Does where you live matter to you?

[Your Mom]

I'm 24, married, no kids. I live in Omaha, NE where I've lived all my life except for 4 years of college in Missouri. My wife's entire family lives here as does all of my family except for my brother. I can honestly say that I don't really care where I live. As long as the town has cable, internet, and my wife, I think I'd be happy as a clam. So does where you live matter to you?

[idrinkcoors]

Absolutely it matters to me. I'm in the same boat as you, and while most people would consider my little town to be hickish, I wouldn't consider living anywhere else.

I do though, respect those who take advantage of the financial opportunties found outside your surroundings. Occassionally I will look back at lost opportunites and wonder "what if." In the end though, the family, friends and familiar surroundings of home can't be replaced.

[econophile]

YM,

Where else have you lived? I am also curious how much you have travelled.

edit: I see you said you lived in MO, but was it small town (e.g. Columbia)?

[lgas]

I have entertained fantasies of moving to someplace like Costa Rica or Thailand (esp. after reading Degen's thread) for a while now. Basically someplace that is nice, but where the cost of living is super low. Some days it seems ludicrous (mostly because all of my friends, family, my business, etc. are all here) but other days it seems ludicrous not to do it.

My primary income is from computer consulting work and I think I could get that spun up from abroad pretty easily. Sure, I would have to pass up some jobs, but I could definitely make plenty of money working entirely remotely. If I was in Thailand or someplace in a radically different timezone, then I would need to be on a weird schedule relative to my local timezone, but that's pretty easily managed.

I did some quick back of the envelope calculations and if I had made this move 3 years ago, I probably would've saved about $150k or so to do whatever I wanted with. I probably would've invested most of it, and made even more money, which would be worth even more if I was living someplace like this.

In regards to your original question, I guess the answer is that it definitely does matter to me where I live. This is evidenced both by the fact that I have spent a lot of time thinking about moving and by the fact that despite the fact that it could improve the quality of my life significantly, I haven't done it yet.

This post is just making me realize even more that I should devote some more serious thought to this subject.

[Jason Strasser (strassa2)]

friends are important. so is a job. I guess these are both not factors? I have trouble believing you only need those things you listed.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
friends are important. so is a job. I guess these are both not factors? I have trouble believing you only need those things you listed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not everyone has a job that they have to go to a specific location for, and a lot of old people only have their spouse as a friend anyhow. Friends come, go, and can remain in contact via vast distances these days. Most of my friends live over 300 miles away, and that's fine. I still talk with them, and we still get to hang out once in a while.

[NT!]

i live in NYC. i moved here with my lady friend so she could complete a teaching program and i hate it (as i knew i would). yes, where i live is definitely important to me.

i couldn't be with someone who didn't have some similar ideas to me about good places to live. both of us like more rural places, and are interested in living somewhere tropical / foreign for a few years if the opportunity presents itself. we also both have jobs/careers that are fairly mobile (i am getting an MSW and she is a teacher).

i would say, having lived for a while fairly far from any of my friends and in a place where it's hard to make a lot of new ones, that living in a place i like and near some friends or in a community where i could fit in / make friends is among my top priorities. however i am lucky insofar as my work doesn't really force me to live anywhere in particular.

[aejones]

Of course it matters. Wheve ever my friends are- they're sick important too me.

[Evan]

There's only two places I've been that I could really say I'd be happy about living. One is NYC, where I live now. The other is San Francisco, where I've spent a pretty significant amount of time. These extend to surrounding areas too. For example, I wouldn't mind living in Hoboken or Berkeley, but I'd still prefer to be in the actual cities.

Living in really small towns would drive me nuts in about 20 minutes. I can see this changing later in life if I have a wife/kids, but I'm just not at that point in my life now. There's too much I value about living in real cities.

[Bond18]

Try living in basically the middle of nowhere in urban Shanghai China for a few months without being able to speak the language and i can promise you that where you you'll realize where you live DOES matter.

Same with weather conditions, i lived in Wisconsin most of my life and if i have to go through another 5 month cold as [censored] hell winter i think i'll kill myself.

You might not realize how much it matters, because you havn't lived anywhere outside your comfort zone.