The sudden urge to move

[bank5]

I love where I live, love my house and my DW wife and I both have good jobs. However, I frequently get urges to move and try something new. Anyone else in the same boat? I've moved a few times (Boston, Hawaii, now North Carolina) but would love to live out West or even overseas for a year.

 

[simple girl]

We are very much like this. Seems we just really like the adventure and excitement of learning about a new place.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

I love where I live, love my house and my DW wife and I both have good jobs. However, I frequently get urges to move and try something new. Anyone else in the same boat? I've moved a few times (Boston, Hawaii, now North Carolina) but would love to live out West or even overseas for a year.

Then by all means don't go into investment properties.

Yes, I do, too. Reminds me of the Eagles song Over the Green Hill or some such. Then you realize that people are great or sucky for the same reason everywhere. Some places are more great or less sucky because the overall culture is a better fit, but on a person-to-person level, you're going to run into the same range of people.

 

[FinallyRetired]

This is one of the problems with the housing market. We also like to move frequently, but we'd take a real bath trying to sell our home right now. So we're pretty much stuck where we are. Not that we dislike it, at least we're in a pretty nice place, but there's something psychologically confining about not being able to move if we wanted to.

 

[tuixiu]

Same boat as you homeowners with good jobs and a pleasant little existence, yet we get the urge all the time. It often culminates in a craiglist session looking at places to live.

We're currently in the Phoenix area, and the recent "let's move!" phases have included:
- New Orleans
- Austin
- Northern California
- Tampa/St Pete/Clearwater
- Charleston, SC
- Santa Fe

It never ends. Matter are even more complicated by wife being a lawyer would have to factor in whatever rules they have for admittance to bar and what time/expense that could involve before being able to work again.

 

[bank5]

I'm glad there are others like me out there. I think this latest surge was from a combination of reading an outdoor magazine, recently talking to a person who lives in Hawaii and another who lived in London for a year and loved the experience.

Seems like whenever I travel to a new place I get the "post vacation blues" on the plane ride home because I want to explore and experience more. I wish I could retire at the age of 29 for one year to travel and then go back to my career

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

One of us is and the other isn't.

 

[W2R]

Then you realize that people are great or sucky for the same reason everywhere. Some places are more great or less sucky because the overall culture is a better fit, but on a person-to-person level, you're going to run into the same range of people.

You expressed that really well. I feel the same way about the people.

I do think it's fun exploring a new local culture, though, and local history. Also I like unpacking my stuff and seeing what it looks like in a new house or apartment, and arranging it and so on. And for some reason (hush!! seems irrational to me) I like learning all the new street names and learning how to get around without a map.

I have moved around a lot so far in life and one thing I DON'T like about that, is not having any roots. No matter where you are, you aren't from anywhere and you don't have long time friends there. You are never a native, always a rolling stone.

 

[DangerMouse]

We've just moved for the 14th time in the last 20 years. During that period we have lived in 7 different countries and 11 different cities. I've not yet finished unpacking all the boxes from this last move and find it does get tiring. However, if the opportunity came up to move somewhere we really wanted to go I would be the first to say yes. We would love to move to Amsterdam or Paris for a while.

 

[tuixiu]

Damn you are a braver man than I, I'd love to do that DangerMouse but I just don't have the stones given careers, dog, and cats.

Well actually I could probably do without the cats.

 

[tuixiu]

I wish I could retire at the age of 29 for one year to travel and then go back to my career

Yup! There are plenty of books by people who did just that. I said that in my 20s, and my 30s, yet tomorrow off I go to the cubicle.

It's such a strange equation, what would one year off be worth compared to the hit on career in peak accumulation phase. I'm a software developer so I suspect it would be tough one.

 

[brewer12345]

We have had the urge in the past, but increasingly less so as the years go by. Having small children, dogs and a cat militate against it, and we are increasingly settled into where we live now. Having the travel trailer and the ability to go wherever we like for a visit helps scratch the itch as well.

 

[Bestwifeever]

If it's not too late to enlist, I think Uncle Sam will help you out with those urges.

 

[Meadbh]

I would like to move, but right now I cannot find a job I like in any of the places I would like to move to.

Just wait till I ER!

 

[Midpack]

I have moved all my life, so it's been odd being in one house for 16 years, not sure I like it. DW and I would love to move to, but a) it would be crazy to walk away from a good job right now and b) we can't figure out where we want to go next. Every place we think we like is either too expensive or undesirable weather (funny how they correlate). And with real estate expenses, we don't want to move until we are pretty sure we know where to go. We want moderate temps, low cost of living and near water. Just some we've crossed off in our "search":
[-]coastal New England [/-]too expensive
[-]Florida[/-] lived there, yuck
[-]Midwest[/-] live there, yuck
[-]Madison WI[/-] way too cold
[-]Naperville IL[/-] way too cold
[-]Charleston SC [/-] too hot, a little expensive
[-]Wilmington NC [/-] ?
[-]Austin TX [/-] too hot
[-]San Diego or San Fran[/-] way too expensive
[-]Seattle WA[/-] area
[-]various small towns W MI along Lake Mich [/-] too cold & expensive
[-]Portland/Eugune OR[/-] too expensive & rainy
[-]Annapolis MD [/-] too expensive
[-]Asheville NC [/-] friends there tell us it's gone downhill
[-]Sante Fe NM [/-] expensive and DW says NO
[-]Gaithersburg MD [/-](The Kentlands) too expensive
and so on, and so on...

 

[unclemick]

Prior to Katrina - greater Kansas City was NOT on my list - here it is going on three years and I haven't even done any real serious poking around yet.

Then again my 'planed' six months in New Orleans turned into thirty years.

Anymore - I don't take place that serious anymore - go where 'the fates' bring me, check out what the locals do and copy them.

Have yet to check out Branson or take my fishing pole to the Missouri Ozarks.

Looks like the old Family Reunion fell thru in Baja this year - one nephews wife is pregnant and doesn't want to travel, one went to work for the Border Patrol, and one won't fly or leave their dogs.

Long gone are the days when we would hook up the camper and go to the head of the driveway - flip a coin whether to head east or west on vacation.

heh heh heh - Still indulge the 'See The USA in Your Chevrolet' and roll down the road 4-6 times a year. But she's from Georgia and still don't like north yet - nixed sking or snowmobile's last winter - and I didn't extoll the joy of ice fishing.

 

[headingout]

Yes, we have that itch too. Moved almost every two years until settled down 13 years ago to raise a son in one place. Now the itch is coming back. But frequent moving can be expensive. There are transaction costs. The better model for us may be a "home base" with lots of traveling, perhaps the RV lifestyle....

 

[bank5]

Yup! There are plenty of books by people who did just that. I said that in my 20s, and my 30s, yet tomorrow off I go to the cubicle.

It's such a strange equation, what would one year off be worth compared to the hit on career in peak accumulation phase. I'm a software developer so I suspect it would be tough one.

Yeah, books and Matt Harding who's sponsored to travel by Stride Gum - YouTube - Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

That's not a bad job!!

 

[freebird5825]

I've been feeling that way for 29 years, ever since I moved to East Nowhere, just south of the Arctic Circle, in 1980 and saw a dinosaur egg rolling down Main St.
Just kidding...I have been very lucky to have traveled for w*rk and pleasure, stateside and internationally. Now that I'm FIREd, I can actually stop and smell the roses and cow manure just spread in the fields only 1/10 mile away.
My live elsewhere itch has to wait for dh2b to retire in 10 years. I can handle that as long as we get to travel somewhere exotic every other year. This summer is a 12 day Mediterranean cruise.

 

[tuixiu]

These days we take a one weeker and a two weeker every year, with the two week trip always somewhere overseas.

Doesn't help to quench the hit the road thirst at all.

 

[toofrugalformycat]

I like a solid home base with travel as long and often as I can afford, DH wants to move to a nicer climate and stay more or less put. As I get older the warmer climate sounds nicer all the time. But I've been burned with real estate once, kind of scared to try it again. We've only been in this house 27 years, what's the rush?

 

[tuixiu]

My wife has been into the urban loft thing, you know those overpriced "work, live, play" type developments that have been springing up in various cities that have historically more sprawlish.

I appreciate the benefits of 'em but man I just don't see how the prices they are charging can be justified for the benefits they offer. Sure I'd love to be able to stroll to the corner to get a bagel or happily bar hop at night without wondering how I'm getting home, but I also like not worrying about my wife out walking alone at night and not picking up my dog's crap from the sidewalk.

I had a coworker who had one it's so tiny yet cost twice what our townhome did. It was fun I guess in that we could tease him about his sexual orientation because the development he was in seemed about 90% affluent middle aged gay men.

I also think our expenses would go up living in one of those developments simply because so many more conveniences nearby.

 

[haha]

I also think our expenses would go up living in one of those developments simply because so many more conveniences nearby.

I live in that sort of hip urban neighborhood, but not a newly created one. My rent is high but not terrible; but purchase prices are still very high.

As to a more daily expensive lifestyle in this sort of place, this board can help with that. Many people here spend $25 or more almost every day in bars, sushi bars, coffee shops, etc. OTOH you can find much less expensive and very interesting pastimes only a walk away.

In spite of a lot of inflation since I first came to the board in 2003, the only bump up in my COL was my divorce and the consequesnt need to start paying rent. Food and "miscellaneous" as well as auto expenses have actually gone down.

Yesterday some young guy had made an armful of hula hoops and was handing them out to whoever wanted to hoop a little in Cal Anderson Park. He had a nice little group gathered by him.

Ha

 

[Walt34]

My original "retirement plan" was to put the snow thrower in the back of the pickup truck and drive south until people started asking what that machine was for. DW didn't want to go that far from family and in hindsight she was right.

I suspect that no place is going to be perfect and one hopes to find somewhere that meets most of the wants. Sort of the way SIL put it on finding a spouse - "Everybody has flaws. The trick is finding someone whose flaws don't matter much to you."

So except for the months of November-March, when I essentially go into hibernation, WV is pretty nice. Costs are reasonable, it's not too crowded, we don't get extremes of weather, and when it snows we stock up on food and movies and stay home.

 

[haha]

So except for the months of November-March, when I essentially go into hibernation, WV is pretty nice. Costs are reasonable, it's not too crowded, we don't get extremes of weather, and when it snows we stock up on food and movies and stay home.

Last night I got up to get a drink of water and looked out the window and remembered how much I enjoyed our snowfalls this past winter. Consciously at least I have never been a "4-season" lover. But since I no longer have to drive or maintain a car in bad weather I enjoy it. I have those mini-crampons so I can get around safely on foot, and I don't have any sidewalk or driveway snow clearing responsibilities.

Ha