So, I moved from a rather high cost of living area (Seattle suburbs) to a rather rural, LCOL area (rural Idaho, middle of farm country, very close to family).
I took a quite significant pay cut switching from a rather highly regarded, high paying employer with stock options to a previous employer that was happy to have me back, even working remotely. And I negotiated part time (32h/wk), so the end result is that I'm going to have less than 50% of my previous taxable income. Though I'm working on some side projects to bring in money (ebike battery pack rebuilds are more popular than I expected).
I've almost certainly pushed out my retirement date by a few years - substantially less income post-tax, I gave up a lot of stock options, I sort of had to buy the house cash (mortgage companies don't really like manufactured homes, and they don't like people taking three months off between jobs) and no real promotion opportunities working remotely.
We couldn't be happier. Life is too short to live somewhere you don't like living - and we didn't like Seattle. We rather hated it. So I'll push out retirement a few years, be radically happier, spend more time with my family (both local and extended), and build a more self sufficient property on our few acres. The horrors!
To be fair, my planned retirement path is a bit different than most here. I certainly have things in index funds and the like, but my path towards "early retirement" is a paid off house, productive property, and the ability to provide for most of our needs locally - so solar, gardens, aquaponics greenhouse, chickens, etc. I've got plenty of years to work on those, but that's where I'm going. Plus random project work and investment income.
So that sets a bit of the background for where I'm coming from.
The thing about it is, that we don't love Boston. Housing prices are astronomical, traffic is horrendous and public transit (while better than 99% of the country) still sucks.
Sounds like Seattle. You have public transit, at least. I ebiked in the Seattle area because it was less awful than driving.
My commute takes at least an hour and up to an hour and a half on packed trains (aka not relaxing at all, work is on the green line for those familiar with the area).
Wowzers. I lived 5 miles from work, driving took 20-45 minutes, and ebike took 20 minutes. That's a lot of your day wasted. My "commute" is now roughly a 30 second walk.
To top it all off, we toured a daycare last week (first child due in March) and it's $3000 a month until the kid is 15 months, then $2500 for a couple years after that! That's only one data point and we're looking at other options, but that's just crazy!
Sounds about right. Are you planning to stay home with the kid?
Has anyone else made a move like this?
See above. Yes.
Husband would hopefully keep his remote job but needs to be ready to work locally if it were to ever end, so we would both be looking for jobs in NH.
You're looking at this the wrong way. If he's working remotely now and is in demand, he should be able to get another remote position if his current setup ends. Set up for remote work, don't bother trying to go back to local work!
Would need to buy a second car, most likely.
Perhaps. Probably not the end of the world, especially if one of you is working remotely and not having to travel much during the day.
Fewer jobs (One job site I searched listed 150 software jobs in Manchester vs 4,500 in Boston).
Look at the remote positions, not the local ones.
Reduced opportunities for advancement in careers.
There's certainly that. I don't expect any more promotions. I'm fine with that. If I keep getting paid what I'm getting paid for another 5-10 years, I'm set.
What do you think? Is moving to a place with so many fewer jobs career suicide? Is paying so much more for housing in order to have lots of job opportunities worth it?
I view urban/suburban areas as a circle of hell, so I was happy to find a way out.
But I'm leery of counting on his job lasting forever and want to be ready to work locally if required.
I don't see why you think that because he works remotely now, he has to work locally if something goes wrong with the remote position. :p Remote work is a thing, especially in the web industry.
Can't bike all the way in because I get too sweaty (it's 7 miles) and because it's not a very pleasant route.
Consider an electric bike. Solves the "sweaty" issue, gives you more range and more speed.
In my ideal, ideal life I would not work at all, my career is of extremely low importance to me and I see it as trading my life energy for food and shelter. Hence wanting to spend less on housing so we can get to FIRE sooner.
Can you set things up so your husband brings in enough for you to stay home, raise the kid, and work on FIRE from the "spending less" side of things? My wife stays at home with our daughter, does the shopping/cooking, is amazing with thrift stores and cooking from scratch, and keeps our expenses down far better than I can.