Living in a beautiful but expensive area vs. "settling" and traveling.

Title says. (I'm posting a Pheller thread! I kid, i kid.)

Trying to weigh options between staying put in this incredible cheap part of the US and traveling 1-2x a year to the coast or going skiing...

vs.

Living in the mountains for more money, better scenery, and having skiing constantly available at my back door, which would put a damper on traveling near as often.

Anyone experienced both? I'm learning towards option 1, but been doing a lot of thinking lately, and have begun to believe that i would potentially be happy with a small house/cabin thing in the mountains, a Cherokee or two, living simply, and skiing all winter, mountain biking all summer.

You know... depressing winter soul searching and all that.

All I can say is berkeley winter with a rusty rake. I'm moving to the sun.

Option 1 is always my choice.

I was like, "hey...who's stealing my ideas!?!"

My worry as a young professional is that while I'm young, I don't have enough vacation time to really feel like I'm doing something with my life. I don't feel like simply having a job, making an income, owning a house, having kids is DOING something so much as its just "following" what everyone else does.

Now, when I lived 6 hours away from family, it certainly sucked using all my vacation for the holidays, and still living someplace rather boring. Erie, PA has a rather large lake, but I didn't make enough money to really enjoy that lake, and the mountains were all a good 1-3 hours drive away.

One thing to keep in mind is that while you may live in Paradise, you may not be able to afford to do your hobbies there. So, if you're someone who likes to hike, birdwatch, and do other "cheap" activities, living in paradise is ok, but if you're someone who wants to own a big house, large property, expensive cars, and do motorcross, living in paradise may be a bit constricting.

My girlfriend and I are still trying to determine which is more valuable to us. Developing a career, being close to family, at the expense of living someplace boring, or moving somewhere far away where everyday we can be outside, but we've got to buy plane tickets home a few times every year?

Swank Force One wrote: Living in the mountains for more money, better scenery, and having skiing constantly available at my back door, which would put a damper on traveling near as often.

What about living in a mountain area that's not that expensive to live in?

For example, if you don't insist on living at the Lake or in the Tahoe basin up here, but just over the hill, it's not that expensive to live out here. Probably still more expensive compared to your current location, though.

Paradise would involve a small modest home/cabin type thing, small property, and cars would be pretty minimal. Probably something like two Cherokees, don't even know if i would bother with a "fun" car at that point.

I'd be able to afford the hobbies still, especially if the "car thing" went away for awhile.

BoxheadTim wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: Living in the mountains for more money, better scenery, and having skiing constantly available at my back door, which would put a damper on traveling near as often.

What about living in a mountain area that's not that expensive to live in? For example, if you don't insist on living at the Lake or in the Tahoe basin up here, but just over the hill, it's not that expensive to live out here. Probably still more expensive compared to your current location, though.

This is true, but the realistic side of things is that there's really only certain areas i can end up with via work transfer. Colorado Springs being one of them.

yamaha wrote: Option 1 is always my choice.

+1. Low taxes, decent income, low crime, decent laws. 10 hours gets you to a beach, 11 hours to the Rockies by car. Centrally located so everything is fairly easy to get to.

I've been in every state of this country, and oddly I like coming home to here. everywhere else is nice to visit, but I can't really see myself living anywhere else for a while.

Now.... if money were no option, I'd live in a nice house in Maui with a convertible, a lifted Suzuki and a bike. But money IS a problem, so I stay here and visit all the places we want to.

Bobzilla wrote: I've been in every state of this country, and oddly I like coming home to here. everywhere else is nice to visit, but I can't really see myself living anywhere else for a while.

You know its funny, I've heard people from all over the country always say that about "home."

Then again most of the time they haven't really lived in the other places either.

Seeing as I've done both in the past 12 months it really is a toss up. I'm making more money living in "paradise" and I can go fishing, snorkeling, diving, etc at my convenience. It does have its drawbacks though. Cost of living is higher, less amenities (stupid things like Wal-Mart, Target, Taco Hell, Chipotle, just to name a few) are 3 hours away. The automotive scene is non-existent aside from a bunch of old timers and their show cars. But I'm in a place I love to be in, it's relaxed, and the family is happy. I still find myself traveling too....

When I lived in a place that wasn't any cheaper (DC), I had car stuff to do, craigslist was abundant with plenty of projects, had all the little conveniences for shopping and fooding, there was the traffic, the REALLY REALLY happy people you had to deal with (sarcasm), and three airports to select your traveling from with way better air fare.

What am I getting at? It's really up to your preference. What would you like to have more? I enjoy what I have now more than the hustle and bustle of DC. My life is more relaxed in this place most vacation too, I'm more active outdoors, more active doing things with my family, and people would rather visit us than have to visit them thus saving us from spending vacation/leave on simple family visits. Plus the sun shines all year round, no road salt due to dump trucks full of it to clear snow. Just the residue from the salty air

PHeller wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: I've been in every state of this country, and oddly I like coming home to here. everywhere else is nice to visit, but I can't really see myself living anywhere else for a while.

You know its funny, I've heard people from all over the country always say that about "home." Then again most of the time they haven't really lived in the other places either.

True... but I spent two weeks in Silicon Vally... which was enough to teach me that while California is a nice place to visit, I wouldn't want to live there.

I don't know... I kinda like living in the Philly area... and have no plans to leave. It's not perfect by any means. But it's not bad either.

I like it here in Portland. I miss living in a smaller college town a couple of hours south where I could be on a relatively quiet road to ride a bike or drive in a few minutes, but Portland is about an hour and a half from either the beach (Oregon doesn't have sunbathing type beaches, mind you) or the mountains. There's a dozen miles of doubletrack inside city limits in Forest Park, and we're about 45 minutes from an established mountain bike trail set, with two more going in in town. Not to mention the indoor mountain bike facility.

Meanwhile, while I don't have mountain biking out my back door, I have a town I like living in. A nice balance of ease and comfort with enough city stuff to be entertaining. There are many facets of what makes a place nice or lousy to live in. I think even though I get annoyed with certain facets of this place, I love that it sounds like paradise when compared to how a lot of GRMers talk about interacting with their communities.

Anyhow, I digress. The important part is that there are a lot of places to live. If you live in a place that you just live to leave twice a year, you should start looking for somewhere you don't mind being between trips. Indianapolis can't be the only place in the country with a low cost of living, and some places with higher costs of living may pay commensurately. Moreover, If your salary and COL scale up the same amount, that should make the vacation/parts slice scale up as well, no?

Two notes re: Ian F's comments: If I could afford it, there are parts of California I'd live in quite happily. Also, I'd be scared to death of Philly if the Dead Milkmen weren't from there. They give me hope for humanity there...

Do you go to the same mountains to ski, or do you always look for somewhere different each vacation?

That alone should tell you a lot.

Ian F wrote: True... but I spent two weeks in Silicon Vally... which was enough to teach me that while California is a nice place to visit, I wouldn't want to live there.

Well, Silly Valley is in California, but it is not California...

I still prefer to live on the NV side of the border, but there are nice places to live in CA, too.

My house will paid off ~10 years (when I'm 41) and we get to travel now, eat out when we like, drink good booze and beer when we want, etc.

Option 1

Does being single and living in a town with no prospects change anything? It's tough to travel to meet women. Most relationships start through friends or mutual activities.

Living in/near the mountains is awesome.

PHeller wrote: My worry as a young professional is that while I'm young, I don't have enough vacation time to really feel like I'm doing something with my life. I don't feel like simply having a job, making an income, owning a house, having kids is DOING something so much as its just "following" what everyone else does.

As a alternative point in live in what amounts to paradise. The average home price for a 4 bedroom 3 bath new construction runs 1.1 mil. Then a 2% property tax yearly on top of that. I pay 11-13% on top of my federal to the state in income then another 8.275% on top of that on all purchases in tax. Pretty weather.

If I moved anywhere with a average cost of living, I could buy house in cash, retire almost 15-20 years earlier and travel the rest of my life on the interest I made on the difference and have just about every single car ever made with a phone call and my debit card.

I HATE Paradise, and most of my hobbies are outside free sort of stuff. Hiking, camping, which requires paradise. I would go as cheap as possible and travel as many weeks a year as I could. Living in the most comfortable home that I could find for the work months.

I will never forget when my tow vehicle went down with blown intake manifold gasket in Metter Ga finding out that the tech who worked on it that day spent all of his vacation time in the Great Smokies Park which is in my back door. I would rather spend my vacation in Faulkville Ga with a race track and great seafood nearby. YMMV

I've done both. Currently doing Option 1 (and I fly to Portugal for a week tomorrow :) ). I've enjoyed both, but I'd say if you aren't currently happy in Option 1 (you NEED to travel, because where you live sucks?), then GTFO.

My recommendation: Ride out Option 1 for longer, and save/invest like hell. A couple years of proper investments will indefinitely offset your travel-cost needs when you move to enjoy Option 2.

I grew up in "Paradise". It's amazing what you take for granted when it is right at your doorstep everyday

OSULemon wrote: Does being single and living in a town with no prospects change anything? It's tough to travel to meet women. Most relationships start through friends or mutual activities.

It would for me...

If I was single, i'd already be gone. I wouldnt be asking this question.

I will be going for the first choice here soon. It was between somewhere $$$ and cool, like Seattle or San Diego, and somewhere cheap and closer to family (Chicago]. Since we will have kids in a few years and I am way behind on savings due to my career, living somewhere cool but $$$ would have made life a lot trickier. I am also sick of moving and want a garage and a yard. So, we will give Milwaukee a try. In Pittsburgh now, and we have enjoyed it. YMMV though, I will earn more in a more affordable locale so the income to cost of living ratio becomes way more favorable.

mad_machine wrote: I grew up in "Paradise". It's amazing what you take for granted when it is right at your doorstep everyday

+1