Would You Move to Save Money?
I’ll admit it. I’m a dreamer. I like to imagine life in different scenarios. Since I can be a bit of a control freak, I think playing different scenarios out in my head helps me deal with change that’s out of my control.
One of the things I dream about is moving away. It’s not that I don’t like where I live. Southern Oregon is beautiful. My family is nearby. I have great friends. I love my church. But the cost of living. Ouch.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in the deep south. Or on the East Coast. I’ve heard North Carolina is nice. Or maybe the Midwest. Missouri? Or what about Texas? I’ve heard Austin is beautiful.
I found Find Your Spot a couple of years ago. You can take a quiz to find out what your “Top Spots” in the United States are. Just for fun, I took the quiz again last night. My 5 Top Spots were:
- Clarksdale, Mississippi
- Hopkinsville, Kentucky
- Mount Airy, North Carolina
- Alexander City, Alabama
- Guntersville, Alabama
Oddly enough, those results didn’t surprise me. I always knew I was a Southerner at heart. Never mind that I’ve never been to the South. Any one of those places would surely be less expensive than Oregon.
In the end, though, we will stay here, unless God makes it clear that it’s time for us to move on. Like I said before, our family is here, and it’s important to us that our kids know their grandparents. The wouldn’t have that opportunity if we moved clear across the United States.
So how about you? Would you move across the United States if you knew you could make your money stretch further somewhere else?
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By Lynnae McCoy, on Nov 9, 2007
I'm Lynnae, wife of one and stay-at-home mom of two. I'm committed to getting out of debt by being frugal with my choices in life.
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We did! My husband got out of the military to have time at home (not to save money as it cut his pay almost in half.) And we moved to way rural Kentucky (not too far from Hopkinsville, but more in the sticks…) because that was the only way to afford to live the life we wanted. We have never regretted it! The only thing I would think about if doing it again, is to balance gas costs with how far out you are from the stores… we spend a lot in gas, and it may be even with the increased cost of living to be in a bigger town.
I would consider it, but I already live in South Carolina which has a pretty low cost of living…
How funny, Mt Airy, NC was where the Andy Griffith show was filmed. I think it’s a very small town.
Maybe if it was the deciding factor in Mr. Micah (or me) choosing which of several college positions to accept. It’d have to be a pretty area, with hills (we can’t do without hills), and lots of other desirable qualities. I don’t know if we’d choose to move to save money, but cost-of-living would certainly influence our decision of where to move.
In the UK, once you get outside of the South of England, costs are about the same. Housing is the only variable and there are cheaper areas / towns in nearly everywhere else.
I’d certainly have a lower cost of living almost anywhere in the States, and a slightly higher income, but it wouldn’t be worth it, even if I could.
We actually did! We had a choice, because his job only requires him to live by an airport, and we could choose the city. We looked at cost of living calculators for dozens of cities that were by major airports, in 4 different states. Now we can have a lot more house for only a little more money, and we save 25% on groceries by doing nothing.
Well, in the past I would have said yes but with our two dds so close to finishing school I would have to say no.
We have thought of it though. Our investment property is in Nova Scotia, a beautiful house on a triple sized in town lot and it has an unobstructed ocean view in a fishing village. My parents are living in it right now. We are thinking of maybe in a few years moving down there and making a two bedroom apartment in the basement for dh and myself. It has a walkout basement with patio doors and two picture windows on the front so we would wake up to the ocean veiw every morning. Our mortgage there left owing is $61,000.
Like Petersonclan my dh retired from the military with a pension. I am however torn if I really want to go that route just for the simple fact that I know my children would never live down that way and I want to be close to them and any future grandchildren.
I just can’t wait to get our debts out of the way so I can breath again. Then we need to start paying down our mortgages so at least we can keep our options opened :)
Sorry about such a long response, I love your entry! :)
I have lived in Alaska all my life. Almost anywhere else in the country would have a lower cost of living, but I don’t ever see myself moving? Why? Because my wife and I simply love it here. It’s an amazingly beautiful place to live, and both our families are here. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Lynnae,
A Google Blogs Alert for “Mount Airy” caught your post. I’ve lived here in Mount Airy, N.C., for five years since moving from southern Iowa.
We don’t spend as much for some things here, more for others. The climate is mild, so we heat our four-bedroom house for about $450 a winter. We probably pay the same as you do for sundries at our local Wal-Mart. Good, used furniture is cheap (North Carolina makes _lots_ of furniture). On the other hand, groceries can cost about half again more than we paid in Iowa when we buy stuffed that’s trucked in from California or Texas. Housing in our area costs about 20 percent less than in N.C.’s urban areas; our house, on a half-acre, in-town lot in a nice middle-class neighborhood, cost about $180,000. Depending on the job, salaries seem much higher than in Iowa; I earned %15,000 a year more when we moved here, but my wife gave up about $2,000.
What’s hard to value is the incredible beauty and quality of life here. This is wine country and it’s drop-dead gorgeous. The Blue Ridge Mountains form a backdrop about five miles behind my home. Google “yadkin Valley” and “winery” or visit a site like http://www.sheltonvineyards.com for photos. You can also see a few pictures on my other website, SurryBusiness.com.
Mount Airy is a very safe community, the environment is clean and there’s a lot of appreciation for traditional family values and family-friendly activities. Go to http://www.visitmayberry.com or http://www.surryarts.org and you’ll see.
It’s no coincidence that people come to Mount Airy looking for “The Andy Griffith Show’s” Mayberry (Griffith grew up here) or that PBS Television’s “Simple Living” series is based here.
“Being frugal,” you might want to visit my friends’ Simple Living sites at http://www.simplelivingtv.net and http://www.leveringorchard.com. Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering literally wrote the book, “Simple Living,” after they moved here from California.
Also, FWIW, author Barbara Kingsolver lives just over the mountain from here. She and her husband and daughter wrote the best-selling “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” about living for a year on food they or their neighbors produced. She has a website at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.
Finally, Lynnae, always remember that it’s not where you live that makes you rich. You amass true gold in your heart and in the chains of love that tie you together family and friends.
Steve Welker
Mount Airy, NC
I wouldn’t move. I like being close to my parents, my sister, my nieces & nephews. Even if we could find a cheaper cost of living, the money saved wouldn’t trade off what I get in family support and love.
If we were familyless, then I’d move in a heartbeat. West Texas calls my name with it’s wide open spaces and few neighbors.
I think it could be part of a retirement plan, but certainly not an option for me right now.
No, I would never consider moving unless we were called to move for some reason, and I would hope we would move closer to family. The cost of living is high where I live too, but we are already settled here, and the cost of selling our house, and then moving is pretty high too.
Plus, you can’t buy great friends and long lasting relationships!!
On a side note, you live in southern Oregon? I grew up there. I’m in Love with the Pacific NW. Southern Oregon specifically never really meshed with me, but I adore Portland, where I also lived. I live in Pennslyvania now. It’s ok, but not my style. I did Find Your Spot a while ago and my top place was Vegas! The rest were Oregon/Washington and New England.
Thanks for all the comments! I find the different perspectives interesting. I also find it interesting that the answer varies, depending on what stage of life you’re at.
Thanks also for the information on different areas of the U.S. It’s good to know, in case we do move some day. North Carolina is looking pretty nice right now!
@Anne – I like Southern Oregon a lot, except for the cost of living. Portland is a bit too big for me, though I like to visit.
@Michelle – I can’t even imagine buying a house for $60,000. Starter homes where I live start in the $200,000s.
Lynnae,
I’m from Central West Texas (Coleman Co.) and we love it here! Of course this is where we were born and our families live here. We did live in Central Texas for a good many years (my husband pastored there) not too far from Austin. It IS beautiful there. It’s really pretty here too but not as many rolling hills and fewer trees. We moved back as his parents were getting older and needed our help. Our cost of living is incredibly low here but salaries are also pretty low. We bought a house (2 bd 1 ba) for retirement for $20,000 (no kidding) and have put 20,000 into remodeling. So for $40,000 you can have a nice house. 3 bd, 2 ba houses go for around 60,000 here. Not bad!
If you ever want to come visit and check out the area, just let me know!
I’m from the D.C. suburban area. Washington D.C. would definitely welcome you!
But if those cities/towns you lsited are your choices, then D.C. might not be your best choice. D.C. is a mixture of urban/suburb/government. Seems like you would prefer a more laid back, country style, more right leaning red-state like that in the south or midwest.
D.C./Maryland/Northern Virginia is very blue/liberal government dominated area.
Just a bit of insight!
-R
YES, come to North Cakalaki, it’s great! Although we’re in the midst of a drought. Just didn’t get the usual hurricane this year. The “Triangle” (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) is a great place to live and is reasonably affordable. Lots of high-tech, university, and health-care jobs here too. I love my church too (shout out to Hillsong Church in Chapel Hill!)
Send me an email if you want more info from an insider…
Well the housing market here is really great if you’re looking to buy but like I said the job market isn’t too hot.
Jobs are better paying around the Austin area but housing is much higher. However if you’re self-employed and can live anywhere – this is it!
Heh, I’ve been reading your blog for just about two weeks now, and then I see this, I’ve gotta say, Hopkinsville, KY is a nice place to live. The area fits me perfectly, though it isn’t perfect by a long shot. Just thought it was ironic that your blog says this, and another finance blog i read is by a student at a college near here. The connections I keep finding are amazing.
I actually lived 1/2 hr away from Guntersville, AL for several years, and it is a beautiful place and fairly inexpensive. I also lived in TX for several years and went to Austin and San Antonio quite a few times. That area of TX is also a beautiful place, but it is getting more expensive every year.
To answer your question… I may, but it would have to be for more reasons than just inexpensive living. I grew up away from extended family, and I do not live near them now. I feel like I am missing out sometimes. My family is pretty spread out now, so it is not really an option just to pick up and move to be closer to them. I think family is very important, and am actually considering moving my wife and myself to a more expensive place (Chicago area) to be close to her family. I know that when we have children, it will be very important for us to be near family.
If you did move to Texas, Austin would not be the place to move to save money. It is expensive to live there compared to the rest of Texas.
I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this lately. I live in the DC area, too, and I think it’s a wonderful place to be – tehre are lots of career opportunities and great (FREE!) cultural goings on. DC is wonderful, on the one hand, but on the other, it’s SO expensive. I could move back home and instnatly cut my living expenses in half. That said, there’s the problem of maybe not having as much room for career growth back home or maybe not as plentiful jobs. I miss the South, but I don’t want to go back to making less. (The South? Beautiful by the way. And the food is amazing!) But do you need the more high paying job if you’re in a place where it’s possible for you to survive on much less? It’s such a complicated question.
Just the fact that Mississippi is first on your list is proof positive that you MUST move nearer to me ;)
Lynnae…Wow! You are my TWIN! I am a dreamer too! We’ve been here 6 years and I do still wonder “what if” at times. Thankfully, I have found a place of contentment with where I am, but it was hard for the first few years. We were so used to moving frequently (DH was military; now retired) and, frankly, if life seemed to get stale, it wouldn’t be terribly long before we could start over. ;oP Trust me, I hated the actual MOVING part of it. But, I always enjoyed living in a new place, sightseeing, meeting new people, etc. I especially enjoyed house-hunting. I still look at real estate sites and “dream” floorplans – just for fun!
By the way, we moved to this location BECAUSE of the low cost of living. We didn’t want to be in a situation where we felt that DH “had” to work to make ends meet. So, we picked an area where we could afford to live. I was intent on moving to VA, so we spent several years (pre-retirement) looking online to get a feel for where we could afford to live well without a post-retirment income. Well, this is it! LOL! By the way, we are about an hour from Mt. Airy. It’s a pretty cool town. Probably not the one I’d pick if I moved to NC (Yes, I have thought about it. And TN. And KY. LOL!), but it’s nice. My biggest “issue” with where we are is that we are a bit too far from a “real” city. It is an hour to Greensboro or Winston-Salem, NC. It’s also an hour to Roanoke, VA. That’s just a bit too far for stores like Costco, Michael’s, A.C. Moore, Target (and on and on) to be convenient. I can’t always follow the best deals because they wouldn’t be best deals after figuring in the cost of gas. On the other hand, we did find our “little patch of Heaven” on 10 acres and in a big house in rural Virginia for under $200, 000. So, it’s OK. :o)
Petersonclan – Our perspectives are VERY similar. Except DH now gets 1/3 of what he made. :o/ We could be making *GOOD* money right now (if he had not retired), but I was a Navy brat and he was an Air Force brat. I didn’t want our kids to never have roots, so I pushed for retirement. When I regret it, it is only for a moment. It is so wonderful to have a real home that is OURS and to be home with our 3 kids (whom we homeschool).
Steve – AWESOME post about Mt. Airy. Since I am fairly close, I will follow some of your links for ideas of things to do. Can you say, “field trip”. Haha!
Brandon – My DH spent almost half of his life living in Alaska. His dad was stationed there and, later, so was he. In fact, not long after we got married, DH got his law degree and we moved to Anchorage, because DH got back into the Air Force (as an officer) and was stationed at Elmendorf. I will say adamantly that I do NOT like cold weather and snow, but the laidback atmopshere and the sheer beauty of Alaska sold me. We had planned to retire there, and even owned property. But, we were vacationing in Alaska when 9/11 happened (we were due to fly out just after midnight on the 12th). We were stuck for 6 days and it REALLY made us think about how far away we were from our families, whom we had just been living NEAR for the first time in years. That, and the cost of living, (and the loss of value when the stock market crashed after 9/11) made us change our minds. But, we still do miss Alaska!