So I’m living in London, which apparently is a safe city, relative to the world, but perhaps not relative to my hometown of Sydney. I’m a little concerned that I might not be the best adapted to keeping safe in a less safe city than Sydney. I’m trying to get better at this. I walk faster and more assertively, avoid eye contact with strangers, maintain awareness of what’s going on around me, stick to populated but not heavily crowded areas and avoid being out after dark.
At the moment I’m living rather precariously (and expensively) in short term AirBnBs, in various areas, trying to get a feel for which part of London I’m best suited for.
The way things look at the moment, it’s going to come down to a cost vs safety trade off:
The most attractive areas in terms of low cost of rent, low cost of transport to/from work and closeness to amenities are less safe.
The most attractive areas in terms of safety (at least, going my police data, general consensus among people I ask and my own gut feeling from being in the area) are 10-20% more expensive in rent and over double the cost in transportation.
I’m trying to choose between savings and safety ultimately.
On the one hand, it’s not worth saving a tonne of money if worry and stress about safety affect my work performance and/or I fall victim to violent crime.
On the other hand, perhaps giving up some safety would buy me a few extra years of early retirement.
In this decision, I’m slightly veering to the side of safety over savings, with the following reasons:
- I need to feel safe and comfortable to perform well in my job and career
- I’m only staying in London temporarily, and signing no contracts, either work or rental, longer than 6 months
- I’m relatively new to London and until I really know the place well, risk aversion makes sense
- Hospital bills here would be crazy in the unfortunate incident that I did get attacked and injured
- Its coming into winter and will be darker earlier, so safety will be more of an issue over the next 6 months
- Violent crime in London is currently trending upwards, at least, according to police data
- All up the total extra I’d pay for safety is small compared to my overall income. I earn a high income so I can afford to save at least 75% of earnings even with the extra safety cost added in
Especially your thought process. How do you think about safety? In itself and in relation to the rest of your life and your financial situation?