Ep 101Out-of-Town Living: The Columbus, Ohio Community
My first house was $232,000. I put down 3%, so I bought my house for seven grand.
Rabbi Avi Goldstein & Meir Perlmutter
Out-of-Town Living: The Columbus, Ohio Community
with Rabbi Avi Goldstein & Meir Perlmutter
If you're willing to build and not just join in, there's literally an entire world of opportunity waiting for you and your family.
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Quotes
“There's less keeping up with the Joneses. So that actually adds up to like a lot of dollars at the end of the day.”
“Energy attracts energy, people attract people.”
“They probably make a little bit less money, but their experience of living would be far higher.”
“Come for Shabbos. That's the pitch. You don't have to move. Don't sign on the dotted line. Don't sell your house yet.”
“The minyan doesn't happen unless you make the minyan.”
“The best investments aren't always in stocks or real estate. Sometimes they're in people, places and purpose.”
Takeaways
- 1 Housing is the biggest saving. Meir's first house cost $232,000 with 3% down (about $7,000) on an FHA loan, and he pays under $1,800 a month for a 3-bedroom brick house on two lots. Nice homes near shul still run about $300,000-500,000.
- 2 Day-school tuition is about $15,000 a year before vouchers, which can bring it to about $9,000. The school aims to educate every Jewish child.
- 3 Kosher food costs about the same as in the tri-state area (Evergreen delivers at the same prices plus a small fee). The real savings are housing, tuition and less social pressure to spend.
- 4 The community grew from about 115 to 215 member families at Beth Jacob, with about 600 Orthodox-affiliated families across three shuls.
- 5 Recruiting works best person to person, and Shabbos is the 'secret sauce': a lively shul and long kiddush at the center of community life.
- 6 Jobs: Columbus is a business city. The community helps newcomers find work, and a local company runs a tech incubator for yeshiva students. Salaries may be lower, but quality of life is higher.
- 7 A short commute (Meir's is nine minutes) frees up time for family and community work.
- 8 Special-needs resources are thinner than in Lakewood, though the Jon Peterson scholarship (about $25,000 a year) and local help exist. For some families this is a real sacrifice.
- 9 There are tradeoffs: fewer minyanim and fewer shiurim and farbrengens to attend, and being farther from family. In Columbus, friends often become like family.
- 10 An earlier incentive of $500 a month for three years helped bring young families. Meir planned to stay one year and has stayed eight.
- 11 Kosher Money itself began with a push from the late Rabbi Moshe Hauer, who also guided the show on what to air.