Monday, September 08, 2008

From my sister-friend in AK

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Living in Alaska, For Better or Worse

Cons
1) It's now official: This has been one of the coldest summers on record. Only 2 days hit above 70 degrees.
2) The leaves are now turning color and yesterday morning we awoke to a chilly 40 degrees. Fall has arrived.
3) We usually have snow by Halloween.
4) Rising gas prices have forced airline prices up. Way up. Cost of one ticket to Colorado over Christmas: $1200

Pros
1) $2,069 Permanent Fund Dividend (largest ever) + $1,200 energy rebate check = $3,269 in free money from the government. I'll do the rest of the math for you. Family of five: $16,345.00 deposited into our bank account next week. Windfall.
2) National attention over a little known governor from a small town in Alaska (could be considered a pro or con, I guess)
3) Did I mention the free money?

So, what would you do with $16,000??

I think I might want to move to Alaska!

5 comments:

Kris said...

Come on up, Christine! Just remember 2 words: coldest summer. :) Remember our trip to the town of Hope?

Jen said...

Interesting. I do know the cost of things is higher in AK so I wonder if that $16,000 balances out over the course of a year?

Kris~fill us in! :-)

Kris said...

Well, the cost of living in Anchorage (biggest city in the state) is very comparable with other cities in the Lower 48 (that's what we call the rest of the U.S.:). I'm guessing it's pretty similar to Chicagoland.

Cost of living is much higher in more remote places of Alaska. Many people in those places will truly be using much if not all of their money to buy heating oil and propane to heat their homes for the winter.

Jen said...

I wondered how that all worked. I know from my Ebay selling that some stores don't run the same sales/coupons/promos that they run here.

Kris said...

Jen, are you talking about ebay stores or chain stores?

By the way, we're very excited to be getting Target in one month!