For those who are interested, let me provide a little more color to the scene ...
The two of us
Both grew up in Austin. I went to UT, she went to Baylor up in Waco TX. We both did a good deal of world-traveling after college. She also did an internship in NYC -- wouldn't want to live there because it's too noisy and expensive. I did an apprenticeship in the north part of Colorado Springs -- *might* want to live in a place like that if I could avoid the very-suburban feelings parts of it.
In the earlier part of our adulthoods, both of us were more religious and more conservative. Now I would say we are more moderate, certainly less religious, and try to be open-minded and well-educated about the world.
We love our communities of friends here and that may be the most troublesome part of moving. But, maybe we could find a place that is conducive to making new friends and/or finding hospitable neighbors. Shrug. She is an introvert and likes a lot of alone time, but needs a good solid social interaction maybe once every week or two. I'm more of an ambivert -- I like keeping in close contact with a small group of friends, at least *seeing* acquaintances every so often, but otherwise I clam up pretty quickly in a big crowded noisy space.
WorkShe works for a fashion startup, I work for a software startup. I love my job, she feels just 'meh' about hers. We've both enjoyed a lot of job growth in our short careers due to the burgeoning economy of the Austin area.
This could have been the thing that really scuttled our plans, because it's likely going to be real tough to find comparable jobs in a small southwest town, compared to the glitz and hubbub of Austin. Luckily our plan is to keep our current level of income by working remote for one or both of these jobs. This will also allow us to presumably settle *almost anywhere* as long as we can get a suitably fast internet connection.
HopesThis big idea, as you can see, is still very much in the incubation process.
In terms of housing, the idea with this move is that we will be able to rent out our (pretty cheap) house in Austin and make a little money from it while we live out west, while still retaining a place to return home to, someday. In the meantime we would probably consider renting OR buying out west ... not sure about the latter yet, we'll see what the finances will bear. We both love the process of fixing up a home, which we've really enjoyed here in Austin with our first.
Housing and budget details ...
- We got our current ~1300 sq ft house for $165k and have about $127k balance on our 30yr loan. Suffice it to say we pay MUCH less per month on our house than we would if we were to rent something even in the 800 to 1000 sq ft range
- If we rented this place out we could probably get $1400 - $1600/mo. Based on the 2.5 years we've lived here so far, I think that should be enough to cover maintenance costs as well as giving us a couple hundred $$ extra income per month.
- This amount of space is decent for us -- we definitely wouldn't need anything bigger than this out west, but who knows what we might find.
- Obviously if we are spending almost zero time commuting, our transit and auto maint. costs will go down. I would guess some other costs of living would go down, but unsure aside from (hopefully) our monthly housing.
- Again I'm still not sure about buying or renting if/when we do move. But we could easily build up a bucket to go toward a new down payment, if we had 6-12 months to stay focused on the plan. I have NOT looked into the intricacies of taking out a second mortgage though, maybe that means higher interest or something? Research yet-to-do.
In terms of lifestyle, our hope is to enjoy more natural light and outside time; be able to camp and backpack in true scenery with non-crushing high temperatures; enjoy a place that truly has 4 seasons, as opposed to the 1.75 seasons of Austin; explore huge tracts of public land, which frankly don't exist in Texas; find our way into a less-consumerist and more meditative existence, e.g. by adapting to a place that is not quite so socially and superficially competitive as the hot-young-rich scene of Austin; and did I mention get outside a lot? Biking, backpacking, hiking, maybe picking up some winter sports that the wife and I have never really had access to.
Fears- Maybe we'll move away from our well-established friend communities and find that it's really hard to acquire a new one.
- Maybe we'll move away from the comfort and convenience of the city and find that we miss the options for eating out, or Costco, or quick access to Home Depot, or just the general feeling of a developed metro area.
- Maybe we'll try to make new friends but due to subcultural differences we'll just never really feel at home or at ease
- Maybe we'll be really bad at "winter" living in a place that actually has a real winter. Shoveling snow? Practical layering? Driving through mixed conditions? And so on. All will be new experiences.
But ...... we won't know until we try! Those are just some initial thoughts off the top of my head.
Your thoughts are welcome
As you can see this thread is not JUST about picking a place to live, but really more so about evaluating our hopes and goals and seeing if the entire plan is useful. I would very much welcome anyone's experiences of trying to do the same, living in different places, adapting and adjusting, etc. Enlighten me if you would.
Thanks!