There is much excitement in the Ohana household. DH has just accepted a new position, and it's a doozy.
Currently, we live in Maine, which we love. I am working full time at a local college, and DH has been doing some consulting work and also teaching PT at a local college (a different one). Combined we are making ~ $70K, which is down significantly from last year. DH just took a position in a southern state (yes we have lived in the south and also love it), and here's the thing: we're going to be living on a remote island as part of this job. There's good and bad things about it.
Good: The job pays reasonable well and seems very well suited for DH's skills, we get very nice furnished housing for $100/month, which includes all utilities, we get to live in an amazing place, there is a great marina on the mainland where we can keep our boat and live on it during the weekends, the ferry is free and only a 1/2 hour ride, all of our elderly parents live close to the island, DH gets to travel to the very cool main campus of the college he is working for once per month on a per diem, we could have just one car. Not to mention our own mostly private beach! I will also note we have lived on remote islands before for work, but in summer only.
Bad: It may get lonely on the island (no, we're not the only ones out there, but it's not grand central), I will have to give up my job, I will have a limited pool of jobs I can take.
Here's the advice I'd like:
Jobs: To some extent I am looking forward to maybe not working for a little while, but I think I would get bored. I've done a little freelance writing, which is a possibility, and I blog but just on blogger. I have a ton of skills that might be marketable to the researchers using the island. I'm a scientist with broad technical skills, like GIS, R, lab skills (mad lab skills), small boat handling and field sampling, and database management. So there might be a tech job I can get. Plus I am a talented, award-winning educator, so that might be in demand on the island for their educational programs. But I'm not counting on a quick job. I could get a job off island but that ties me to the ferry 2x a day plus driving. And I'm unlikely to want to work in a southern rural school district, I've done that and it sucks, sorry south. So I'm thinking I might be able to get a remote job. I know a lot of you have online gigs; any advice on skills I could learn within a reasonable time frame that are most likely to result in some interesting online work? Any good online training I should pursue? What would be fun? Anyone teach online, or edit/write?
Our current home: Last year we sold our clownishly large home and bought a cute tiny condo in an old farmhouse. We own it outright, and paid exactly 100K for it. Monthly expenses for insurance, HOA, and taxes are $450. It has given us a measure of financial freedom. Do we rent the place out to visiting faculty for ~1k/month, or sell it? Renting seems like a PITA since we will live 1200 miles away. A friend is dying to buy it, so we could go without a realtor. I think we could net $105K, a 5% gain in a year. IF we do that, what do we do with that cash, since we get housing with the job? I believe we can count our boat as a residence in terms of taxes, but need to figure that out. Do we park the money somewhere safe so it's not vulnerable to market flux, put it into something like REIT's and get some income from it, or put it into a low fee index fund? Anyone know about the tax implications of selling a house and not buying another?
Other: What do you think I need to bring to the island to make me happy. We're going down to the island next week so I can check things out. We're actually considering selling our condo furnished, so we'd only have our art and a couple very nice carpets. Do I invest in a nice computer and monitor, as it might be my window on the world? A TV? A firepit and lounge chairs (yes).
As you can imagine, this is a huge change for us. We both know I need to be happy for him to be happy, and luckily his employer knows that too. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So we're trying to keep it real and make sure I'm rewarded by all this. I should say our ultimate goal is to "pretire" and go out sailing for a couple years, hence the boat. We have a nice little nest egg split between retirement accounts and brokerage accounts, which gives us a certain amount of FI but not complete freedom yet (thank you MMM for bumping us into high gear in the past 3 years, it has saved our bacon). We think we can save about 25k a year in his job, hopefully more. We are completely debt free.
I know you will all give me thoughtful, mustachian advice. Thanks in advance.