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I have a somewhat unique situation and wanted to get your opinion.
I currently telecommute out of my house in Pensacola, FL to a job out near Los Angeles, CA. Love the job and have no plans on jumping ship anytime soon. My soon-to-be-wife is a teacher.
Besides my family nothing is really holding us in Pensacola. While I LOVE the beaches around here and our cute downtown, this is a VERY military town. Since I telecommute I have a pretty hard time meeting new people. However difficult I still make it happen only to have them be deployed or transferred months later. In addition the teacher pay is among the lowest in the state.
This all got me thinking. If we did move we pretty much have free reign to go wherever we want and rent out our current house - with the only restriction being budget (which is around $325,000) – good schools – and decent internet (silly I know).
Both of us are in our thirties so while we don’t need some crazy nightlife, a more vibrant city would be great. Because we have large dogs, we would opt more for a single family home rather than a condo as well. Since my job is fairly specialized, being close to larger city or tech hub would provide extra security.
Anyway, enough about me. The 3 cities I am leaning toward are Chicago, Atlanta, and Austin.
We have some family in Chicago and LOVE to visit. It checks all my boxes but from what I can see it’s not recovered as well/quickly as most other cities in this recession. Teacher pay in Illinois is very solid.
Atlanta is currently our closest major hub. Travelling to family would be a quick hop. Its tech market is growing as well. Teacher pay in Georgia is also very good.
Austin is my blind pick. I have never been there but only here good things. We plan on visiting later this year regardless. While the smallest of the choices, it’s a growing tech hub and has a younger feel overall. Teacher pay is still better than our current location.
I am also open to other ideas and locations. This has been stewing in my head for a while.
New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Osaka, Tel-Aviv, Vancouver, Melbourne, Barcelona, Singapore, all of Germany, Haifa, Taipei, Busan, Nagoya, Honolulu, San Diego, Denver, Tucson, Stockholm, Amsterdam/Randstad, Oslo, the rest of the United Kingdom, Madrid, Bangalore, Pune, Toronto, Seattle, Austin, Portland (OR), Copenhagen, Brussels. Maybe Sydney, when I can start to not hate it as much. Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco Bay Area, Brisbane/Gold Coast, Auckland, all of the rest of TX/FL/CA [all of it], all of Switzerland, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Jamshedpur, and Panama City.
That same order from first to last, assuming job opportunities and everything were equal when evaluating for all of the places and assuming that immigration into a place was easily accessible. If its on the list, then I like it for sure. Doesn't matter if it is first or last, I like it! I don't mind learning a new language to live somewhere either. Sydney is complicated, while I like the actual city, I am not a huge fanatic of the culture that prevails there but admittedly it might be the only place I "hate" that I could actually live in. So its on the list too.
Miami is first though, for me, but I already live here so I am very happy with it.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 04-24-2015 at 03:53 PM..
We're in kind of a similar boat. I work by remote for an organization out of NYC, and my wife usually works in some sort of executive assistant capacity and can usually find employment in just about any town. We're in our 30's, don't have kids, love to travel, prefer to be striking distance from a tech hub, etc. We did the CO thing for five years and spent the whole time exploring the region. Last year we picked up and moved to the Pac NW just for the heck of it (well, there were a couple minor reasons and motivations, but nothing forced us to make the move).
We love where we live right now, and even though we get bored easily we plan on being here for a while. I've run into quite a few other telecommuters and they love it here, too. There are some amazingly beautiful places to live within a 90 minute radius of Seattle....
But on a sentimental level, I'll agree with the poster above. Having good companionship dramatically increases your quality of life, regardless of where you live!
Detroit. I want so badly to be part of the comeback. Detroit has limitless potential to again be a world-class city and I want the opportunity to help show the world that.
In the U.S., Philadelphia is the perfect city to be. But going to some unlikely destinations would be fun. If I didn't have to work or try to pad my resume all the time, I would chill in some Pacific islands or Mongolia and Central Asia.
Australia or Germany for me. In the USA anywhere but Philadelphia lol
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