Austin, TX

As an FYI - I used to do M&A - went to a prominent startup, and recently have come across a very appealing opportunity down there - so it's not just moving on a whim - there is substance and a good career opportunity (I think) behind it.

Austin has MUCH hotter girls than NYC, especially if you're into tanned blondes who take care of themselves and know how to act like women. NYC is a great city in many ways, but the quality of girls there is horrendous.

I'd move to Austin in a heartbeat.

austin>all

a decently sized LA based start up is moving there and one of my best friends is a head recruiter and hes trying to get me linked in for a job at said company lol

On a side note, I didn't know so many people on WSO liked Austin.

Agreed on all - i was kind of shocked at my own realization that the girls in general were hotter, and friendlier than the ones in NYC. While I like the exotic component of NYC girls - I was really blown away just by the vibe of girls there (and you don't really need to chase haha).

There are a lot of startups - some aren't that sexy but some are very solid businesses.

thanks guys

agreed - it actually felt the opposite even, with girls being super outgoing which is a nice change from NYC (that and they were hotter than the average girl here).

NYC nightlife great, and the range of options can't be beat - but to be honest i was loving the super chill bars/lounges on the west side of 6th street (but dirty 6th was really fun) - nice contrast from the meatpacking/LES here (which I enjoy but tiring of slowly)

I've lived in Austin for a decade. Quality of life is great, girls are hot, and cost of living is low. There are no state or income taxes...just high property taxes and a sales tax of around 8.25%. I once visited cost of living calculators to consider a move to NYC, and they estimated (roughly...working from memory) a $250,000 salary in Manhattan is the same as just a $105,000 salary in Austin.

Every two years or so some bar tries to move in and offer bottle service and it promptly gets its as handed to it by Austin's laid back and unpretentious vibe.

With all that said, if you can't handle stifling hot weather, do not move here. You will be miserable. I am miserable. This summer we have had 76 days that were above 100 degree F. This last weekend, Fri, Sat, Sun, the temperatures were 112, 109, 108. It is miserable. It's too hot to do anything but cower in your living room and watch bad television with all the blinds drawn. Worse than that is the lack of cold...the coldest it has been in the middle of the night over the last week was 80. That means your a/c has to run at 3am just to keep the house cool. Sucks.

Now with THAT said...you pay your dues for four months out of the year, and the other eight months are sunny and in the 70s...in other words perfect weather.

I hate Texas, but I love Austin.

I agree with some of the monkeys so far. Yes, if you gonna live anywhere in Texas, let it be Austin (and MAYBE Houston or Dallas). I moved from SF bay area and have been living in Austin for 5 yrs. It's been a much better than I thought.

The weather here is none that I've seen. It can start raining or get cloudy w/out warning. While it doesn't get as cold as NYC, a bit of snow on the ground shuts the city down (remember, they don't see ice that often and don't see the need to invest in plowing equipment, e.g). With the said, the summer here can be brutal! Heat, baby, heat! Yes, be prepared to sweat a lot and shower a lot (speaking for myself).

The environment is very cosmo with a lot of young professionals and college students. The women/girls here vary quite a bit. The local ones (native texans) are a bit on the conservative side. She wants to get laid but doesn't want to come over. The imported ones (not from texas) are a bit more open-minded and are fun to talk to and hang with. Texans in general (at least the ones in Austin) are very nice and very polite! It's a shock initially but we ease into it.

Good luck if you decide to take the offer!

So after making that post yesterday, here's how I spent the evening; I walked from my house, which is1 mile from the tallest buildings downtown (not apartment, not condo, actual house with a yard and detached garage and garden) down a few blocks to Shady Grove and laid down in the grass and listened to a free concert by Kat Edmonson while the sun went down, drinking a Shiner and eating brisket tacos. I bought that house right next to downtown in a fantastic neighborhood with great schools for just $283k. I won't become a Master of the Universe here, it's true. I admire the work and ambition of the guys in NYC and part of me will always regret not going that route and wondering what could have been, but there's something to be said for spending your 20s doing what I just did instead of what is required in some other places. You'll get yours when you're older of course and pulling down 7 figure salaries, which I will never be able to do, but low 6 figures in an easy going town with a low cost of living aint a bad way to spend life either. Plus there are so many people moving to Austin every year that the house is a retirement fund in itself...so long as you can pay the property taxes. You only get one ride, and each man will have to answer to himself whether it was worth it to wind up ultra rich and able to do anything in their 60s versus being steadily happy their whole adult lives and retiring with $3 million instead of $15 million. I figure I can lead a pretty happy life while I also max out a 401(k)'s tax advantaged portion and put a little extra in a regular account, and if I do that I should wind up with roughly $3 mil when I turn 60, not including the equity in my house. That's $3 mil in future dollars so they'd need to be adjusted down to maybe $1.8 mil in today's money. Am I taking yachts to Monte Carlo at age 65? No, probably not. But there's something to be said for spending your time outside of the office in your youth. Again, not knocking other's choices, but the worst thing in the world is to wake up one day with regret and it's too late to do anything about it.

great post wb jr i have been considering texas myself im fairly confident that i couldnt handle new york or even chicago as i need place with friendly folks and people in both those cities are jerks and not friendly at all. So how bad are the property taxes there? And how are the people. Like if you accidently bump into someone will they be like excuse me or like start spewing explicatives like in other cities? Well i guess ill have to see if i can get any offers there. I have a few years of school left anyway.

It depends on where you live in the state, then once you're in the state, where you are in the city, then once you're in a city, which neighborhood you're in. All those things add another layer to the property tax. If you move to a nice/wealthy neighborhood in Austin you'll be looking at as high as 2.75% per year in taxes, which is roughly where mine is. Though if you're living in it, you get some homestead exemptions which lowers it some. Bottom line, my $283,000 house has taxes of about $6,600 per year. By comparison if you bought the same house in Boulder, Colorado you'd be paying about $1,200 per year. I know people who live in homes from $800k - $1 million and they pay taxes between $20,000 - $30,000 per year.

On top of the rough property taxes, we have a deregulated insurance industry which means some of the highest property insurance rates in the nation. Add at least $1,000 per quarter million per year for that.

As for the people, they're very friendly. The biggest difference between here and NYC is if two people are walking by each other on the sidewalk, it's not uncommon to trade eye contact and a smile, and sometimes a "how ya doing?". If you accidentally bump into someone they're likely to be cordial about it, though if you're on dirty sixth in a bar, hey, there are stupid young males who are overly-aggressive everywhere. Doesn't matter if you're in Manhattan or the Ozarks, somewhere is a young buck looking at a sparkly t-shirt with angel wings on it thinking "yeah that's 90 bucks but it will get me chicks...especially if I hit someone."

Depending on your situation and where you want to wind up, we have UT's McCombs school which is pretty well respected. Last I checked (in about 2007) their average GMAT was somewhere around 670 I think? We also have Rice, which is a very highly respected undergrad program, though the business school doesn't share quite the same reputation. However, the b-school is great if you want to work in Houston, especially in the energy industry.

Best of luck to you man. You only get one life, so make the most of it and try to minimize your regrets.

thanks for the post - admittedly - the dilemma is b school for me. if I go soonish (at my current company), my chances at H/S/W are quite high - going to austin is more or less a pass on bschool since it reduces my chances at H/S/W (I would only consider these schools), but might be more fulfilling personally.

i dont need bschool for my career path - i feel confident i can be happy doing this path without a bschool, but going to a place like HBS is something that i think is still a great experience so it's still an obstacle for me.

it's true you only get one life - and sometimes once in a life opportunities come up, but likewise, you can really only go to bschool once as well.

Yeah for sure. If I had the chance to go to H/S/W I'd take it...and if you ever decide you want to live away from NYC you could likely find a job just about anywhere with an MBA from an M7.

Love Austin, just wish it had more finance. Any major banks / asset managers / PE firms have significant operations there? I know Dimensional has offices there, but they are not exactly a heavy hitter (and want PhDs, not bankers).

Austin is really really really hot, but everything is cheaper so higher quality of life. Maybe less ops though.

I'm pretty sure that dimensional has a sizable amount of assets for their team size. Most of the finance firms there will tend to be VC firms in tech and nanotechnology

I'm pretty sure that dimensional has a sizable amount of assets for their team size. Most of the finance firms there will tend to be VC firms in tech and nanotechnology

good weather, good women, good golf, cheap beer, cheap home, and the UT female uniform