> The whole "move to the mountains" thing that so many people talk about assumes you don't care about good schools, airports, hospitals, etc.
That certainly is a trade off some people have to make.
We're finalizing a move to a new home that fits that description. 20k pop, basically on the beach, backed by mountains and trails, 4 hour drive to anything with greater than 200k population, small hospital that is not well equipped, local schools are pretty meh to terrible.
Here is the thing though, I'm the sole breadwinner. That opens up tons of options and flexibility.
My wife and I are deeply involved in our son's education, in which we substantially add on to his online classes. We have gigabit fiber internet, I can drive to an international airport in under 15 minutes(granted, only 3-4 days a week for flights), and our son is now getting a chance to make friends again, outside of school.
My wife wanted to move to the area, my sole objection was having fast and reliable internet to do my job. I grew up on a farm, so getting out of dense metro areas suits me just fine.
Now that we have secured internet, and my starlink reservation should be delivered in a few months as a backup, there is nothing stopping us.
Remote work has allowed me to get away from California and their income taxes, raise my pay in the process by finding a new and fully remote job, and live in a much cheaper COL area.
Renting for now, but we build our house in 2022/2023. My pay versus the cost of the area means that we will pay cash for everything, no mortgage needed.
That certainly is a trade off some people have to make.
We're finalizing a move to a new home that fits that description. 20k pop, basically on the beach, backed by mountains and trails, 4 hour drive to anything with greater than 200k population, small hospital that is not well equipped, local schools are pretty meh to terrible.
Here is the thing though, I'm the sole breadwinner. That opens up tons of options and flexibility.
My wife and I are deeply involved in our son's education, in which we substantially add on to his online classes. We have gigabit fiber internet, I can drive to an international airport in under 15 minutes(granted, only 3-4 days a week for flights), and our son is now getting a chance to make friends again, outside of school.
My wife wanted to move to the area, my sole objection was having fast and reliable internet to do my job. I grew up on a farm, so getting out of dense metro areas suits me just fine.
Now that we have secured internet, and my starlink reservation should be delivered in a few months as a backup, there is nothing stopping us.
Remote work has allowed me to get away from California and their income taxes, raise my pay in the process by finding a new and fully remote job, and live in a much cheaper COL area.
Renting for now, but we build our house in 2022/2023. My pay versus the cost of the area means that we will pay cash for everything, no mortgage needed.