Jumped in with Both Feet

[Dr. A]

So, I've been away from the board for about a month now (not that I'm much of a prolific poster in the first place) because I've been a little distracted. My wife, son and I have decided to pretty much hit the ol' re-boot button on our lives:

-Got a new job in a new state in a small-ish town that is dense and walk-able in the center, but 2 miles away from virtually endless woods, with major bike trails in every direction. It's also in a location that will let me re-start my former side-hustle.

-My wife's former boss offered (out of the blue!) to hire her in a few months for his new start-up; because she's worked with him before (and is awesome at what she does) he'll let her telecommute full time. She's also about to start up her own side-hustle.

-Bought an 8-year old Toyota Matrix in the 100k club for cash off of craigslist. Despite owning a car (which we didn't before) the "transportation" line item in our budget should go down since we trade relatively-expensive transit passes for walking/biking, and our regular car trips to see the family will done in an owned-not-rented car over approximately 1/3 the distance.

-Will rent temporarily while we sell our old place, eventually owning a home where we are no longer forced to outsource everything (via monthly maintenance fees), try our hand at renovating and pushing up the value, and even have control of our own thermostat!

-Put those together and for a small decrease in income we'll be cutting our expenses by at least half and bringing our not-terrible savings rate of 20% to a truly respectable rate of well over 50%.

Side benefits:
-The location is 2.5 hours closer to our favorite vacation spot (a family cabin on a lake) meaning more-frequent but even-less-costly vacations
-I'm going from a super-corporate company of 50,000 to a firm of 15, where "we don't wear ties, because people would think we're  a big-city company" and they give you your birthday off
-Because my wife no longer works for a cable TV network, we can try out cutting the cord
-Did I mention how close the nature is?

[Will]

Awesome!  Sounds like some very positive changes!  Good for you and your family.  Closer to everything now, including retirement.

[dantownehall]

Sounds good!  What kind of side-hustle are you in?

[brandino29]

This is absolutely awesome!  Stay positive as the changes start to settle in, it's easy to get quickly nostalgic for the things you loved (sometimes even what you hated) about big city life.  This initial excitement hangover can be challenging as you begin to doubt your move, but you've gotta focus on the reasons you did it in the first place. 

Congratulations on the big change!

[Dr. A]

Sounds good!  What kind of side-hustle are you in?

College athletics, actually. When I was in school I worked in the athletic department writing game recaps, doing stats, PA announcer, spotting, TV crew, etc. I kept it up the first couple years after I graduated when I was near a Division I university. It hasn't worked out in my current location, but I'm hopeful my old contacts can get me hooked up with the school that I'll be a bike ride away from. It's pretty sweet to make $50 for watching a football game.

This is absolutely awesome!  Stay positive as the changes start to settle in, it's easy to get quickly nostalgic for the things you loved (sometimes even what you hated) about big city life.  This initial excitement hangover can be challenging as you begin to doubt your move, but you've gotta focus on the reasons you did it in the first place. 

Congratulations on the big change!

Thanks! My wife and I are both from towns much smaller than where we're moving (and much, much, much smaller than where we're leaving), so there's definitely a major "feels like coming home" angle that should help a lot.