Why I Left California | The Aftermath

What's up guys, it's Graham here. So a few months ago, I made a video announcing that I was leaving California and moving full-time to Las Vegas, Nevada. That was a decision I never thought I would make because prior to now, I've spent my entire life in Los Angeles. It's where I grew up, it's where I started everything, and it's where I met so many people that would forever change my life.

But 2020 flipped the landscape for so many people, and I was certainly one of them. Even though moving to a new state was something I had loosely been considering for a few years now, when a friend decided to surprise us on an impromptu home tour of the Summerlin and Henderson areas of Las Vegas, something just immediately clicked. That this was the right area to move into. Traffic was non-existent, home prices were a fraction of what I was used to, everything is significantly less expensive. There wasn't trash thrown across the sidewalks, parking was everywhere, and as more and more people I knew were moving to the area, it just started to make a lot of sense that now is the time to make it happen.

Now I realize that most people would want me to simply focus on the tax savings because California has a top state income tax rate of 13.3 percent, whereas Nevada has a state income tax rate of 0. And absolutely, that was part of the equation and how I was able to justify getting a larger home with a lot more space for less money. But there's so much more to it than just that, and now that I've officially made the move from California to Las Vegas, I want to share my thoughts and experiences of what it was like to relocate coming from the perspective of someone who's seen both sides.

Because so far, I keep seeing videos from people announcing that they're going to be leaving, but very few people ever actually follow up afterwards to share their experiences of what it was like, what they went through, and whether or not it was worth it. So for you watching, this is that video, and here are my thoughts about leaving California. But speaking of leaving things, if you wouldn't mind leaving a like on the video for the YouTube algorithm, it would help me out a lot. Now, but seriously, just a quick like on the video helps up my channel tremendously.

And the more engagement a video like this gets, the more likely YouTube is to recommend this video to a brand new audience who could also leave a like on the video for the YouTube algorithm. So thank you guys so much for doing that. With that said, let's begin.

First, we have to talk about the cost of housing. For me, this was one of the biggest adjustments, but in a good way. See, in Los Angeles, I was used to living in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 800-square-foot duplex while using my garage as a place to film these videos from. But after a while, it became apparent that we needed more space. So after six months of looking, I purchased a three-duplex near the beach for 2.2 million dollars. For me, that was a huge upgrade on space, and that was one of the first times I had more than one bathroom in quite some time.

But once we started looking at homes in Las Vegas, that was on an entirely different level than I was used to. For half of the price of my 1924 home in Los Angeles, you could get a completely renovated, 6,000-square-foot home on a full acre of land for one million one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Property taxes are also 30 percent lower than Los Angeles as well, so these savings extend way beyond just the price of the home.

That's why so many people have commented on the size of my current home. Even though it's way bigger than I have ever lived in and it's taking some getting used to, it's still almost half the cost of where I used to live. See, the reason housing prices in Los Angeles have risen to such an incredible rate is due to very strict zoning regulations that make it impractical to build anything other than a luxury unit combined with a very limited amount of land for sale. For example, when you're buying a 1,000-square-foot home in Venice Beach for 1.7 million dollars, the structure of the house itself is probably only worth maybe a hundred and fifty thousand dollars or so.

But the other one and a half million dollars is the price that you're gonna pay for the land and where that home is located. Now, Las Vegas, on the other hand, is completely flipped. If you're spending a million dollars on a house, the house and structure itself could be worth eight hundred thousand dollars for the size and finishes and the quality, and then maybe the land it's sitting on is only worth two hundred thousand dollars.

Now, of course, with the exception of a few high-end communities, land across most of the United States is fairly cheap, with almost an infinite amount of it. Like, drive down almost any street in Las Vegas, and eventually you're going to come across hundreds of acres of undeveloped land just ready to build homes on. That means when you compare housing values between what you get in Las Vegas versus what you get in Los Angeles, you get way more house for the money in Las Vegas without tying up as much capital in the value of the land, all with a lower property tax rate.

Now, as a real estate investor, you might be able to argue that land in Los Angeles is in short supply, it's more likely to go up in value, and that's why some areas have seen such a big price increase. And that could absolutely be true, and that's why I'm still keeping all of my rental properties in Los Angeles. But from a cost of living standpoint, you can't deny you get way more for your money living elsewhere, and that's the choice I decided to go with. And I get way more for way less than I was spending previously.

Second, in terms of the actual process of moving, I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty overwhelming. And even now, I'm still stressing out about it, but not for the reasons you might think. See, as far as the home is concerned, we didn't have to move much. I'm keeping the place in Los Angeles so that we have a spot to return back to from time to time, and the new home in Las Vegas was designed around being as painless as possible, as just bringing a toothbrush and we're done. But it has been a daunting process of shutting everything down in California and moving it over to a new state.

First was the process of becoming a legal resident in Nevada, and for anybody thinking of leaving California, please listen very closely to this because this is something I was not prepared for. In order to leave California, you must set up a domicile in a new state by forfeiting your driver's license, your car registration, your license plates, your voter registration, and then setting them up again in your new state of residence.

I knew this about four months ahead of time, so in September of last year, I made the soonest available DMV appointment that I could for January of this year. But I noticed online that they offer walk-in appointments for new residents every Saturday at 7:30 a.m. So I thought it would be proactive and get there early on a Saturday ahead of my appointment because I knew appointments were impossible to come by without waiting several months, and I didn't want to risk not getting this done.

Well, on that Saturday morning, I was not prepared for what I saw at 7 a.m. There were already thousands of people waiting in a line that extended a mile down the street, and those people had been waiting there since the day before. And that was not just a fluke either; that was across every single DMV that we went to in Las Vegas. Every single Saturday opened to new residents, they were so inundated with new people moving to Las Vegas that they could not possibly keep up with all the demand.

Thankfully, I was able to get everything taken care of at the time of my appointment, but had I not made that reservation five months ago, it would have been nearly impossible to get this through. It's also been a bit of a struggle to find every piece of mail, bank statement, investment account, and source of income, and then move that to a new corporation I had to set up in Nevada. My tax attorney made it very clear that I had to change everything over, including where I get my prescriptions filled, where my property tax statements go, where banks send 1099 interest, where my credit card statements go, where my cell phone plan is, and where I get insurance from. Really, nothing here could be left unturned.

That also includes shutting down LLCs and corporations that I've used in California for many years, and then reinstating them again as a brand new company in Nevada. And even though I think I have it done, it's not been an easy process. This is something I was absolutely aware of ahead of time, but still, come January 1st, it was very stressful just to make sure everything was properly accounted for.

Third, let's talk about taxes because I know that's what everyone wants me to talk about, and I won't lie and say that that was not a factor in this decision. As it is, right now, California has a top marginal tax rate of 13.3, which is the highest in the United States. Compare that to Nevada, which has a state tax of 0. Now, this is not to say that I am against paying taxes or that that was the only reason for leaving, but it was a justifiable component.

Now, I haven't lived in Nevada long enough to realize my tax savings quite yet, but by the time I file my tax return in 2021, I'm likely looking at a savings of about 400,000 dollars or so, and the real number is probably going to be even higher than that considering that almost everything from a tax standpoint is less money in Las Vegas. Like property taxes are 30 percent less, sales tax is 15 percent less, and that tax savings is generally passed on to you as the consumer on the price that you pay for everyday items.

Now, Nevada could do this because their state revenue is largely subsidized by tourism, hotels, and casinos. But California, on the other hand, is a little bit more difficult to explain. The California GDP is the largest in the nation at 3.2 trillion dollars, with roughly 142 billion dollars of that going back to the state. But the high overhead cost makes it very difficult for that money to be spent efficiently.

In the past, I absolutely would have argued that there's an opportunity cost of living in Los Angeles, and even though you pay a higher tax rate, the networking, the scenery, and the opportunities more than make up for it. But now, with everything shut down, there's become the realization that you can get just as much done, if not more, in another area remotely with access to brand new opportunities that you wouldn't have had otherwise. There's almost a bit of a movement in numbers happening right now, and that nobody wants to be the first person to leave. But when everybody you know starts going to one location, it starts making a lot of sense to move with the tide and experience something new.

That combined with the savings of nearly everything just added up to a number that made me pay close attention to where it was being allocated and how I would get the best use from it and have more money left over to support the projects and innovations and entrepreneurs I want to help grow. And practically day to day, these differences are impossible to ignore. Like in California, the cost to operate and start an LLC or an S Corp is 900 dollars a year, but in Nevada, it's 75. In California, the car registration is about 0.8 percent of the car's value annually, along with a sales tax of seven to ten percent on all purchases and the new one hundred dollar electric vehicle fee.

In Las Vegas, on the other hand, car registration is thirty-three dollars, and even though they do charge a one percent government services tax on registration depending on how much the car is worth, private party car sales are not subject to sales tax, and all of that can add up to substantial savings depending on what you buy. I've also noticed normal everyday items are just cheaper, like gas, groceries, restaurants, and even my electric bill, and that's more money now that I have left over to invest in other areas that I want to support.

Like GameStop, just kidding. Besides that though, there have been so many other benefits that I didn't fully appreciate until I moved. Obviously, the lack of traffic is fantastic, and before all of you OG Las Vegas people get upset at me that I'm another car on the road from California, I rarely leave the house so I'm almost never on the road anyway. But when I am, it's incredible to me that the highways and the streets are wide open without being congested by cars, and I could leave anywhere at any time and get there incredibly fast.

The air quality is also significantly better, and even though it might not be as nice as, let's say, Nebraska, it's still a big improvement from the daily smog that I was accustomed to in Los Angeles. It's also been so nice to be able to work amongst so many other colleagues that happen to live just a few minutes away, and anecdotally, everyone I've met here so far has been so unbelievably nice.

However, even though there are so many aspects I love about Las Vegas, there are some things that I miss. Obviously, we have friends and family back in Los Angeles that we can't see as easily, but it's not like they wouldn't enjoy a fun Las Vegas weekend vacation every now and then. And since we're a short drive back, we could always go down and visit whenever.

The second, there's also the one cliché thing that I missed, and I'm sure everyone says, and that would be the weather. I know, I know, I've been spoiled by 75-degree year-round, partially cloudy weather all the time, but so far, nothing compares to the climate of California. I've been to Las Vegas often enough to know what I'm getting into. I'm fully prepared for cold winters; in fact, it was just snowing there the other week.

And third, I guess I missed some of that eclectic creative artistic vibe of Los Angeles. Now, that's probably only something I'm missing because I grew up around that, and that's something that I was accustomed to. And hey, you know what, maybe that doesn't resonate with everybody, and that's totally okay. But deep down, I'm a creative person, and that's what I like to show through the work here.

Now, beyond that, even though there are a few small trade-offs, my experience has been so far it's been absolutely worth it. I'm sure there's going to be a lot more I could add to this over the next year as they just get used to what Las Vegas has to offer. But until then, this has been my incredibly positive experience, and everything about it has more than outweighed the benefits of living in Los Angeles.

And evidently, judging by the line at the DMV, so many other people feel the same way I do and want to move into Las Vegas. Now, as for California, I'm still keeping my place there as a place that we could return back to on the occasional weekend or if I need to go visit one of the rental properties. But besides that, I'm spending these next few months trying to build out new places to film from, and I'm really excited to be able to introduce new concepts to the channel that I think would be really fun to watch.

It's certainly bittersweet, but at the end of the day, it's been the right choice for a multitude of reasons, and it's opened up so many new doors that wouldn't have happened otherwise. I'll make sure to update everyone after a full year of living here because I'm sure there's a whole bunch of other things that I haven't yet experienced or considered. But until then, I want to say a huge thank you to all of your support and encouragement.

I'm really excited on this new journey and just seeing what this year has in store. So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. As always, make sure to destroy the like button, subscribe button, and notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram; I post pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there.

As my second channel, The Graham Stephan Show, I post there every single day I'm not posting here. So if you want to see a brand new video from me every single day, make sure to add yourself to that. And lastly, if you guys want two free stocks, use the link down below in the description, and Weeble is going to be giving you two free stocks when you deposit 100 dollars on the platform, with those stocks potentially worth all the way up to 1,600 dollars. So if you pretty much want totally free money, use that link down below.

Let me know which stocks you get. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time!