I'm not in the midwest, but I might as well be. Cowtown CA has a lot in common with flyover country.
The locals here tell me that "cows are the smell of money" and they grow to like it.
I haven't grown to like it in the last 2 1/2 years ... but I can tell you that the higher pay, lower cost of living, and lack of people/traffic has really helped encourage my olfactory fatigue. I'd even consider staying forever, if not for the fact that the people in the "desirable" parts of California have so thoroughly ****ed up the entire state.
Looked at a bunch of jobs near my folks who reside in Los Altos, Ca. Holy Crap!
No way I'd move there. Outrageous price for land/homes. 1 million dollar homes gets you nothing compared to the compound with acreage you can get in certain places in the midwest. The point is, you can get a nice house for a fraction of what you would pay in Ca. Then you have Ca taxes in both income and real estate. Cost of daily living is exponentially higher and then for some... the long commutes.
Of course my parents love it so much they would never move and plan on retireing there.
So it is clearly a personal decision.
FWIW, the midwest isn't as bad as some people say it is. It's all about perspective. If you consider 10-14 weeks of Vaca with a fat income and relatively good lifestyle... well, it simply isn't that cut and dry to compare it to other more desirable locations... at least for me.
For me, the decision would be simple if looking at Kaiser (lower income and
3.5 weeks vaca ).
As I've mentioned before, I think a new grad with 250K+ in debt should try and get their neck above the water and build a solid liquid emergency fund. 3-4 years down the line you can move someplace else and enjoy it a bit more without the stress of feeling financially unsound.
Disclosure: I know very little about Keiser and mean no disrespect for anybody working there. I'm sure that for many, it is a good system to work in.
My 2 cents.
