I feel like I'm a great example of that. We moved to VT for family reasons as we needed to be in New England. My partner's job got sent to VT. We'll move away again in a few years. I don't think people realize how high the cost of living is here and how low the pay is.

I have a masters. I got a job in my field with a very well known nonprofit here. It was a cool job. I finally quit because I was making so little money and they expected too much of me even at a good salary. A nonprofit doing the same work at a nonprofit in states like Arkansas and Oklahoma would be paying me 2x as much. It was an eye opener when I realized something. After undergrad, I took classes for a summer at a midwestern state school. I got a day job at a telemarketing firm being on the phones. This would have been in 2006 or 2007. I don't remember for sure. I made more there taking inflation into account than I did in VT doing a professional job. I looked up the job at that same place and it took benefits into account. It was paying more than I was making in a low cost of living area.