THUS BEGINS THE TEXAS PART OF MY LIFE

On April 15th, 2025 (Tax Day), I became a resident of the state of Texas. An hour north of Houston is a beautiful area named Lake Conroe with the cities of Willis to the northeast, Conroe to the southeast, and Montgomery south. Outside the city limits in Montgomery County, I decided to rent a house for 12 months with the intent of buying property and land over the next year in this area. My family fell in love with this area upon visiting back in November of 2024. Lake Conroe is a massive 22,000-acre lake just a few minutes west of Interstate 45. Created by damming the western fork of the San Jacinto River, Lake Conroe and the area that surrounds it is known for its outdoor activities and water sports. From our community, the upscale suburb of The Woodlands is a short ten-minute jaunt south down the freeway.

For many of my readers, you know that I have a deep-seated love for my native state of California. Being a political lightning rod often undeservedly so over the past decade, remaining in California became unsustainable for a couple about a decade from retirement. The biggest issue with California is not the arrogant liberals, the misguided politics, or the mind-numbing traffic. These are irritating factors that are inevitable if you live inside the state. The main problem with California is the cost of living. Making 100,000 dollars a year is just not enough if you want to buy a home and enjoy a slice of the American dream. Food prices have skyrocketed, gas prices are some of the highest in the nation, and buying a new home is next to impossible. This is why more people are on federal and state benefits inside California now than ever before. These price increases, especially on assets, are not completely the politicians’ fault. But nothing they have done no matter how good-natured the policy can stop inflation. Recently, the large utility that directly and indirectly employed my wife and I had to purge workers due to bad green energy investments that did not pay off in the way that was promised. With my job basically being eliminated in California, there was no longer any reason to stay.

As my experience living in Texas continues to develop, I will have more opinions about the state in the future. But here are a couple of cost comparisons between California and Texas. Not everything in Texas is cheaper.

When we left California, these were our expenses

2655: Rent for a 2 bedroom, 1200 plus square foot apartment. This includes 105 dollars for water and trash.

205: GEICO Car Insurance

190: Cubesmart Storage

250: Average Electricity with So Cal Edison

45: Average Gas Price with So Cal Gas

150: Spectrum 500 MB Internet (79.99) plus basic cable package (19.99) plus sports add-on (15). With taxes, this bill was almost 150 dollars a month.

65: Mint Mobile Pre-Pay Unlimited Plan for two phones

Over 1000 dollars on food a month

Over 500 dollars on gas a month averaging around 4.59 a gallon.

Adding all this up, the total is 5060 estimated dollars spent a month. This does not include extra expenses like streaming and internet subscriptions, yearly expenses like car registration, and other “emergencies.” Adding in recreation and the amount taken by the government through payroll taxes, you must make 140,000 as a couple to be comfortable and contribute to a 401k bi-weekly. While my wife and I were able to accomplish this, saving money monthly became an increasingly difficult problem.

Now, here are our expenses in Texas.

1500: Rent for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1665 square foot house

250: GEICO Car Insurance is 15 dollars higher than California, and we had to add 30 dollars of renter’s insurance, a new bill for our rental.

295: Average electricity bill through Entergy (A 45-dollar increase)

72: Frontier 2 GB Internet

31: Trash with Heritage Solutions

55: Washer and Dryer Rental, a new bill

65: Mint Mobile remains the same

Food will be around 950 a month. Eating out is 10% cheaper but groceries are about the same as California.

Gas will be about 300 a month averaging around 2.59 a gallon.

We do not have a gas bill, water bill, or storage bill. The total so far is an estimated 3528 dollars a month.

So, understanding the fact that we have saved over 1500 a month moving to Texas, can you really blame us?

Next week, I will write about my journey down one of the most interesting US highways that dissects the middle of Texas, US 190.

California (1974-2004, 2012-2025): Grew up and lived in Torrance and Redondo Beach until 1995, moved to Orange County and stayed till 2003, lived in the Palm Springs area until 2004 when we relocated to Phoenix. Came back to California in 2012 and lived in San Diego till 2017 and then we bought a condo in Murrieta where we lived until 2025.

Arizona (2004-2012): Owned a home in the Avondale suburb of Phoenix from 2004-2011 until relocating back to California.