Wednesday, 12 March 2025 Issue#022

Talk of the on again, off again Tariffs dominated the week. The actual impact they will have on the economy still remains uncertain, but many private companies are already bracing for impact. This is worth monitoring because it very well could shape a lot of the areas transitioning veterans care about: jobs, housing, and cost of living.

Speaking of cost of living, when is the last time you heard or even assumed that a particular area has a high or low cost of living? This week we'll focus on just this one topic and dive into how you can add a bit of data to your assessment.

Cost of Living

I have always been a data driven kind of person, it certainly helped in my role in the Air Force and it helped when I began my transition out of the military as well.

As I started my own process I started hearing a lot of my peers talking about where they wanted to live and one of the phrases I would often hear was "I'd love to live there but it's too expensive". Sounds logical, but when I pressed them a bit they would often have to admit they didn't have any data. It was just something they heard others say and it made sense to them.

This is no knock on them, with all the things service members have to deal with in a transition we often don't have time to process everything. As one of my colleagues used to always say "there's too many penguins on the iceberg". However, when it comes to critical decisions we do not want to be in this mode, and hopefully this newsletter helps in a small way.

Now, back to the topic. What data is there really for cost of living? Of course there are many more factors that go into where someone chooses to live, however just looking at cost of living there is some really easily digestible information readily available to create a more informed viewpoint and actually use data to help you arrive at the best decision for you and your family.

For me, I like comparisons. It puts large and sometimes complex data into perspective quickly. With that in mind, look at the below map that charts out nationwide cost of living.

I know what your thinking...great a bunch of colors. Okay, well darker green is the lowest and deep red is the highest cost of living. The baseline is 100 so any state above 100 starts getting shaded more and more red until they reach California deep red.

California, using this data comes in highest at 112.6 on the index. Which means things needed for living (housing, food, fuel, etc.) cost 12.6% more than the national average for most people living in California.

This is probably not a shock to most of you, California has been on the high end of cost of living scales for quite some time. However, if you start to put this into context of a military transition you'll likely notice that one of the most popular states for veterans is shaded a bit pink. Florida has been in the sun too long; the rapid growth and demographic shifts have started to have an impact.

This gets back to my earlier point, I still have a lot of peers state they want to move to Florida for the good veteran benefits and low cost of living. That second part of the statement is starting to stray from that assessment. Florida's cost of living comes in at 103.5, so basic needs cost 3.5% more there. Some of this is not solely due to growth, recent hurricanes have really put pressure on insurance and cost of building materials.

Where I am going with all this is really just to say, try not to make critical (sometimes life changing) decisions without some data. That may sound like a no-brainer, but I have seen it happen quite a bit since leaving the military. Thinking someplace is cheap to live is not the same as knowing it is.

Lastly, in case anyone was wondering the states with the lowest cost of living are, in order: Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. All are under an 89 on this index.

Texas, another very popular state for veterans is 97.2, so 2.8% below national average.

Source: Yahoo Finance