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We are originally from Ireland and have lived on Long Island(NY) for over 20 years. We do have a small place in PA, but would love just to get off the rat race that LOng island is and move to a smaller place where we can work, and live a comfortable life. It would be nice to have a town to walk to, a local pub to have a pint in, but not a big city at all.
We do have two boys and hope to make the move before high school starts ; about 3 years. Jobs ; financially we will be ok as we need to sell some property and a business, but we would need jobs. We also think it would be better to rent first before buying.
Has anyone done this and how did it turn out? Did you regret it. We both feel that our quality of life is nothing here ; just work, work and more work. So it would be nice to be able to work the typical 40 hours and also just relax in our off time.
If you can downsize your expenses,then anything is possible.
If you work $8/hour jobs but have money left over,what is the loss?
People in America are caught up in making money,to the detriment of living.
But Americans look at almost EVERYTHING as a competition,sadly they haven't realised even if you 'win' the competition you STILL die...you just get to spend your whole life doing it.
What sort of climate do you want?
If you sold everything,would you really need to work good paying jobs?
We are relocating to a very depressed area but our 'mortgage'(land payment actually,the house is paid for) is less than $300/month.
It is possible to buy a house in the towns near us for less than $30,000.
If you can downsize your expenses,then anything is possible.
If you work $8/hour jobs but have money left over,what is the loss?
People in America are caught up in making money,to the detriment of living.
But Americans look at almost EVERYTHING as a competition,sadly they haven't realised even if you 'win' the competition you STILL die...you just get to spend your whole life doing it.
What sort of climate do you want?
If you sold everything,would you really need to work good paying jobs?
We are relocating to a very depressed area but our 'mortgage'(land payment actually,the house is paid for) is less than $300/month.
It is possible to buy a house in the towns near us for less than $30,000.
We wouldnt need over the top paying jobs. We would need jobs to cover healthcare. We would have enough money depending on where we would relocate to, to cover us for a few years. After so long here, we want to improve the quality of life and have fun with our boys while they are still young and to be able to appreciate the smaller things in life.
I guess if you sit down and work out your bare essential needs,you could work out how much you would need to make.
As to healthcare,well that is taken care of now by the government.
Another thing to look at is property taxes,especially in certain states such as NY.You might get a nice place in the country but if your taxes are $3000/year or more it might not be worth it.
Do you want to live in town or have some land?
We have 17 acres about 20 minutes from town,it is secluded and we are by ourselves and that is what we were looking for.
You might want to be within walking distance of the town center.
I guess if you sit down and work out your bare essential needs,you could work out how much you would need to make.
As to healthcare,well that is taken care of now by the government.
Another thing to look at is property taxes,especially in certain states such as NY.You might get a nice place in the country but if your taxes are $3000/year or more it might not be worth it.
Do you want to live in town or have some land?
We have 17 acres about 20 minutes from town,it is secluded and we are by ourselves and that is what we were looking for.
You might want to be within walking distance of the town center.
My dh woudl LOVE land ; about 5 - 10 acres or so , so he could plant a crop farm and live off the land. 20-30 mins outside a town would be ok.
Weather ; we like the four seasons, snow isnt a huge thing, but winter would be ok. Taxes ; here we are paying over 10,000 a year!!
I would be the one working, so anything ; lowes, home depot ; anything is fine with me as long as it had healthcare. The house and land would be paid for.
My dh woudl LOVE land ; about 5 - 10 acres or so , so he could plant a crop farm and live off the land. 20-30 mins outside a town would be ok.
The 'lot' next to ours is for sale,just under 10 acres and asking $40,000 or so,they will be lucky to get half that.If we had the $$$ we would buy it to provide more of a buffer from potential neighbors.
There is a place we looked at that has 40 acres,mostly hayfields,a farmhouse and seemed nice enough for $245,000.That was almost two years ago and it is still for sale...so probably worth way less than that.
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Weather ; we like the four seasons, snow isnt a huge thing, but winter would be ok.
Western North Carolina certainly gets four seasons,although winter is much milder than up north in the frozen wastelands.
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Taxes ; here we are paying over 10,000 a year!!
That is disgusting...we pay less than $600 a year.
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I would be the one working, so anything ; lowes, home depot ; anything is fine with me as long as it had healthcare. The house and land would be paid for.
Then you should be able to find something,if benefits are of more importance than the amount of money you make.
There is always private insurance,you could buy catastrophic insurance which would cover the important health matters.
I wouldn't let anyone tell you it can't be done or let concerns about money stand in your way.
You only live once and from our own personal experience we have wasted WAY too much of our lives already.
I love the topic title. This is why we moved from the lovely CT. To get away from the rat race.
Not all rural communities have bad jobs. They usually do have jobs actually. You just gotta drive a ways.
I love the topic title. This is why we moved from the lovely CT. To get away from the rat race.
Not all rural communities have bad jobs. They usually do have jobs actually. You just gotta drive a ways.
True,or realise that the job is NOT your life.
I am/was a Chef,I applied to be a School Custodian,I did this because I would have weekends off and get to enjoy life.
Who cares what you do for a living?
If someone asked me I would say I try to enjoy LIFE.
The job is not our life and it has taken us until now to realize that. My dh works 50 hours, I work from home and while its seasonal, it still takes up lots of time. My dh has come to hate where we live (loves our house, but schools arent great), I will live anywhere as long as we are happy( lived in Toronto, ireland etc).
It seems as if we never have time to relax or chill and that we try to push more and more into the day. I am totally guilty of that.
There has to be a better way of living.We dont have expensive taste, no car loans, kids arent into the brand names, no fancy meals out or anything like that.
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