On Nh living and commutes..

[Derek Martin]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 04:24:14PM -0400, Jared Watkins wrote:
> The move up there will be driven by the job I find... and it will have 
> to be a job that's as cool as your winters with a solid company.  The 
> problem with those towns to the west of boston is the cost of living...  
> as far as I can tell it's anywhere from 50-80% higher than charlotte.  

That's going to pretty much be true anywhere within reasonable
commuting distance of Boston.  We have one of the highest costs of
living in the country...

> I'm finding that I'll be forced to live pretty far out just to find 
> reasonable housing costs...  and if I can live in NH and enjoy the extra 
> tax benefits that brings.. all the better.

Well, as far as income tax goes, you can't.  In fact, as a NH resident
working in MA, you will most likely pay MORE tax than a MA resident.
This is because the normal tax deductions for housing and similar MA
expenses are not available to NH residents.  I discovered this a
couple of years ago, when I was working in MA and living in Nashua,
NH.  

Your best bet is, I think, to live between Boston and the NH border.
This way you can save on MA income tax, and still buy things sales-tax
free in NH.  But understand that if you want to have something
delivered to your home in MA from a store in NH, you will STILL have
to pay MA sales tax.  Technically, you're supposed to report items
that you buy in NH to the state of MA and pay sales tax on them.  But
no one does that.  But, if you buy from a big chain in NH, like Best Buy,
and have something delivered to your house in MA, they will collect MA
sales tax from you.

Or, rather, your best bet is to live and work in NH, by a long shot.
Unfortunately you'll probably find that if you can find a job in NH at
all, the salary will be a lot lower...


> I'm fairly sure the company is open to time shifting..  and possibly 10 
> hour 4 day weeks.. so I should be able to avoid peak commute times...  
> but if it's like atlanta.. rush hour can last most of the day and there 
> is really no avoiding it.

Well, most of the main roads are much better by 8:00pm.  As others
have said, the trip home always seems much worse than the trip in.

> Any thoughts on which is the least busy road for coming in from the 
> north...  3, 93, 95 or perhaps some of the smaller roads...  I like 
> having options.. and will likely pick a location that has access to 
> interstates and smaller roads.. as well as train and bus lines...

I did field support for UPS in this area for 2 years, and also did
daily commutes using all three at one time or another, and I can tell
you that all three pretty much suck equally.  Route 2 can be better
than all of them, sometimes, depending on from where to where you're
going.  Sideroads sometimes have less traffic, but usually end up
taking just as long because they are less direct.  There are some
genuine time-savers, but using them depends on exactly where you're
commuting from/to.

> Thanks for all the feedback...  =]
-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
-=-=-=-=-
Despite the ever-increasing complexities of human society and the advancement
of science and technology, the most perplexing problems that face most people
remain what to eat for lunch today, and who to sleep with tonight.
-=-=-=-=-
This message is posted from an invalid address.  Replying to it will result in
undeliverable mail.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Thank the spammers.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20040423/4a3da28b/attachment.bin