nashville you could still live out of town far enough where housing would be much cheaper than what you are looking at now. The climate is good here and overall cost of living is low. With two even minimum wage jobs here you could do ok to start with higher pay in future. Nashville is a fairly busy airport with several airlines if that is the type of work you want to pursue. I live about 70 miles south near Alabama border.

username.exe

Cut off is 34 for Navy and 35 for Army. Much sooner for Air Force and Marines.

Also, IIRC you don't have to be a citizen (to enlist, rules are different for officers); PR is enough.

scrubbedexpat091

Too old now anyhow...lol I have citizenship so that would never have been an issue, but anyhow it was something I tried to do back in my 20's, but the military didn't feel I was medically fit so they wouldn't take me.

ddsrph

J
My wife and I have no children so my wife wanted to work. She worked several years at a couple small factories making about the pay you are talking about. She frequently talked about the financial problems of her co workers and I often wondered how would we live on a similar income if both of us made what my wife made.

I gave the issue some thought as to how we would proceed under those circumstances. The first thing was housing. In a small town you can buy a older fixer upper for 40 to 50 thousand or in my case I am a chronic do it your selfer and would have built a very small but later expandable 800 sq house for even less. This would have a mortgage of about$320 per month which is much less than any big city apartment.
Also Tennessee has a lottery specifically for funding higher education. We also have an excellent state vocational school system which the money from the lottery scholarships would cover. Also three miles from my house an excellent State Junior College started by the family fortune of Jack Daniels the whiskey maker.
I think with the cheap housing and other cost cutting possibilities we could have done OK and at the same time improved our situation.
If you ever get the urge to check out Tennessee, I would be happy to show you around.

Jim

scrubbedexpat091

What about a salary range of around $28,404-$35,133 + whatever my wife makes, so say maybe 45-55k total income....


My sister and her family have recently relocated to Phoenix which got me thinking about it again.

scrubbedexpat091

Are these houses in good/bad/okay area?

2350 W Carson Dr, Tempe, AZ 85282 | Zillow


1059 W Cornell Dr, Tempe, AZ 85283 | Zillow


I am not used to prices this low, so not sure if it's just what housing goes for or something wrong with the area.

Moses2013

I have to agree with you there. As Jsmth321 mentioned, the only jobs available for him will be low paid, so why move to huge cities? If you are going to end up earning $10 the hour anyway and housing is important for you, then you might as well move to a bigger town that's growing, rather than a huge city.

scrubbedexpat091

Looks like with some short term training we could make 15 or 16 per hour.

Phoenix is appealing as its lower cost then San Diego and Palm Springs where my familt and is a short 1.5 gas tank drive probably even less gas, so seeing family wouldbe possible more then every 2 or 3 years.

Plus my sister and her family are now there (well bil is, sister and her kids go in Jan) and they make about 30k a year each with 3 kids, so 2 adults with no kids should be able to.

I am going to do a spread sheet to compare costs side by side and see where it leads.

Ive only been to Memphis as for TN, how are the other areas and names?

Also went to some touristy little town, unsure of th name.

I dont recall much except the humidity....lol

kodokan

Prices really are that cheap in many areas of metro Phoenix, and not necessarily in bad areas. Sometimes they're just unfashionable, or the housing stock is a bit dated - Phoenix is a fan of 'ooh, new, shiny!'

The area north of South Mountain there (big green blob on map), and south of the airport, is generally a bit suspect. (Between South Mountain and Baseline Road is VERY dodgy.)

School districts are a good way to find nice areas, even if you don't have kids. The one to look for in that area is the Kyrene school district, which does elementary and middle schools (the kids then switch to Tempe schools for high schools, which is a much bigger and more... diverse... housing area). But anywhere with a Kyrene elementary or middle school will be good.

Do you know where jobs are likely to be? Commuting can get a bit snarly, with certain bottlenecks in the freeways.

sir_eccles

Very true. Though many older areas are now picking up in popularity like Arcadia. Schools are the biggest driver. Scottsdale is open enrollment.

I do note that the two listings are within spitting distance of the I-10/SR60, noise etc.

ddsrph

Ive only been to Memphis as for TN, how are the other areas and names?

Also went to some touristy little town, unsure of th name.

I dont recall much except the humidity....lol[/QUOTE]


Check out Chattanooga. It's Not a large city, but not that small either. It's right on the Georgia line, has a river, and overall nice looking hills, forests around it. Many smaller towns around with even cheaper housing that you could commute from. They just got a major VW plant a couple years ago. May be someone on this site lives there or close by could add some more info. I live about 60 north west of there.

scrubbedexpat091

I have experienced the dodgy area's near the airport...lol... I worked for America West Airlines when I lived there previously, and when I first relocated the company (they were pretty cheap) put me up in a pretty dodgy hotel. Seemed to have a lot of barely clothes ladies coming and going all day and night.


Once settled, I lived in an apartment on E Apache, 1200 Block I think it was, there was a Day's Inn behind it. Looking at google, seems there is light rail going down that area now.

I only lived there for 2 reasons:

1) It was in my budget

2) I was 20 and there were a lot of attractive ASU girls hanging around.

username.exe

I've found this to be curious, too.

Other federal or local government positions like police etc. also have age cut offs. I think I read somewhere it had something to do with pensions but it didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time.

dava22

I live in East Mesa in a 2 bed,1 bath apartment for $587 a month,there are places if you shop around, I work in West Phoenix but the I10 and 202 can be a pain,there are reasonable jobs for $10-15 a hour,depends what you want.