When many people are looking for their first “real” job after college or they’re looking for a new career, one of their biggest concerns is “how much money am I going to make”. While this is certainly an important consideration in selecting employment, don’t forget the many other factors that will affect your situation.

Probably the most important aspect (aside from the salary) of a new job is where you’ll be located and therefore the cost of living in that area. It’s no secret that $50K in New York or California isn’t the same as $50K in Kansas City. In one case you’d barely get by and in the other you’d live quite comfortably. When you throw the cost-of-living into the mix, it can be rather difficult to compare different opportunities on an equal plane.

I found a tool online, however, that can help with this exact problem. Bankrate.com has a cost of living comparison calculator that lets you compare different salaries in various places of the country. You select the city you’d be moving from, the city you’d be moving to, and the current salary in the first city. It will then tell you what salary you’d need to earn in the new city in order to maintain your current standard of living.

I would mostly use this tool to give you a ballpark figure of the differences between two cities though and not as an ultimate determining factor. Even though it’s important to know, there are a lot of other things that should be considered when making such a decision.

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