The Linkling Ultimatum

If you saw the spinning, dizzy, insane camera work from The Bourne Ultimatum then you probably know how most people who follow the market feel after this week. Fortunately since I try to avoid worrying about short-term trends, I can quote another super-spy and say “Do I look like I give a damn?”

So what is the ultimatum? Leave the big city and move to a small town to build financial independence! Bloggers, go!

The Brazen Careerist’s permanent-guest Ryan Healy has Twentysomething: Forget the big city, try middle America. I often dream of doing just what Ryan proposes: leaving New York and heading to a smaller town like Jacksonville or Nashville or the appropriately-named Middleville. But after spending a week in my hometown (population 20,000 or so) I realized that the adjustment would be huge. Not a bad adjustment, not at all – but it would take a long, long time to readapt to the pace of life in a smaller town. Probably moreso than someone who has never lived there might expect. Penelope Trunk talks about moving to a small town here and here.

The Money Socket is planning on moving to Sugar Land, Texas. I can’t find anything to argue with in his analysis, except about the culture. Texas is a whole different world from San Francisco. I am sure that people will be polite and friendly and actually just as fun as people anywhere else. The only problem (at least in my experience) comes with politics and religion. The first time someone from New York or San Francisco is witnessed by a neighbor or some random person at the supermarket can be shocking. I agree 100% about the financial aspects. My wife and I have given serious consideration at various times to moving to Phoenix or Jacksonville. Neither is exactly a tiny town but they certainly aren’t New York. Life would be much easier with no mortgage, cheap real estate, lower taxes and a lower cost of living.

The Simple Dollar, one of the mega-blogs of the personal finance blogosphere, prefers small towns to big cities. This post inspired a massive comment thread and some very interesting (and sometimes angry) back-and-forth. In another post he shows that a six-figure salary isn’t needed if you don’t live on the coasts.

 

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As I mentioned above, Bubelah and I have often discussed moving to a smaller city in a warmer climate, and we may yet do it. New York has exerted a tremendous pull on me. Even though I spend 50 hours a week in New York for work and live less than 6 miles from Manhattan, I feel an enormous urge to get closer, not further away. I really admire people, though, who can make these huge, life-changing decisions based on a calm and rational analysis of what they really want out of life and make the move to a smaller town.

Let me put it this way: I have been very fond of some places I have lived, and less fond of others. I loved the small town where I spent most of my childhood (from 9 on) and liked the town where I spent most of my early childhood well enough as far as I can remember. In my young adult life, I also lived near Atlanta and in Memphis. I hated the Atlanta area, mainly for personal reasons. The most exotic place I lived was Moscow, but I always thought that would be the last stop on my tour and that I would return to my hometown after that. I loved Moscow, too, and living there made me appreciate what a huge city has to offer.

On a whim, after leaving Moscow, I took a job in Connecticut and got a place in Manhattan. On my first day walking around downtown Manhattan, I knew – despite having lived elsewhere for the first 27 years of my life – that I was home. After 7 years living in Manhattan and 3 years just outside, that feeling has never really changed. I feel completely, utterly at home in New York and always have.

That is a tough feeling to leave behind, regardless of the financial benefits. That is why I doubt I will ever move.

Tags: career, life, linklings, money, wealth