MikeF16,

In my opinion, yes, living on LI will present opportunities to afford it in the case of higher taxes, low stress commute etc. However, not having family around to dump the kids off on the drop of a dime GS, may make it difficult to take advantage of a last minute GS. It also is not as congested as you may think. Typical suburbs like anywhere else. House, yard, house, yard, etc. LI is NOT brooklyn or queens.

Also, for financial planning purposes I've gotten at least 1 GS every single month I've been here(-88FO) and sometimes more and I'm not senior enough to play the IOE game. It helps, no doubt.