I am glad your move worked. But for others I'd advise to not underestimate the importance of your life's continuity of narrative. Moving to NV broke that since it was simply because of lower taxes and that's not meaningful enough. When I lived in the Bay Area I had an identity, long time college buddies, neighbors who would knock on my door, I was a member of the tech and scientific research community, an angel investor, and I had visitors since so many people pass through the Bay Area. Now all I am is that rando millionaire next door who WFH and likes skiing.
Every morning I wake up and I do not recognize the man in the mirror. I disintegrated into a collection of discontinuous random stories that feel like they happened to someone else. It easily diminished my productivity by 10% which means this move didn't save me money.
Now that I want to move back to Cali the homes are priced much higher than when I left. Beware.
I worry about this. My wife and I had an agreement before we got married that if I got a good job offer in tech, I could take it, but we would live three years on the west coast max before moving back to be closer to family.
Well, I lucked out and did get a great job, and so we moved to the Bay Area a few years ago. Right when I was trying to figure out what to do since my three years would be up, the pandemic occurred and my company announced permanent remote work. With a new baby and wildfire smoke everywhere, we decided to move back six months early. I took my job with me, and we've been in the southeast since last fall.
I absolutely hate being back here. There's no one in my field or industry, I don't fit in with the culture of this place, and I miss almost everything about the Bay Area. We currently live in a little tourist town at the moment which is sort of nice, but my wife doesn't like it and wants to move again back to her hometown (which has neither jobs nor anything interesting to do).
So I guess I'll sit in a little room by myself on Zoom all day with coworkers 2,200 miles away, make 8x the median household income, and do nothing but invest it while living in the middle of nowhere for the next 20 years and despising every minute of it. At this point I'm just waiting until my kid is 18 and then I'll buy a tiny second home somewhere that I actually like and just travel there by myself occasionally I guess.
Get involved in youth... whatever. Sports, robotics, scouts, chess club, something. Spread knowledge and problem solving skills. Buy a spot on a lake or a river. Doesn't have to have a house - somewhere you can camp. Put up a yurt if you need something more solid than a tent. Float down wild rivers. Go fishing. Restore a car. Learn how to work with fiberglass. Don't sit there for 20 years and hate it.
One of the issues with moving to NV is you get trapped by the cheap pricing — it’s really hard to argue that you’re willing to move to CA for 2.5x the price for the same house... far worse when you look at the north.
But from San Francisco, you can basically move anywhere — am I willing to put up with Virginia’s remoteness for 700k? Probably.
Not having a point of reference, I did the math on my house using the most recent valuation. Built in early 2000's and sitting on 10 acres of Minnesota farmland. Came to under $150/sqft.
Yeah, thats the reason I wont move from the west coast, unless it becomes unbearable. Most people here would downvote you, just for suggesting human interactions are necessary, but yes, in places like SV, Seattle, NY, you get to meet smart and interesting people, learn a lot about the industry, life in general, I also get how some folks would love to make 300K in the middle of nowhere, paying none to little rent, and enjoy being the richest person in a small town, but I think there is a reason why most of the population is concentrated in a few cities.
The culture is different partly because of the lower population density. But I'll share a story.
The first week I moved in I tried to make small talk with a passing neighbor. It backfired. She quickly turned the conversation to how she is a proud gun owner and how she recently pointed it at someone who was on her porch. I am naive so I just thought, weird-story, but she was really saying is "let your Latino buddies know not to rob this place" (and her story prob wasn't true). The next random interaction was to complain about another Latino nearby. Perhaps she believes that we all know each other and if she told me I could do something about it.
When I lived in the Bay Area I could jog around Lake Merritt before dawn and it was safe because of all the other joggers. But I'm the only jogger here. Running when it's still dark out is probably a great way to get shot by a nervous neighbor. In all fairness I have been mugged at gun point in the Bay Area but that somehow bothered me less than having a neighbor imply I don't belong in the home I just bought.
Granted that is one neighbor, but again if you read the former description of myself is it any surprise that I might not fit culturally with a small Western city.
Every morning I wake up and I do not recognize the man in the mirror. I disintegrated into a collection of discontinuous random stories that feel like they happened to someone else. It easily diminished my productivity by 10% which means this move didn't save me money.
Now that I want to move back to Cali the homes are priced much higher than when I left. Beware.