Moving to a smaller lower cost of living city

[thrifty++]

Has anyone on here moved to a smaller city for the lower cost of living to escalate your FI journey? If so how has it gone?

[Seppia]

It is something that I will consider once I will have reached FI.
It is another way of adding margin of safety: since usually the most dangerous years are the first ones due to the sequence of returns risk, my plan is to add some extra safety by starting my FI journey either in a LCOL country or in a smaller town in a developed one

[Kriegsspiel]

I spent a few accumulation years in small & inexpensive towns about 90-120 mins away from urban areas. It went well; I am FI.

[C40]

I did this back in the spring of 2011. I moved from a largish city to the small town where I worked. So my rent was less and my commuting cost went to zero. It helped me reduce my spending a lot (from maybe 18k per year to 12k). I had details about it in my journal with charts and numbers showing the spending reductions. Socially, there were few people in this small town for me to make friends with or date, so if that had been really important to me at the time, it would have been a big problem.

[J_]

I moved in 1999 from a house in a small village the Netherlands I had refurbished. I sold that house for € 480k. The new house was as beautiful and costed Pound 150 k, situated in rural UK (Cornwall). A profit of about € 250k. At that time I longed to living in nature and very near to sea. About 7 years later, as my urge for nature was satisfied I returned to a middle sized town in the Netherlands, where everything (shops, library, theatre, the sea, the dunes, my boat, lakes) are in walking/cycling/sailing distance. I do not need a car. (I do have a little one just for fun: very un-ere). I consider in about ten years to move to a smaller house/apartment (cheaper, easier in maintenance) in the same city. My remarks are somewhat off topic, but these moves were very helpful for (continuing) FI.
(edit: I used dutch guilders in the figures (and made some mistakes), but guilders don't exist anymore, I have conversed them now in €)

[thrifty++]

I did this back in the spring of 2011. I moved from a largish city to the small town where I worked. So my rent was less and my commuting cost went to zero. It helped me reduce my spending a lot (from maybe 18k per year to 12k). I had details about it in my journal with charts and numbers showing the spending reductions. Socially, there were few people in this small town for me to make friends with or date, so if that had been really important to me at the time, it would have been a big problem.

WOW moving to s small-town is an even great level of change. How small was the town ?

I just had another look at your journal and see this move at the start of it. I noticed you said you were hoping to be FI at 40 and retired by 45. You certainly smashed that goal

[C40]

WOW moving to s small-town is an even great level of change. How small was the town ?

7,000 people.

[Clarice]

I did it many years ago - took a job at the boarding school in the middle of nowhere that provided free housing for staff. I did it not because of any FI thoughts, but out of sheer desperation (single mom, no savings). I was miserable for 2 years - not many friends, not many dates. After 2 years I saved enough money to buy myself a car, found a new job, and moved back to a large city where many of my friends lived. It was a huge relief. To this day I shudder remembering those 2 years. Every time the going gets tough in my current life I tell myself, "I have survived that boarding school - I can definitely take whatever is going on right now"... but to this day it is my yardstick for tough times.

[George the original one]

Has anyone on here moved to a smaller city for the lower cost of living to escalate your FI journey? If so how has it gone?

Moved from rural suburbia of city to 12 miles from a small tourist town (population 6700) for my retirement. In hindsight, we're too far out of town (but I ain't moving again because the property is a beaut!) because nearest grocery store is 12 miles away, though there is an emergency gas/stuff quick stop(*) only a mile up the road.

Economics: House was only 2/3rds as expensive as in the city (improved investment resources by $100k), electricity is 50% more expensive with longer repair times, Internet is 100% more expensive, only other monthly bill is trash which costs the same or less than the city. Insurance (house, car, health) is the same.

Social: you separate people into locals, retirees, drifters, and tourists.

Services: make sure your needs are met before making the commitment. My town has a hospital with helicopter pad & MRI, ambulance & taxi services, clothing stores, hardware stores, electrical/plumbing/construction contractors, compost/gravel/concrete/lumber supplies, banks, small library, one major grocery store, and a NAPA. Must travel 32 miles to get a car rental or quality chainsaw/small engine service. Beyond that, the nearest big city services are at least 60 miles away. Oh, and we're 5 miles beyond cable TV/ISP, so have a satellite ISP with weak cellular as a backup.

So my summary is that the move padded my investments by $100k in one fell swoop without changing too much else expense-wise. We had nearly 4 years of owning both houses before retirement commenced and have lived here in retirement for a little over 3 years. If that move was executed today rather than 3 years ago, investments would have been padded by $150k.

(*) "stuff" includes a weird combination of canned food, a few bits of kitchenware/picnic supplies, guns, and pornography. The tap water is condemned for human consumption.

[thrifty++]

wow sounds like people made some radical changes here. Moving to little towns rather a big change.

[FRx]

From Los Angeles to San Diego to Portland. All big cities but each cheaper than the next. The final destination allowed me to live without a car and without a cell phone. I also felt my anemic lifestyle made me fit in more in Portland as opposed to stand out in SD. I pulled the plug on work in 2016. I could have managed the same in San Diego but the temptation was too high and I would have had to work more to make up for the spending difference.

[slowtraveler]

From 4 millionish urban areas to 1 million. Helpful and relaxing.

[Jean]

What are the upsides of big cities?

[Frita]

Downtown Denver to Tulsa to Laramie, WY

Denver: fun things to do, great weather year around, expensive, need private schools for DS, high taxes and auto/house insurance, walk everywhere, great grocery stores and restaurants, multicultural and friendly, great craft beer scene, 1 hour to the mountain

Tulsa: cheaper housing, tornado alley and hot/humid in the summer with lovely falls, an outdoor pool is a must, really expensive taxes and auto/house insurance, high crime, need private schools for DS, unable to walk or bike (no curbs) weird religious vibe, expensive groceries and low quality produce, driving distance to the beach (Gulf Shores, AL, or Galveston)

Laramie: reasonable housing but more expensive than Tulsa, can be very cold in the winter but beautiful otherwise, lower taxes and auto/house insurance, many events and activities with the community and university, 2 hours to Denver, decent public schools if you put in a bit of homeschooling for the gaps, good craft beer scene (5 microbreweries in a town of 45k), walk and bike everywhere, 10 minutes to the mountains, really expensive healthcare (yep, highest in the US now, most people are in incredible shape here into their 80s), people are a bit standoffish and introverted, hard to find work (DH doesn’t care. I still wanted to work, but my current situation is beating that out of me.)

Personally I would shoot for a university town with a population of at least 30k and within 3 hours of a major airport. Our current expenses are easily one-half to one-third of Denver, depending how you factor in housing. (Tulsa was similar to Denver simply because we had high trip expenses to get breaks from that backwards place.)