There is a 90-95% chance that this wouldn't happen, but on the remote possibility that my family would want to relocate to S. CA I want to know how miserable I might be. I've lived in Minnesota all my life, basically grew up in a town of less than 500 people. Out of college I taught in Fargo, ND where the population at the time was about 200,000 and now live in a town of about 12000 so I haven't had much experience living in large cities. However, I have traveled (if you call driving truck over the road "traveling") all over the US, so I have experience commuting in major metropolitan areas although not on a daily basis. My wife on the other hand is a city girl. Raised on an Bainbridge Island outside of Seattle, college at CC in Colorado Springs and lived in Albuquerque for 15 years when we met. She feels a little out of touch living out here and misses the warmer climates...right now its -25 windchill here...and with ACL repairs in both knees she is having trouble with arthritis.
The reason I mention Southern California is that a month ago we took a family vacation/business trip to San Diego and I hate to admit it, but kind of liked it. I would prefer someplace a little smaller and not necessarily in CA, but my wife is a mortgage underwriter for a bank in La Jolla. She is fortunate enough to be able to work remotely from our home and is a self-employed contractor so has some flexibility. IF the opportunity came up for her to move up the corporate ladder we would have to relocate so she could work in the office.
My situation is a little more complicated. I would have to sell my business and find some other line of work to do for the next 15 years until I can start drawing SS. At this point in my life, I don't really know what I would choose to do either. My biggest concern is going from a self-employed business owner for the past 20+ years to working for someone else with set schedules, vacation days, and all the other BS that goes along with that. In looking for employment I would try to do something with some sort of health insurance plan as I'm tired of paying nearly $15000 a year for my Obamacare. I would also like to find something that I can walk away from at the end of the day and not have to think about until a showed up the next day. Self employment has its advantages, but I can definitely see how it would be nice not to have the responsibility and expense that goes with it also.
If we did this, we would most likely look to do it in the next several years before our children (4 & 1) get established in school, friends, etc. It would probably take me that much time to sell my business off, get things organized and relocated.
I'm sure living expenses would be more, but how much more? It isn't cheap living here either when you factor in three to four seasons of clothes, $400/month heating bills in the winter, etc. We would most likely downsize our house since we wouldn't necessarily be spending so much time indoors. Right now we have winter and mosquito season. I'm sure daycare would be more than we are paying now ($25/day/kid), but that won't be for much longer. We both wouldn't necessarily have to be driving four-wheel drive vehicles. My guess is that when we factor in that we would have some sort of health insurance package with one or both of our employers and we would be saving about 7% of our salary by not paying all of our SS tax, we might be about even. We also spend about $10,000 a year on a vacation to someplace warm or just to get away for a long weekend here and there. That isn't to say we wouldn't take vacations, but we probably wouldn't do it as often.
So, how bad would it be? Besides the fact that eggs are $5/dozen because the damn chickens have to have more square footage to lay them, is it all that miserable for a redneck? My wife is a liberal, I am most definitely not. I like spending time outdoors whether in the hills or on the beach, it doesn't make a lot of difference although I would prefer the hills. I like hunting, fishing, etc. but it doesn't dictate my life. I just want the opportunity to be able to share it with my growing children.
Any information will be appreciated!
The reason I mention Southern California is that a month ago we took a family vacation/business trip to San Diego and I hate to admit it, but kind of liked it. I would prefer someplace a little smaller and not necessarily in CA, but my wife is a mortgage underwriter for a bank in La Jolla. She is fortunate enough to be able to work remotely from our home and is a self-employed contractor so has some flexibility. IF the opportunity came up for her to move up the corporate ladder we would have to relocate so she could work in the office.
My situation is a little more complicated. I would have to sell my business and find some other line of work to do for the next 15 years until I can start drawing SS. At this point in my life, I don't really know what I would choose to do either. My biggest concern is going from a self-employed business owner for the past 20+ years to working for someone else with set schedules, vacation days, and all the other BS that goes along with that. In looking for employment I would try to do something with some sort of health insurance plan as I'm tired of paying nearly $15000 a year for my Obamacare. I would also like to find something that I can walk away from at the end of the day and not have to think about until a showed up the next day. Self employment has its advantages, but I can definitely see how it would be nice not to have the responsibility and expense that goes with it also.
If we did this, we would most likely look to do it in the next several years before our children (4 & 1) get established in school, friends, etc. It would probably take me that much time to sell my business off, get things organized and relocated.
I'm sure living expenses would be more, but how much more? It isn't cheap living here either when you factor in three to four seasons of clothes, $400/month heating bills in the winter, etc. We would most likely downsize our house since we wouldn't necessarily be spending so much time indoors. Right now we have winter and mosquito season. I'm sure daycare would be more than we are paying now ($25/day/kid), but that won't be for much longer. We both wouldn't necessarily have to be driving four-wheel drive vehicles. My guess is that when we factor in that we would have some sort of health insurance package with one or both of our employers and we would be saving about 7% of our salary by not paying all of our SS tax, we might be about even. We also spend about $10,000 a year on a vacation to someplace warm or just to get away for a long weekend here and there. That isn't to say we wouldn't take vacations, but we probably wouldn't do it as often.
So, how bad would it be? Besides the fact that eggs are $5/dozen because the damn chickens have to have more square footage to lay them, is it all that miserable for a redneck? My wife is a liberal, I am most definitely not. I like spending time outdoors whether in the hills or on the beach, it doesn't make a lot of difference although I would prefer the hills. I like hunting, fishing, etc. but it doesn't dictate my life. I just want the opportunity to be able to share it with my growing children.
Any information will be appreciated!
