Real World Finance$

The last few weeks have been rough here in Missouri.  While this weekend we had record high temperatures, the weeks prior were bitterly cold with plenty of wind.  I hate the cold and everything associated with it, including snow.  I have felt this way since I was young. 

I have longed for the day when I can move someplace where I can play golf 12 months a year.  Currently, my parent’s and the wife’s grandmother lives in Florida.  The wife also has an uncle and another Grandmother in South Carolina.  However, the wife’s parents live here in town about 10-15 minutes from us.  They are a nice resource to have.

The good news is, they are deciding they will be retiring in about 2 years and want to move to a warmer climate for health reasons.  With them being the only family left in the area, if they leave, we probably will too.

That being said, we’ve decided to work together over the next couple of years to decide exactly where we want to go.  There are a lot of choices and we want to make a good decision.  The factors to consider in an intentional decision like this are enormous.  It’s one thing to relocate because of a job offer, but to decide where you want to go and then find the job and move is another. 

I’ve found what seems to be a pretty good website called Best Places.  There you can get a comparison of 2 cities in all kinds of statistical areas such as economics, crime, housing, general cost of living, etc.  That will certainly help us to whittle down the list some before we start taking vacation trips to visit some of the prospects.  We are hoping to take a couple of trips each of the next 2 years to visit areas and see several cities for ourselves.  So, expect to see some reviews from time to time on my research of different cities both before and after we go.

Here’s a list of some of the things we would like in our new city.

• No Snow - No cold weather for us.
• Beach - We don’t need to be right on the beach or anything, but someplace that’s an easy day trip without having to feel like you need to spend all weekend and rent a room would be nice.
• Higher Education - In my experience, universities bring in lots of cultural activities to an area.  Plus, with being a teacher part-time, I’d like to know there is a place I could continue that when we move.
• History - I am NOT a lover of suburban America.  We would really like an old city with brick 2 and 3 story homes if possible.  Mainly though, we want someplace with some history and preferably a walkable downtown area.
• Culture - Yes, we like the theatre, symphony, museums and the zoo.  We need as much of that as we can find so there are plenty of options.  We don’t want to get bored with the same thing over and over again.
• Airport - While a major international airport would be nice when it comes time to travel, we at least need an easily accessible airport that has a decent amount of connections to where we need to go.
• Industry - I have to have plenty of opportunities for work.  I don’t want to end up in a one company town and be forced to move again if the job doesn’t pan out.

This is, of course, not a comprehensive list at this point, but it’s a start.  Some of the cities that have quickly made our short list are below:

• Columbia, SC
• Charleston, SC
• Augusta, GA
• Savannah, GA
• Orlando, FL
• Tampa, FL