I've seen more kids throw tantrums in higher years of school than ever before. Not to mention students behaving several years younger than they are in general. It's a social-emotional disaster. Not to mention many parents, when notified of their child's social problems, just say it's our fault and refuse to change anything at home. Actually, even worse, we've had several parents cut off school supports for their kids. They've pulled them from medications at home and counseling at school. It's just... It's bad. If my last job hadn't been so truly traumatic, I'd be in a bad place.

I don't know if it's the pandemic, the Airbnb slumlords, or something else. It was almost important to find anything, because places were being signed for before they even got listed anywhere. I only found something because I got lucky. I called the landlord about a property he had listed. He told me it was no longer available, but he did have one coming up in two months right when I needed to move. I signed for it early and sent a security deposit so I would have something at all.

Housing here is incredibly expensive compared to other areas. I just moved last year from a fairly urban/suburban area. It was a "you can get to anything you want within 30 minutes" kind of place. I rented a 2 bedroom house, with a garage and basement, for about 1000 a month. I'm now paying 1200 for a small 2 bedroom apartment, plus 100 a month for the storage unit to keep what I couldn't fit. And I was lucky to come out that good, honestly. Housing disappears from the market before it's even listed and the next list priced place I found was 1500 and an hour away from where I work. Things are worse here in that regard, so much that a news article came up while I was hunting for somewhere to live titled "people rejecting jobs in Vermont because they can't find housing."

Depending on your debt, it's doable. I'm a teacher that just moved to Vermont. Housing costs are the worst of it, being a few hundred a month more than what I previously paid, and for less space at that. Next up, I came from somewhere state income tax wasn't a thing, so that's been another hit. I've got debt on top of bills, so I'm currently working at Stewart's on the weekends. That's enough to bring it back to comfortable. I'm also getting paid for my masters degrees though, so your situation may vary.

Online income calculator get pretty close to what comes out for taxes, but don't forget that insurance and retirement will also be coming out after that when you plan your finances.