When we graduated from college, we packed everything that we owned into 2 cars in the midwest and drove until we hit the first interesting thing that we saw which was the mountains and Denver. I mentioned this in the first ever post on this site. In that first year I also walked, ran, or drove most every street in the city working north to south back and forth east to west like pacman in the grid. I like to know my city and I also needed to keep sane while I was unemployed and looking for work. Searching out the underground joints for food, happy hours, etc is an adventure. I also like to know the feel of the different neighborhoods and suburbs.
Finding My Place
I remember driving west to the edge of the city on one of those evening drives. The red lights of the radio towers flashed on the edge of the foothills. The sun set backlit a huge dome of the courthouse orange as it came into view. Tucked behind two mesas I drove down main street through this anachronism of an old western town only 20 minutes from the center of Denver.
Does This Place Check Our Boxes?
We went through a mental list. You could access downtown Denver, the Tech Center south of the city, or Boulder all within 30 minutes or less. It was right at the edge of the mountains with skiing and camping close. Biking, hiking, and more could be right out our door. The town itself was really cool and even had a creek flowing through it. It was cheaper than much of Denver and Boulder and it had all of the amenities that we would need. We both got excited. When our lease was up, we rented a place right there.
Today we have moved away and come back to this place. We have two more kids than we did then. We bought our modest first home here and are now in our second that is 1/4 mile from the school. I love ripping along the creek on my bike past the Coors brewery with the smell of malt in the air. I love winding between the mesas headed home down 32nd. About once a week, I look over the views while out for a walk or run and just remember that I live here. I feel lucky. However, I am not sharing this to brag about my town. While each place is different, I could write similarly about the merits of most towns in America.
Every Town Is Someone’s Ideal Place
My grandfather sincerely loved central Kansas. When he was alive, I remember him knowingly asking, “why would you want to live in the Rocky Mountains, you can’t grow anything there?” It still makes me chuckle when I picture him saying it. My dad lives for a good part of the year in a remote town in Ontario, population 290. He loves it and fishes almost every day. I met someone who was born and raised there but had never been fishing. It blew my mind. What are the odds that the town you were born in is exactly where you want to live? How do you feel about the place that you live today?
Making an Intentional Choice
Part of why I listed a bunch of the criteria about why we chose this place is that I believe it should be an intentional choice rather than just a haphazard one. Some that I went to high school with never left our home town. They still talk down on it and perhaps it is because the grass is always greener until you’ve actually been on the other side of the fence? Had these friends left and returned maybe they would find that it actually suits them. Maybe they would also simply not return. I also have friends here in Colorado that moved to some subdivision just because it was affordable and close to work. However, over time that house, that job, and that community become your life. Being more intentional seems to make sense to me.
The Financial Benefit of Loving Where You Live
One of the benefits of being intentional about where you live is that you are more likely to buy a home in a desirable and appreciating location. If you made your list and found that your place is the perfect mix of features and value, you are probably not alone in those needs. Our house has appreciated faster than most in the metro area where we live. Not only do we get to live in a place we love, we could also make some serious cash if we ever decided to sell.
Bringing It All Back Home
Most of us spend half our day at work and half at home but no one pays you to be at home. It should be a place you enjoy and that fits you. Over time it becomes a life. So take out a pen and paper and make a list. Is your place matching that list? It is easy to get tied down or complacent over time but it is my opinion and experience that choosing where you live and loving it is part of an intentional life lived well. As you reach your financial independence goals, loving where you live becomes important beyond additional money. However, most of us make these decisions of where to build our lives before we are remotely close to that financial independence. Choose wisely.
Do you love where you live? How did you make your housing choices? Feel free To add your wisdom or ask a question in the comments below.
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2 comments
i had my mini retirement when i was about 30. i met some people in new orleans when i was on a work trip there and the time was right for a single guy like me (at that time) to pick a place to live. then i just had to figure out how to make it work. that was the best decision of my young life. i never felt the need to go on vacation. i was living in the french quarter and walking everywhere in a place where people loved to be on vacation! now, i wouldn’t want to live back there 20 years later and married but it was perfect at the time.
i think it’s the same for housing. mrs. me bought our too-big-for-FI house before i knew her. it checks all the boxes. big painting studio, garden area, architecture we enjoy living in, etc. it’s like living in a piece of art and it was cheap at the time. intentional is the way to go instead of trying to fit everything around some work situation. i could double my salary in houston but …..no thanks. not for me.
I love Tucson. It is warm, but not too hot most of the year. It usually snows at least once per year, but never more than an inch. It has a very free thinking, eclectic culture. Recently a 100 mile bike path that goes around the city was fully completed. I went to college there and worked for a large biotech company until i was laid off, and moved to Baltimore for a job. A few months ago I moved from Baltimore to Phoenix because I lost my job to the pandemic, but found a new, much higher paying one. It was a good thing because I didn’t really like Baltimore much anyway. For now I live in Phoenix because it’s where work is, but I would love to live in Tucson again.