Background on the changes, fiscal no-brainers

[cjsmith]

A couple of people have implied that they missed the story triggering this pile of research into new places to live. No need to go looking; ya didn't miss much. :-) This entry, written shortly after a two-week vacation overseas, described my dissatisfaction with my current life and listed a few things I needed to do. One of those is ditch high-tech, which for me also means move.

Rob did the legwork on getting our current house price guesstimated by a local real estate agent. Mercy. Buying that thing eight years ago was the best financial decision the pair of us ever made.

When we start looking at the purchase prices of lovely homes elsewhere, the tiedown or hangar fees, utilities costs, various taxes, and so forth, we realize we would have to be absolutely butt-stupid not to move. A couple months ago I thought "maybe this would be a good idea"; now I'm thinking "DUH". I really wasn't quite prepared for the power of that realization. It's as impossible to ignore as a fist to the face. Unless we have ties to this place so strong it would break our souls to move, this is a complete no-brainer.

There's a lot I'll miss about this area, including people. I'll come back and visit if y'all want. The savings on utilities alone could pay for quite a few round trip plane tickets.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

A good point. I've never built the kind of roots here that I had in New England. Perhaps I kept seeing this as a temporary move, "just until we win the startup lottery" maybe, and suddenly I look and it's been sixteen years. Or maybe it's just that college is a crucible that forms deeper bonds. Definitely, making friends in a new city will be a big deal. LJ will remain my primary support network.

I'm not sure what Rob's outlook on this is. He too has lifelong friendships from where he grew up, but I'm not sure he has quite that kind of bond here. He knows more people here than I do, but the people he's closest to aren't local.

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

It should be easier if you don't have roots. I had lots and lots of them, and I feel the loss. I did what I had to do, but I really miss lots of folks out there.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about feeling the loss. I still feel it from having moved from New England. I will probably never again have roots, and I miss that as much as or even more than I miss specific people. Do you feel you're building roots where you are now? In ten or twenty years, will the loss be offset by those?

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, as long as I was with Dave, roots didn't seem as important. The roots were all *right there*, wherever we were.

Once Dave was gone, I realized just how deep the other roots I had went and how important they were to me.