9 July 2008 3 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

I’ve always been an advocate of trying new things. You never know or learn unless you try. I’m sure you noticed that I haven’t been writing here for about a month now. That’s because I’ve been the busiest I’ve ever been in my 24 years of life. I’m constantly juggling my business development and personal life, but on top of that I’ve been planning the big move. Thats right, remember almost a year ago I wrote that I was planning to leave San Francisco to build wealth. I can’t believe it has been over a year since my girlfriend and I conceived this idea which initially started off as a joke. We sat in my tiny condo looking at big homes in Houston and I said we should move. She said yes we should and that was the beginning of a crazy journey. I’m proud to say that during this time I have sold my condo and we’ve purchased a dream house a little over a month ago. We moved all our stuff over and we’re ready to enjoy our new lifestyle. I’m still in CA until the 22nd, then I’m staying in the Houston area for a while. Looking back at the whole journey, I can’t be more pleased.

Numbers Don’t Lie

I estimated that by simply moving, the difference in total wealth accumulation over the course of our lifetime would be in the millions easily. Don’t take my word for it, other sources have been writing on the topic of costs of living as well. Maybe its the slow economy, but recently I’ve noticed many articles are now being written about cities with low costs of living. Yahoo Finance had an article about the best cities for your job. For just about every position they have listed, Houston is in the top 3 and places like San Francisco and New York at the bottom 3. The salary figures took into account cost of living, which make true salaries of high priced cities like SF and NYC much lower than places with lower costs of living. For example they state that for a financial analyst in Houston, the true salary adjusted for cost of living would be $72,000. In San Francisco the salary is higher, at $77,500 but after a cost of living adjustment it is a mere $45,300. Here is another article about the best wealth building cities for you to consider.

More Than Numbers

Initially, our decision to move was all numbers. We looked at saving money and keeping more of our income. Although there are places that are even cheaper than the Houston area, we stuck with this city for other reasons. By moving to Sugar Land, TX, we’re not only decreasing our costs of living, but we are increasing our standard of living at the same time. The city is simply beautiful with it’s gorgeous architecture, clean sidewalks and storybook-like charm. I’ve yet to see a best buy or home depot with gorgeous landscaping and full brick facade like I saw in Texas. What also intrigued us about Sugar Land is the immense cultural diversity, low crime rate, great schools and community spirit. I realized that I will now be saving money while enjoying a more comfortable lifestyle and that is something to consider on top of dollars and cents. I was living in a 650 sqft 1 bedroom condo that was purchased at almost double what the new house was purchased for. The new house is, lets just say, much larger and located in a pristine golf course community.

I’m Not Crazy

The funniest reaction I’ve gotten about this move was from my next door neighbor. I saw him back at my childhood home where my parents still live and struck up a conversation about moving. I will never forget how he looked me straight in the eyes and told me, “your nuts.” I know it sounds crazy to hear from someone or read about picking up your life and going to a place where you have no friends or family. Its crazy to leave the streets that you’re familiar with and journey into the unknown. But trust me, friends can be made, streets can be learned and once family members realize how well you’re doing, many will follow. Towards the end of our conversation, my neighbor told me that I was right and that there is no future for my generation in San Francisco. If you currently live in a high priced city, give this a serious thought. Take a look at CNN’s best places to live. Thats how we stumbled upon Sugar Land after initially setting our eyes directly on Houston itself. Sugar Land was ranked number 3 in 2006 and is right outside of Houston. Who knows, maybe we’ll be neighbors one day.