A few years ago, my wife and I wondered what should our lives be like, if they could be anything at all. What would we want? One of those things was moving away from Canada's nice-only-during-two-months-of-summer provinces to the west coast (an undecided suburb of Vancouver). I received a job offer pretty close to the west coast, only about 400km inland, 4000km closer than where we were. Two years since then are rolling around this summer, we had planned that two years is what we'd stay before trying again to get right out to the coast. Even now, whenever we're bored we drive over there (about 4 hours) for the weekend. The biggest problem with the small interior cities is, they are small and all that entails such as limited other employers and they have little to do in winter so we often travel racking up some significant expenses (mustacian terms, cheap by other people's standards).
In my heart, I want to move, I'm really drawn to everything about the coast. In my mind, it's super efficient for us not to move: I have a well paying job that I enjoy, low expenses, saving most of my paycheques and having our accounts fill up at sometimes astonishing rates. My employer appreciates me and as my work requires travel, they are fine with me moving to to coast working from home most of the time as I would have access to better airports when I travel. School for my son (grade 1) is coming to a close and conveniently enough, our mortgage is up for renewal in a couple months.
Assured Negatives of moving:
- Cost of $25-30k between moving/legal/land xfer/realtor fees to sell our house and move (that's what it cost last time)
- Any suburb of Vancouver will increase our mortgage by $100k-$150k for a usable but small place (1600 sq.ft is plenty for us)
- Disruption to the lives of my family members who were just starting to integrate into this community
Assured Positives of moving:
- My employer has agreed to it, but given it's mostly something I want not a business requirement, they are not paying for it
- Whenever the relationship between me and my current employer closes, I have access to a large city with many other potential employers
- It'll be easier, faster and cheaper to travel which I do about twice a month
- Unknown future opportunities
In Canada there is a tax form called TM1 where if someone hires you, and you move at least 40km to be closer to them, all of your moving expenses are reimbursed (I used it on the last move)... but I don't have another employer lined up at the moment, and I'm at a really interesting point with my current employer where I've taken on a new role and am just starting to get my stride in it so I don't really want to change employers just yet... even though it would allow for a free move.
It's a conflict between heart and mind, what is wanted and wished for versus what fills our bank accounts. A conflict with what is easy, staying here, and what is hard, going to a far away new city although we've done it before. Long term, I see a lot of benefits, other employers in my field (there are no others in this small town), after we move, we won't have to move again. Short term it's a no brainer.
To an audience of smart people, possibly others who've been here and done this, what would you do if this was something you had to consider?
