I've been thinking about moving back to the city; Cambridge to be specific. A little more than two years ago, in January of 2007, I moved to Cambridge to be closer to work (the office was a 10 minute walk from the apartment). A year later, in January 2008, I moved to Arlington due to the landlord increasing the rent and because I was getting tired of trying to find a parking spot for my truck and paying so much money for such a small space (~450 sqft).
Then at the end of October 2008, only ten months after moving to Arlington, I decided to move again. The Arlington apartment was very nice; a first floor, two bedroom apartment, with off-street parking, a back yard, and plenty of storage space. For the first time, I had a place that felt like home. But all the space led me to realize how wasteful I was being. I was accumulating so much stuff without realizing it because the huge apartment made it easy to hide stuff. So I began letting go and decided to move back to NH, close to my family where rent was cheaper and outside activities plentiful.
I've been enjoying the outdoor activities in NH, but the long three-hour round trip commute to work has really been getting to me. I'm trying to decide if I should move back to the city, or just tough it out and continue living in NH.
Disadvantages of moving back to the city:
- No easy access to running trails and forests (there are two huge conservations within 10 minutes of where I'm living in NH!).
- The air is not as clean (I wrote about this two years ago when I first moved to the city, here and here).
- The distance from my family means activities with them will be limited to weekends (badminton with my dad, volleyball with my brother-in-law, swimming in the lake at my parents house), and that's only if I decide to even make the trek up there on the weekends.
- Parking will be difficult.
- Rent is a lot more expensive, which means I'll probably need to settle with having a roommate.
Advantages of moving back to the city:
- I'll have more free time, because less time will be spent commuting (I spend about 3 hours commuting on the days I work in Cambridge!).
- With everything so close, I'll do more walking and biking, which are both a lot healthier than driving.
- It will be easier to build my IT services business (a greater number of small businesses within 10 - 15 minutes).
- Public transportation makes moving around the entire city very easy (providing plenty of places to explore in Boston).
- I tried, but I couldn't come up with a 5th advantageous reason to move back to the city.
There are more things to consider, such as my newly modified work schedule at Aerva (three days a week, instead of five), the higher price of gas making it cheaper to commute via the train (same three-hour round trip commute, but I get to sit down and work or read), and my desire to build my IT services business (building it in the NH area and still commuting to Cambridge makes it more difficult for me to be in two places at once, compared to building it in Cambridge).
I don't usually write posts like this, but I figured writing it would help with my making the decision. And I think I can already feel it helping. I love the outdoors so much and having access to trails and being able to play volleyball or badminton after work with family is really great. Is it worth the increased opportunity for my business and the three hours of commuting I would save by moving to the city? That's what I need to decide.
My brother worked for Zimmer in Warsaw, Indiana and got a nice job near Chicago. He packed up the family and moved for a few years. He built up his nest egg and then our father got sick. Feeling the need to be with family, he moved back to the area, tho closer to Warsaw for the same job. Even being a lil closer (1 hour), he still missed being with family. Thus he built a home here and commutes 1 hour to work every day. Some nights he has to stay there, but generally he commutes back and fourth.
I guess he feels that family is more important than being closer to work. He did however spend a few years away building himself up financially.
Don’t think I sovled anything for you, but you are on the right track. You are taking steps to help you. Anytime you need to talk, you know where to find me somehow…. 😀 If needed for a bit, move to the city to build you up financially then move to where you’re happy. That’s what JHT did. He now has a nice home, nice family and 10 (6 wooded) acres of land out in the country and commutes 1 hour to work.
I don’t think I can say that your story isn’t helpful. I’m an export of (Evansville) Indiana myself, and the idea of moving away from everything that I knew has really helped me out both in the financial matters and the self-discovery. I got a great programming gig with a startup in Texas and decided that I was going to relocate rather than do the remote thing. As it would happen, I made a wrong turn and ended up moving to Michigan, but that’ll happen on occasion.
Granted, my position is that I’m never spending more than 48-hours in the land of corn and river again, so there you go.
What I wonder is if there’s a convenient halfway point between Raam’s spot in NH and Cambridge and, if so, what the advantages and disadvantages of that point are.
Funny you should mention a half-way point. There’s a nice bike trail that goes from Bedford (about 20-30 min from where I’m living now), straight to Cambridge. I was thinking if I could find a place to rent in Bedford, or somewhere along the bike trail, then I could commute to Cambridge on a bike, which would probably satisfy my desire for exercise and exposure to the outdoors on the days I go into the office.
Thanks DJT; hearing a similar story like that really helps. I guess I’m at a point where I feel like I need to do a little self-discovery. I feel like I don’t want to do either (stay in NH, or move to Cambridge); I feel like I want to drop everything and move somewhere far away; somewhere new where I can experience new things, new people, new environment, etc., and just work odd jobs to make enough money for shelter and food.
I happen to know of a particular IT firm in Michigan that is always looking for talent …
I’ll be sure you let you know if I decide to make the big jump. 🙂 Thanks!
ooooooh… close to DJT land 😀
I’m only about 45 minutes from Michigan.
… and only about two hours from the aforementioned firm.
Raam, when you make that move and find a place… tell me, I might just move to. The more I think about it the better it sounds to just get away and start over. Wonder if the wife would agree….
If the wife wasn’t involved, I’d have a fun suggestion:
Before taking the leap, find either a place to stay or a job, but not both. The need for one is typically provided by the other, and it often makes for entertaining situations. For example, I couch surfed for my first three or so months in MI, mostly with coworkers. As a result, I know the best nap spots at the office, have a limited but reliable supply of children to hang out with (because several of my coworkers are breeders), had the chance to learn some of the more obscure local customs in a head-first manner, et cetera.
That’s exactly what I want to do… just choose a place to move to and worry about finding a job when I get there (regardless of what kind of job it is). Or, maybe, just get a job somewhere and then explore my options for living there. I just want to explore and experience new people/places/things. I’ve been living in New England for 27+ years. I can’t take it much longer!
David, I’ll be sure to let you know! 🙂
An old comment by you: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=381018
Haha, wow, thanks Jack! I forgot that I even wrote that. 🙂
It turns out that my commute via car (pickup truck, actually) takes about the same as commuting via train when I include the back roads and in-city travel (around 3 hours round-trip). Also, the $300 rent turned out to be more like $800 (helping family with bills). Now that gas is hiking its way back up (up to around $2.60/gal now), it’s starting to cost me $280+ a month for gas (a monthly, unlimited T pass is only $220).
However, the big thing that changes all this is my new work schedule: 3 days a week vs 5 days. Now it’s really a matter of figuring out where I want to spend my non-work days: In the city, or closer to forests, family, and outdoor activities?