Magnetron,
Orlando is one of the worst areas to make a living. The whole industry is driven by theme parks that pay very very low wages that require little to no skill and zero education. When the majority of citizens in a city are broke, the professionals servicing the community has to drop their prices down to Groupon level just to operate. The cost of living here is in no way in line with the pay scale either. My mortgage is $540 a month, and rent for a home equal to it is $900 to $1400. You can get a studio in an absolute war zone for $700. I went that route before I bought, and was robbed so many times I just left my car unlocked and installed a kill switch on my car. I’m originally from Philadelphia and the crime is much worse here… thats saying something.
Relocation is absolutely in the plans for us. I want to finish my degree and pick up a technical certificate in hopes of landing a job that has a real future attached to it. Once I get feel comfortable that I have a potential career, and not just a job for now, I will continue my education and narrow my field of study more. My wife is from Brazil, holds a Bachelors in International Relations, speaks English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese (of course). The best job she could get here is a 10.00 an hour Call Center Job booking reservations for a timeshare. She was also 2 classes shy of completing a second degree in Supply Chain Management from a university in Brazil. We are currently looking into what she has to do to complete the degree here.
Our goal is to move to South Florida, after we have set up ourselves better educationally. We also have figure out what to do with our house. It is worth less than 50k, and we still owe 80k left on it. We want to be able to buy in the future down there, and a short sale or foreclosure would kill that. So we are looking into renting it out. That seems like the smartest thing to do.