Relocation and maintaining connections with friends and family

[Wadiman]

Hi there -

One of the key planks in my FIRE plan is to sell up my home in a HCOL capital city in Australia, relocate to a regional area and pocket a good chunk of change to supercharge the stash.  In addition to the financial benefits, I have also reached a point where I have had enough of inner city living - the noise, air pollution, traffic and attitude that just seems to get worse every year. 

Of course one of the key considerations with the relocation is to maintain those vitally important relationships.  Skype  and phone calls go some of the way but face-to-face catch-ups are necessary. With this in mind one obvious solution is to set up a pattern of spending a few days (in a AirBnB or similar) every few months back in the capital city to catch-up.

For those that have faced/are facing this challenge - what kinds of solutions have worked for you?

Thanks!

[DirtDiva]

We text a lot, Skype, Facebook a little, phone occasionally, and we visit our many friends and family, who are scattered across the US and Germany.  We usually stay 1-3 days with any individual, because our peeps are clustered together.

We also welcome houseguests, and have hosted many friends for a weekend to several weeks. (We have guests an average of 1 weekend every 4).

Our extended families have discussed meeting at a vacation spot, but we haven't been able to coordinate that.

It works for us.

[Wadiman]

Thanks DD - I like the idea of staying with friends rather than other accommodation.

[MayDay]

It is hard.

A lot depends on how willing people are to visit you.

My family is scattered. We all like to travel and can all afford plane tickets. We all take turns traveling (with me the least probably as I have the only kids so more $$$ for us). I still wish I saw them more.  Since we all like to travel we can also meet in other locations and combine fun travel with family time.


My husband's family is all in one place but won't travel. It is a huge pain. We visit them twice a year. They don't visit us much/ever.

We have a guest room bed and a pullout bed in the basement, and my kids each have a trundle or bunk bed so we can fit 6 guests on actual beds. When my family comes at Thanksgiving it is comfortable.

It's still hard. I don't know if I would voluntarily move away from family. My parents live somewhere without many jobs so all is kids left. We live in a bigger but not exorbitantly expensive city and I hope my kids stay nearby. If not we would probably move to be near them.

[Islander]

It is hard, we relocated from a HCOL place 2 years ago now. At first we made a huge effort to visit but found out over time that people friends/family actually don't have time because they are all still busy with the rat race. We have a guest room and always welcome people though so that's a great way to keep that connection. What we relized over time is that people change (us included) and that everyone's priorities are different.

Best of luck! Relocating was the best thing we did for our family in order for me to stay at home with the kids and for my husband to have more time with the children. The financial freedom is worth it.

[Wadiman]

Thanks all for those perspectives.  I do think that quite a few of our close friends and family will visit us - especially if we get a place by a beach somewhere!

[former player]

You probably don't need to go a vast distance to reap the rewards of a difference in property values.  Start looking just outside the furthest commutable location to your city and you will still be within the area which is practicable for day visits.

[AMandM]

Not about visiting, but our extended family has a private (members only, password protected) blog.  It's a way to keep in touch with everyone, to post pictures, to share funny tidbits, and to have a place where logistical discussions among multiple households can be conducted efficiently.

[elaine amj]

Thanks all for those perspectives.  I do think that quite a few of our close friends and family will visit us - especially if we get a place by a beach somewhere!

That will likely help quite a bit. If your spot is in an appealing vacation location, you're much more likely to get visitors :)