Greetings, 'Stachians! So look - where you live (geographic location) is a huge, YUUUUGE factor in the pace at which you can attain FI and the pace of the drawdown of your eventually amassed nice fat nest egg, right? Yet I have been searching the site in vain for discussion of this topic, aside from some related-but-not-on-the-nose threads, like the very cool relocation guides, and a pretty new post from a lady looking for ideas of small towns with LCOL her family might relocate to.
Am I just utterly inept at using the site search engine? (Plausible, lol!!) Is there a subforum/sticky/links you can point me to? Or is this maybe not a topic people frequently grapple with, seeing as many folks will have location-specific jobs, extended families they wish to remain near, kids in school they don't want to disrupt, etc.
Right now in my own life, this seems like an enormous low-hanging fruit to take aim for, but I want Mustachian perspectives on it - not say, Forbes' opinion of the best places to retire to because there's a big-a$$ hospital system there to take care of you when you have a coronary. I'm a digital nomad and former FL resident currently living with the guy I love, who unfortunately is something of a spendthrift whose industry is based in NYC, ugggh. The price of one treat night of modest take-out here might just give me that aforementioned coronary! Everything in NYC costs the earth. And it's killing me to watch my own ability to save take a hit while I try to determine if I need to fish or cut bait with the guy, or if I might persuade him to live in a place that doesn't nail you on taxes, housing, food, and every other requirement for living, sigh.
I'm casting a wide net, including maybe spending part of the year as expats, but again - not finding tons of info that addresses this here. On his site, Jim Collins mentioned considering moving to Cuenca years ago, but I haven't see that resurface, as either a 'yep, we're gonna do it eventually' or 'nah, never mind.'