6 March 2008 166 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

I managed to sneak off for a short vacation this weekend, to the small town of Waynesboro, Virginia. Waynesboro’s population has been hovering around 20,000 people for the past decade and the town depends on manufacturing jobs. We’re talking about an average income of $32,000 a year.  I loved it. I spent every car ride looking for houses for sale and generally considering what I could do on the off chance I moved to Waynesboro.

While a move to Small Town, USA is not in my immediate future (job commitments on the part of my significant other), I’d love to move a small town sometime down the road. I’ve blogged about some of the opportunities in Kansas, but really, most of the rural Midwest presents a great opportunity for anyone who can telecommute. Sure, local incomes are lower, to match that lower cost of living, but if you can still get an East Coast salary and live in a town that costs half as much, why wouldn’t you?

I’ve spent the past couple of days thinking about pros and cons of such a move. I’ve even made a list of how our expenses might change:

• Our cost for high speed internet would probably rise. Most places seem to have DSL but I’d like something a bit faster if I can get it, which will require me to pay a bit more.
• Our transportation costs would rise significantly. I probably wouldn’t be able to avoid having a car of my own, which would require the expense of actually buying something, as well as pretty much doubling my and my other half’s maintenance, gasoline and insurance costs. This is a real sticking point, but I think that the expense would be manageable.
• Our housing costs would plummet. We’ve done some looking — even in cities (as long as they’re in the Midwest) our rent more than covers what our mortgage payment would probably be.
• Our food costs would drop. In addition to a cheaper overall cost of living, I’d have more options for minimizing my food budget, such as buying in bulk or growing a few items. (An apartment is pretty difficult when trying to do either.)
• Our entertainment costs would actually stay about the same. Neither of us do much going out beyond our local bar and I can’t see that changing. I realize, though, that this is a sticking point for a lot of people considering a move to the boonies — the claim that there’s nothing to do. I think that there’s far less formal activities (clubs, theater, etc.) but tons of informal entertainment from just visiting with friends up to local fairs.

Overall, my numbers say that such a move could only benefit us financially, as long as both of us have adequate employment arrangements. This, of course, isn’t a guarantee that we’ll move out to the middle of Kansas one day. The employment factor dictates our locality without question. This sort of decision, though, seems to be worth considering long before it’s feasible to carry out