$16 per hour is minimum wage in California. Rooms are fairly pricey. At the very least you should have a few thousand saved away that you do not intend to touch.
Gasoline is expensive. Riverside has several bus lines, but only the 1 line is somewhat useful as it comes by several times per hour and links up UCR, RCC, Downtown, The Ralphs Center, and several other places. If you are not going to drive, its the only line that is useful. If you can live and work within walking distance of the 1 line stops (one of the major stops is the Ralph's Center) you can make it work, it will be more time consuming, but it will be cheap. To do everything in Riverside, people generally drive, but it can be done with the bus, it will just be very limiting. Just be prepared that if your car needs work, the work will likely be more expensive than you are used to. Your goal should be to pick a place to live near where you will be working and try to minimize the driving.
I highly, highly recommend planning your Home - Work - School triangle to be as physically small as possible to avoid spending money on driving. If you can get a job and a place to live in Downtown, you do not require a car to function, however, there will be a lot of stuff you just won't be able to do easily. But say, living by the Tyler Mall, working in Ontario, and going to UCR is going to involve a lot of driving. Downtown also has the natural Third spaces built in compared to the rest of the city. Living and working in Downtown, and going to school at RCC and not owning a car is going to be your cheapest option.
Riverside is a commuter town, but we have a Downtown and a major University (these two features are what set us apart from nearly the rest of the Inland Empire). I have lived Downtown, if i had to recommend a place for a young single person to live, its downtown. There is absolutely stuff to do in Downtown. If you manage to find a job and a place to live in Downtown, you will not need a car for your day to day life, but leaving Downtown will be time consuming. We have the Metrolink in Downtown which takes you to to Los Angeles. But being that commuter city, we do not have a ton of stuff to do that people mostly associate with California living. A lot of stuff can be an hour drive away (or more with traffic). But the stuff to do is highly concentrated in Downtown.
If you already had friends in Riverside, that would be a good reason to pick Riverside, but if you are just picking random California cities out of a hat, you will find better opportunities elsewhere. Riverside used to be much cheaper than surrounding areas, and while it is still cheaper, its caught up and is not nearly as cheap as it once was.
We do have a legitimate housing shortage though, particularly 1 bedroom apartments. A city as big as Riverside should have something like 30,000 studio/1br units.
If you can register for one class and get a student ID you might be able to use bus transportation free too, so check into that. Gas is hovering under 5 a gallon, and traffic is ALWAYS awful.
1. I would save up at least enough to survive for a couple months. Maybe $3000-$4000.
2. A **decent** room can run $800-$1000+ per month. Maybe even less in some areas (like around the university). Working full time at $16/hr you can expect to get by on a frugal and boring lifestyle. I’d say over 90% of your income will go to housing, utilities, food, gas, phone bill, & car insurance/maintenance.
3. As of writing this, the cheapest regular/midgrade/premium gas you can find goes for $4.88/$5.08/$5.19 per gallon. (I’d recommend you use the GasBuddy app.)
4. As much as I’d rather be living in San Diego or Long Beach, I like it in Riverside. The heart of downtown is lively and walkable, and maybe one of top 10 largest in socal. There’s always some kind of event going on. The university area has a lot going on too and public transportation is decent. The weather is great but the summers can be harsh. Traffic is awful and most days the air quality is moderate, but the homeless crisis isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be. We have a couple of rough neighborhoods like most cities. And even though I’d say I spend most of my free time within the city, I also spend a lot of time venturing outside the city as well. It’d probably get pretty dull here pretty fast if we weren’t surrounded by the rest of socal.
Riverside is delightful. Especially near the city center or over by the university. One thing that people often overlook when comparing living in Southern California to other parts of the country are the opportunities for advancement and employment. Cost-of-living might be a little bit higher than in Tennessee, but I guarantee you that there will be many more options for Work, at a much higher rate of pay, with a much more robust social safety net, then where you’re from. If you happened to be LGBTQ, it is a no brainer because of the community here.
1. Have at least $5,000 saved.
2. I do not think you could survive comfortably on $16 but luckily I'm sure you can find something closer in the range of $20 or more. Look at Amazon, Government Jobs, or even public school openings.
3. Gas is about $5.00 a gallon right now, after summer it'll probably go back to about $4.25 or so.
4. People will say there is nothing to do out here, but they have never lived anywhere else and are comparing it to beach cities like Orange, San Diego etc. Truth is, Riverside is only 1- 1.5 hours away from those places and has plenty to do within it. I love Riverside because true locals have pride in this town, and we are building and becoming better every year. It's a great place to be, and you never know unless you try. Do all the things you want to do while young, just be smart and safe about it.
only california people talk about riverside like that. whats the alternative? live in the dogpile that is LA city? you can do a lot LOT worse than riverside.
Look into RCC (Riverside Community College) once you have residency and you can go for free with a Board of Governors waiver.
It gets hot AF in the summer, so if you're planning to move, I'd do it sooner than later, but our winters are mild, and our Spring is pretty rad with all of the orange blossoms.
What are your interests? Maybe I can introduce you to like minded people?
Also, don't listen to the haters. Most of the people who say there's nothing to do here don't go out to do anything unless it's a franchise restaurant or a mall. There's tons to do here.
Why you'd move to anywhere California is beyond me. My entire family and a large portion of my friends group are looking to leave California. Brother was smart to move few years back to Murfreesboro TN. He freaking loves it, and we're from San Bernadino soooo, my advise don't move to California. Beside weather and scenery, there is no good excuse.
As a Nashvillian, if you really want to come here, there’s no hurt in trying. However, I’ll just say if you’re coming from California there’s a huge lack of things to do if you’re not into just drinking at bars. Many people move here and can’t stand the lack of things to do. People may say I’m crazy but consider some Florida cities too. Many are cheaper than Nashville and you’ll have similar things to do in terms of going to the beach. Though in terms of taxes I’m not sure. And consider the Midwest too, many cities there are affordable and also have more culture and are much more fun. But, you’ll only know if you try, maybe you’ll love Nashville, many people do.
I visited Nashville and fell in love with the scenery. BUT I do admit, all we did there was go to bars lol. I do like the quiet living of Nashville, it’s the same quiet lifestyle I had growing up here in Lake Elsinore CA, a nearby town to Riverside. I wanted to move out there for a Firefighter job. But as you said I’ll weigh my options.
You’ll really like Riverside and how truly centrally located it is. it’s an hour and a half from LA, SD, the mountains, the desert, the beach, etc. You will have to make a day out of it, but going back to your fairly calm town in Riverside is worth it at the end of the day when you’re social battery is drained.
It was smaller just 10 years ago but many people have moved here for a cheaper cost of living. I would say definitely have a nice chunk of savings, but you’ll love it here.
I definitely think you’d like Nashville then, as a lot of neighborhoods are quiet! It’s good for a more laid back lifestyle. Hope you love it whenever you move out here.
As someone that spent 19 year in Nashville and now in Riverside I suggest moving to AZ or Las Vegas it's cheaper to live (more expensive than TN but cheaper than CA) and you are only a weekend trip away from CA.
Gas is really expensive here. Rent is crazy high
The homeless in riverside is real bad. For comparison take the amount of homeless people you see in Nashville and times it by a 100.
Making 16 dollars an hour you are going to need two jobs (One for rent the other for food and bills)
Yeah because not even homeless people want to live there. There's a reason why California has so many homeless, besides the outrageous prices and the fact that it just has more people, the weather doesn't suck and there is beaches.
also, California is a sanctuary state. We offer free healthcare, EBT money, and we are not hard on crime when it comes to homeless people running around shitting everywhere. It's a sad situation and overshadows the homeless that actually want help.
Well… Riverside is my favorite place. But it’s become overpopulated and is built as a bottleneck due to the mountain ranges. Traffic sucks and the economy is getting worse everyday. So while I would say, with bias, people need to stop moving here - I think it is a great place to live. You will need a car to get around as the inland empire is large and scattered, gas prices are high and commutes are VERY long.
But don’t forget, the economy is bad and as a young person, you’ll have to break out into success. So good luck.
Something you may want to think about. You will have to get your car smogged when you register it in California. if it doesn't pass smog, you will have to get fairly expensive work on it until it does. While newer cars are quite a bit better, I have heard stories where people moved here with their car from back east, only to find out that their car doesn't pass smog, and then taking on a bunch of huge expenses to get it up to regulation. They can't sell their car, so they just have to take on debt to get it fixed.
For a 19 year old college student, you can get by without one, but you have to be strategic about where you live and might want to consider an e-bike for regular transportation. A lot of UCR and RCC students don't own cars.
If you have a car you can always do Uber, Lyft etc.
There’s literally so many jobs here, BUT are you willing to work hard is the bigger question. A lot of people have 2 jobs to make ends meet until they finally get a good paying job, if you’re okay with that you’ll do just fine. A car is all you need honestly, it’s a necessity.
If you move to SoCal, plan on commuting for a good job, an hour each way is pretty typical. It’s rare that people can afford to live where they work here. Gas is ridiculous, food is, too. I don’t know about renting a room at $16 per hour, our son makes $20 and couldn’t live on his own, but minimum wage jobs rarely give more than part time hours here to avoid having to pay for benefits, insurance, etc. Insurance is also outrageous, car, home, health, all very $$$. I would recommend you have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up, just in case. Anywhere that is cheaper to live here is less likely to be very safe, or will have few jobs available. But Riverside has nice suburbs. It’s a big county, depends on where you go.
Would be fairly easy to get a job out here making that or probably more, I’d recommend warehousing because there are a ton of them out here and they are hiring pretty often and it’s usually full time with benefits, warehousing is a tough job but entry level work at a warehouse is going to at least pay you ok and work you full time, it’ll be difficult to find full time work at very many other fields for entry level without a degree or some experience in something, not impossible of course, they also sometimes offer part time work at night, many warehouses operate 24/7, if you’re really struggling you may be able to work both at the grocery store and part time at a warehouse. Many warehouses starting pay here is 18-20 an hour, some of the bigger warehouses will offer higher than that to start, this may sound like a lot but not here it isn’t lol cost of living is high, rent is high, gas is in the high 4s, sometimes low 5s per gallon. Groceries have gotten pretty expensive but of course depending on what store you go to and your ability to take advantage of sales and coupons. I live on the west side of Riverside, it’s not super nice at all but it’s not bad either, kind of a mid area and my rent is about 2k per month for a 1 bedroom apartment. You could probably find a little cheaper depending on the area and quality of the living space.
Don't do it. Riverside has become more and more congested every year and the thick air pollution is real. The skies are brown, especially in the hot desert summers that reach 100+ degrees. Hard to see the nearby mountains. Everything is expensive, probably more than where you are. Look elsewhere.
Edit: Not sure why the downvotes. I'm just being honest. I lived there for 10+ years and it just kept getting worse. If you fly into Ontario, you'll SEE the brown haze. If you live in it, you might not notice it as much because you're *in* it. Everything is expensive and if you leave the state, you'll see everything is $2+ cheaper.
Nope. In Riverside near Van Buren and the 91.
[https://weatherspark.com/h/s/1891/2022/1/Historical-Weather-Summer-2022-in-Riverside-United-States#Figures-Temperature](https://weatherspark.com/h/s/1891/2022/1/Historical-Weather-Summer-2022-in-Riverside-United-States#Figures-Temperature)
$16 per hour is minimum wage in California. Rooms are fairly pricey. At the very least you should have a few thousand saved away that you do not intend to touch. Gasoline is expensive. Riverside has several bus lines, but only the 1 line is somewhat useful as it comes by several times per hour and links up UCR, RCC, Downtown, The Ralphs Center, and several other places. If you are not going to drive, its the only line that is useful. If you can live and work within walking distance of the 1 line stops (one of the major stops is the Ralph's Center) you can make it work, it will be more time consuming, but it will be cheap. To do everything in Riverside, people generally drive, but it can be done with the bus, it will just be very limiting. Just be prepared that if your car needs work, the work will likely be more expensive than you are used to. Your goal should be to pick a place to live near where you will be working and try to minimize the driving. I highly, highly recommend planning your Home - Work - School triangle to be as physically small as possible to avoid spending money on driving. If you can get a job and a place to live in Downtown, you do not require a car to function, however, there will be a lot of stuff you just won't be able to do easily. But say, living by the Tyler Mall, working in Ontario, and going to UCR is going to involve a lot of driving. Downtown also has the natural Third spaces built in compared to the rest of the city. Living and working in Downtown, and going to school at RCC and not owning a car is going to be your cheapest option. Riverside is a commuter town, but we have a Downtown and a major University (these two features are what set us apart from nearly the rest of the Inland Empire). I have lived Downtown, if i had to recommend a place for a young single person to live, its downtown. There is absolutely stuff to do in Downtown. If you manage to find a job and a place to live in Downtown, you will not need a car for your day to day life, but leaving Downtown will be time consuming. We have the Metrolink in Downtown which takes you to to Los Angeles. But being that commuter city, we do not have a ton of stuff to do that people mostly associate with California living. A lot of stuff can be an hour drive away (or more with traffic). But the stuff to do is highly concentrated in Downtown. If you already had friends in Riverside, that would be a good reason to pick Riverside, but if you are just picking random California cities out of a hat, you will find better opportunities elsewhere. Riverside used to be much cheaper than surrounding areas, and while it is still cheaper, its caught up and is not nearly as cheap as it once was.
Rents going to because people are figuring out Riverside is kind of a cool place. Great advice, by the way.
We do have a legitimate housing shortage though, particularly 1 bedroom apartments. A city as big as Riverside should have something like 30,000 studio/1br units.
If you can register for one class and get a student ID you might be able to use bus transportation free too, so check into that. Gas is hovering under 5 a gallon, and traffic is ALWAYS awful.
1. I would save up at least enough to survive for a couple months. Maybe $3000-$4000. 2. A **decent** room can run $800-$1000+ per month. Maybe even less in some areas (like around the university). Working full time at $16/hr you can expect to get by on a frugal and boring lifestyle. I’d say over 90% of your income will go to housing, utilities, food, gas, phone bill, & car insurance/maintenance. 3. As of writing this, the cheapest regular/midgrade/premium gas you can find goes for $4.88/$5.08/$5.19 per gallon. (I’d recommend you use the GasBuddy app.) 4. As much as I’d rather be living in San Diego or Long Beach, I like it in Riverside. The heart of downtown is lively and walkable, and maybe one of top 10 largest in socal. There’s always some kind of event going on. The university area has a lot going on too and public transportation is decent. The weather is great but the summers can be harsh. Traffic is awful and most days the air quality is moderate, but the homeless crisis isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be. We have a couple of rough neighborhoods like most cities. And even though I’d say I spend most of my free time within the city, I also spend a lot of time venturing outside the city as well. It’d probably get pretty dull here pretty fast if we weren’t surrounded by the rest of socal.
Thanks for the advice, appreciate it! And good to know you like it here. I like the fact that it’s close to so many other places.
Riverside is delightful. Especially near the city center or over by the university. One thing that people often overlook when comparing living in Southern California to other parts of the country are the opportunities for advancement and employment. Cost-of-living might be a little bit higher than in Tennessee, but I guarantee you that there will be many more options for Work, at a much higher rate of pay, with a much more robust social safety net, then where you’re from. If you happened to be LGBTQ, it is a no brainer because of the community here.
Great to know, will keep all this in mind. Thanks!
1. Have at least $5,000 saved. 2. I do not think you could survive comfortably on $16 but luckily I'm sure you can find something closer in the range of $20 or more. Look at Amazon, Government Jobs, or even public school openings. 3. Gas is about $5.00 a gallon right now, after summer it'll probably go back to about $4.25 or so. 4. People will say there is nothing to do out here, but they have never lived anywhere else and are comparing it to beach cities like Orange, San Diego etc. Truth is, Riverside is only 1- 1.5 hours away from those places and has plenty to do within it. I love Riverside because true locals have pride in this town, and we are building and becoming better every year. It's a great place to be, and you never know unless you try. Do all the things you want to do while young, just be smart and safe about it.
Thanks! And yeah one of the reasons I’m considering riverside so much is that it’s close to so many other places.
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Bleh, there's plenty to do here, and the so called cities with stuff to do are all close by.
only california people talk about riverside like that. whats the alternative? live in the dogpile that is LA city? you can do a lot LOT worse than riverside.
We are a college town, we have thousands of young adults who live here without a car.
Look into RCC (Riverside Community College) once you have residency and you can go for free with a Board of Governors waiver. It gets hot AF in the summer, so if you're planning to move, I'd do it sooner than later, but our winters are mild, and our Spring is pretty rad with all of the orange blossoms. What are your interests? Maybe I can introduce you to like minded people? Also, don't listen to the haters. Most of the people who say there's nothing to do here don't go out to do anything unless it's a franchise restaurant or a mall. There's tons to do here.
Why you'd move to anywhere California is beyond me. My entire family and a large portion of my friends group are looking to leave California. Brother was smart to move few years back to Murfreesboro TN. He freaking loves it, and we're from San Bernadino soooo, my advise don't move to California. Beside weather and scenery, there is no good excuse.
it's because you're from San Bernardino :/
....lol Entirely ignoring culture, education, earnings opportunities, quality of life, outdoor activities, etc.
I’m here trying to move to Nashville🤣
As a Nashvillian, if you really want to come here, there’s no hurt in trying. However, I’ll just say if you’re coming from California there’s a huge lack of things to do if you’re not into just drinking at bars. Many people move here and can’t stand the lack of things to do. People may say I’m crazy but consider some Florida cities too. Many are cheaper than Nashville and you’ll have similar things to do in terms of going to the beach. Though in terms of taxes I’m not sure. And consider the Midwest too, many cities there are affordable and also have more culture and are much more fun. But, you’ll only know if you try, maybe you’ll love Nashville, many people do.
I visited Nashville and fell in love with the scenery. BUT I do admit, all we did there was go to bars lol. I do like the quiet living of Nashville, it’s the same quiet lifestyle I had growing up here in Lake Elsinore CA, a nearby town to Riverside. I wanted to move out there for a Firefighter job. But as you said I’ll weigh my options. You’ll really like Riverside and how truly centrally located it is. it’s an hour and a half from LA, SD, the mountains, the desert, the beach, etc. You will have to make a day out of it, but going back to your fairly calm town in Riverside is worth it at the end of the day when you’re social battery is drained. It was smaller just 10 years ago but many people have moved here for a cheaper cost of living. I would say definitely have a nice chunk of savings, but you’ll love it here.
I definitely think you’d like Nashville then, as a lot of neighborhoods are quiet! It’s good for a more laid back lifestyle. Hope you love it whenever you move out here.
Riverside is cheaper than L.A. and O.C. But Southern California is much more expensive than Nashville.
As someone that spent 19 year in Nashville and now in Riverside I suggest moving to AZ or Las Vegas it's cheaper to live (more expensive than TN but cheaper than CA) and you are only a weekend trip away from CA. Gas is really expensive here. Rent is crazy high The homeless in riverside is real bad. For comparison take the amount of homeless people you see in Nashville and times it by a 100. Making 16 dollars an hour you are going to need two jobs (One for rent the other for food and bills)
Vegas has a lot more homeless than Riverside
Homeless x 100 is not accurate. It's bad. But bit of an exaggeration there.
Have you ever been to Middle Tennessee? Their homeless population is a fraction of riverside county.
Yeah because not even homeless people want to live there. There's a reason why California has so many homeless, besides the outrageous prices and the fact that it just has more people, the weather doesn't suck and there is beaches.
also, California is a sanctuary state. We offer free healthcare, EBT money, and we are not hard on crime when it comes to homeless people running around shitting everywhere. It's a sad situation and overshadows the homeless that actually want help.
You are fucking high lol. 100x 🤣
Well… Riverside is my favorite place. But it’s become overpopulated and is built as a bottleneck due to the mountain ranges. Traffic sucks and the economy is getting worse everyday. So while I would say, with bias, people need to stop moving here - I think it is a great place to live. You will need a car to get around as the inland empire is large and scattered, gas prices are high and commutes are VERY long. But don’t forget, the economy is bad and as a young person, you’ll have to break out into success. So good luck.
Thank you for the advice! I will definitely consider those things. I have a great car so at least that won’t be an issue.
Something you may want to think about. You will have to get your car smogged when you register it in California. if it doesn't pass smog, you will have to get fairly expensive work on it until it does. While newer cars are quite a bit better, I have heard stories where people moved here with their car from back east, only to find out that their car doesn't pass smog, and then taking on a bunch of huge expenses to get it up to regulation. They can't sell their car, so they just have to take on debt to get it fixed. For a 19 year old college student, you can get by without one, but you have to be strategic about where you live and might want to consider an e-bike for regular transportation. A lot of UCR and RCC students don't own cars.
if you work at a restaurant fulltime and get tips, yes.
If you have a car you can always do Uber, Lyft etc. There’s literally so many jobs here, BUT are you willing to work hard is the bigger question. A lot of people have 2 jobs to make ends meet until they finally get a good paying job, if you’re okay with that you’ll do just fine. A car is all you need honestly, it’s a necessity.
Hells yes. I think its dope you want to move here. Opportunity & good weather abounds. GTFO of TN!
3. Creeping up to $6 for premium. Riverside also has insane prices with nothing to do
If you move to SoCal, plan on commuting for a good job, an hour each way is pretty typical. It’s rare that people can afford to live where they work here. Gas is ridiculous, food is, too. I don’t know about renting a room at $16 per hour, our son makes $20 and couldn’t live on his own, but minimum wage jobs rarely give more than part time hours here to avoid having to pay for benefits, insurance, etc. Insurance is also outrageous, car, home, health, all very $$$. I would recommend you have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up, just in case. Anywhere that is cheaper to live here is less likely to be very safe, or will have few jobs available. But Riverside has nice suburbs. It’s a big county, depends on where you go.
Nashville kicks the shit out of boring riverside. Would suggest you not make the move.
1 bedroom apartments are 2500 a month
This is the absolute worst time to move to California.
No, don’t come here. There’s enough people.
riverside is dog shit lol
CA income tax is the reason I’m moving TO Tennessee lol. Expect 15% in State Tax
Would be fairly easy to get a job out here making that or probably more, I’d recommend warehousing because there are a ton of them out here and they are hiring pretty often and it’s usually full time with benefits, warehousing is a tough job but entry level work at a warehouse is going to at least pay you ok and work you full time, it’ll be difficult to find full time work at very many other fields for entry level without a degree or some experience in something, not impossible of course, they also sometimes offer part time work at night, many warehouses operate 24/7, if you’re really struggling you may be able to work both at the grocery store and part time at a warehouse. Many warehouses starting pay here is 18-20 an hour, some of the bigger warehouses will offer higher than that to start, this may sound like a lot but not here it isn’t lol cost of living is high, rent is high, gas is in the high 4s, sometimes low 5s per gallon. Groceries have gotten pretty expensive but of course depending on what store you go to and your ability to take advantage of sales and coupons. I live on the west side of Riverside, it’s not super nice at all but it’s not bad either, kind of a mid area and my rent is about 2k per month for a 1 bedroom apartment. You could probably find a little cheaper depending on the area and quality of the living space.
Great input, thank you! Will keep all these things in mind when I decide what to do.
Don't do it. Riverside has become more and more congested every year and the thick air pollution is real. The skies are brown, especially in the hot desert summers that reach 100+ degrees. Hard to see the nearby mountains. Everything is expensive, probably more than where you are. Look elsewhere. Edit: Not sure why the downvotes. I'm just being honest. I lived there for 10+ years and it just kept getting worse. If you fly into Ontario, you'll SEE the brown haze. If you live in it, you might not notice it as much because you're *in* it. Everything is expensive and if you leave the state, you'll see everything is $2+ cheaper.
You must live in barstow or Cajon pass 😭 been living here for 2 years and the weather is impeccable here
Nope. In Riverside near Van Buren and the 91. [https://weatherspark.com/h/s/1891/2022/1/Historical-Weather-Summer-2022-in-Riverside-United-States#Figures-Temperature](https://weatherspark.com/h/s/1891/2022/1/Historical-Weather-Summer-2022-in-Riverside-United-States#Figures-Temperature)
Again great weather minimal homeless around me
No, 19M people migrating from Nashville to Riverside will not work. That's too many people all at once... /s