Let me explain about the difference “I cannot make the money I make in Manhattan in Arkansas”.
Sit down & make a list of what you are living on near Manhattan. THE NET INCOME you are living on.
Be honest- list everything—even tips to doormen & valets.
Make sure that your paper has 2 columns on it....One for Manhattan & one for Arkansas.
Then look long & hard at the differences in the COST OF LIVING between those 2 places.
IN fact-—there is a website “BEST PLACES” that will do similar for you in a general sense...
However, I want you to be specific & use your real living expenses.
Housing
Property taxes
Auto costs-—fuel-registration-parking-repairs & fast depreciation due to winter salt on the roads.
Clothing
Entertainment
FOOD purchases for home preparation
Eating out-—including lunch every day
GRUB HUB & delivered already prepared food.....
Get specific...go thru all your checkbooks & your credit card
receipts.
Don’t cheat......Be fair to yourself.
Also-—assess how SAFE you feel where you are. That one factor can be enough to make you rethink how marvelous it is where you are making alot of money.
You might be really surprised how ARTIFICIAL your current living standards are.
I am retired, but I had 3 houses since 1966 and I parlayed those into buying this 3rd one being purchased for cash. NO MORTGAGE.
I have over 5 acres. I have a house that was brand new when I bought it. MY current property taxes are UNDER $760 annually. I am NOT living in a shack. I am not in anywhere near the danger I was in In So Calif. I have clean Air. I have clean water. I can buy a gun or ammo without 89 layers of government control. I don’t have 11 stop signs between me & the Federal highway.
I have 4 seasons, but not the winters you fight. NO salt on our roads. I have a station wagon, a 1 ton dually truck, and a 4 horse trailer. ALL 3 registrations don’t add up to $200.
MY power bills are under $100 monthly. My propane per gallon was $1.85 on the last delivery.
In my experience as a life long accounting person...the cost of living where your job is determines how much you will be paid. IT IS NOT A MEASURE OF YOUR SUPERIOR JOB PERFORMANCE.
It is only a measure of what your employer MUST pay to get you to live where it is so expensive.
Be fair in your numbers.
You might find that Arkansas isn’t such a bad idea after all.
You cannot control your crazy Governor. He is strangling all of you there-—at least the ones he hasn’t already killed with moving active Virus a into the nursing homes.
Check out the website Best Places. They let you COMPARE different places against where you are now.
Now I just have to convince the wife to let me quit my high-paying job, pull up stakes and leave the family behind.
Honestly I could live about anywhere in the USA. Over my lifetime, I've lived in New England, Mid-Atlantic, Deep South, Southwest, Southern California and Midwest. There were things to like about all of them. Only region in lower 48 I never lived in is the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains.
Arkansas can be expensive or otherwise, depending on what is being required or wanted, by a buyer. We chose Ark for retirement because we wanted the space of the west, southwest, and proximity to relatives in all directions. We also wanted rural with a small acreage for various interests and privacy. We have lived in a number of states, all of which have grown from nice size towns to a million or more population. I expect that Ark will experience more rapid growth as other states become less attractive to their taxpayers and their state govts become too liberal to vote out. The growth around our major cities has already become quite evident. We enjoy what we have and thank God for our circumstances. Arkansas is still red but the college towns are moving in on that. Arkansas is a great state to live in and a buyer just has to pick the right spot for their needs and interest.