You guys all have some really interesting points!
I think it is a solid move to approach your internship this way but don't box yourself in.
I'm not really boxing myself in by doing it this way; I'm actually trying to branch out. I already have solid internship offers in Tempe, AZ, Chicago IL, Peoria, IL, and Philadelphia, PA. These are all pretty much unsolicited and mine for the picking, if I want one of them. Given these 5 locations, it's easy enough to narrow down which ones are acceptable based off of Mustachian principles. However, my degree can be applied to virtually any industry for the purposes of optimization, predictive modeling, risk forecasting, etc, so finding an internship is fairly easy in any locale, due to it's versatility. So now I'm trying to go about it inversely, and narrow down specific locales to find companies to solicit for internships, if any of them are more appealing than the offers I have.
I would think a major consideration would be transportation from home to work, without having to rely on a car would be near the top of the list. Finding a climate you can walk or bicycle in for the biggest portion of the year would be a big consideration, I would think. Affordable housing near anticipated work place would be a huge consideration as well. But for a lot of other factors, the importance would just be a factor to weigh in a complex equation. For example, access to inexpensive activities would be important but what that means would vary from individual to individual (for some, paved recreational trails to walk and bike on would be important, for others, more off road-type trails would matter more, while for others still, it would be more free outdoor concerts).
Other than weather and activities, how do you account for the rest? If you find the house first, what do you do if you can't find a job in a reasonable distance? If you find a job first, what guarantees you'll find an affordable house?
As Dee said it is a complex equation that is difficult to put together and generally it is difficult to piece together a perfect scenario. The hardest part is that low cost of living areas typically have few employment opportunities but that can be addressed with compromises with how you want to live longterm (smaller, roomates, etc). Beyond that taxes (income & property mostly) are the biggest thing to consider, if more of your money is going to the gov't then less for you and longer you will be working.
Is there a publicly accessible large scale data source for income, property, and sales tax by regions?
I would add that once you move somewhere and work for years or decades, it's not easy to uproot and move elsewhere. Therefore, pick a place you'll want to be throughout phases of your life, not just when you're young.
I second this. It doesn't mean you're locked in, but if you think of a longer time horizon when you move, there's a greater likelihood you'll pick a place that you won't want to run from in the next stage of your life. I recommend doing some thinking about what gets you going. Would you rather live in a big city and walk everywhere, in a small town, in a rural area, near mountains, near the water, with lots of snow, or lots of sun... If you really put together your priorities of what makes you happy, you'll start to see regions of the country/world beging to emerge, and then you can investigate employment possibilities, taxes, etc. on a smaller range of choices.
This is very true. However, doesn't "what makes you happy" tend to change over time? I'm still relatively young, but my interests have changed dramatically over the years, so much so that I think trying to predict them 20, 30, 40+ years down the line would be futile. Or does this change in interests slow down over time ?
-Property taxes hit Mustachians harder than sales tax, and often those two taxes are inversely correlated. Locales with very high sales tax may be a good place to start looking.
I've noticed this is true. Sales tax here is roughly 10%, but property taxes are relatively low (from what I've been told - I rent for the time being), and state income tax is non existent.
holds.
-Walking scores for neighborhoods are a nice metric, but proximity to work is usually more important.
Are walking scores very accurate? Are they based off of specific addresses or regionally sourced (city wide)?
-As you approach FI and have much more leisure time, the ameneties of the city will likely become more important (parks, museums, events at universities, activities in downtown, etc.). Rust Belt cities typically have infrastructure and ameneties that surprise.
That's interesting. I never thought about Rust Belt cities having good infrastructure and amenities, but I guess that does make sense that they'd be built out well.
During my job search I've been doing a lot of this, here are some useful site.
trulia.com- find out housing prices, and it has a walk score, and property taxes
walkscore.com- obvious
http://taxfoundation.org/article/property-taxes-owner-occupied-housing-county-ranked-property-taxes-paid-2007-2009-3-year-average
http://www.retirementliving.com/taxes-by-state
Thanks for these! :)