[image: Inline image 1] Someday soon we are going to be selling everything and packing up what's left to move to a place that's right for us. There are good reasons to move and good reason to stay where we are. Each area has its pros and cons. Every place you live is a compromise and there is no perfect place
For example some place have good weather all year like Laguna Beach, California, and some places have weather that sucks, like Cut Bank, Montana. For others, weather is perhaps not as big of a deal. Most people like what they already know and the older people get the more they have resistance to change. For me, moving isn't a big deal, since I spent eighteen years a military brat, living in over ten U.S. states, England and Japan. After college I lived in California for thirteen years, both north and south, and then moved to Austin, Texas for twelve years. Recently Rita and I visited her hometown, Detroit, and visited her sister for a few weeks. And, I've driven through most of the U.S. at one time or another. I love northern California and the Escondido area around San Diego - lots of business opportunities;good schools; avocados.. These are the many reasons people like to live near the ocean or the mountains. But, there are some negatives also, like in California where the state is struggling, which means the cities are now struggling. The bureaucracy is increasing out there. Some people are getting tired of dealing high property taxes - Prop 13 sets property tax on homes at 1% - and sales taxes are going up all the time. If you buy a $1M home you'll pay $10,000 just in taxes to live in San Diego County! Is there some place that would be an almost ideal place to live? If you take out a map of the U.S. you can easily cross off several locations. The first thing we did was cut out places where homes are very expensive, like Seattle, Washington or San Francisco, California or Portland, Oregon. We want someplace that is cheap where you can park a lot of cars and play loud music. So, you can cross off places where it's too hot or too dry or too wet - bad weather. And, we want to avoid tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, blizzards and deserts. That rules out most of the middle of the country, California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Montana and most of the Gulf of Mexico states, and the far north both east and west. Some people don't like living in flat lands - they prefer mountains with trees and scenery. We want a place that has rivers, lakes, and less traffic. So, after ruling out those places (there are still some rural places in California, Oregon, and Washington, but they're not ideal for one reason or another). Years ago Stephen Gaskin and his family opted to move from San Francisco to Tennessee to be on The Farm. So, I started to consider places like Nashville and Memphis where Rita could still continue playing in her band and I could park my cars and work out of my home office on the internet. In a recent survey of great places to retire Chattanooga was at the top of the list. Go figure. I've been reading about how Chattanooga is experiencing a resurgence of vitality in the city: very low rates for electricity due to good management by the Tennessee Valley Authority. And very fast network connections too. You can buy a nice house in Chattanooga for $150,000 or rent a house for around $1000 a month; car registration is $28; $2 a year to register your boat; you can establish a corporation for $150. So, living costs would be a lot cheaper in Chattanooga than some other places. What is there to do there? We don't want to be out in the sticks with no culture or entertainment. We want to live near a town or city where there are lakes and river for rafting and caves to explore, and trails for mountain biking. And, there are historical sites too; Washington D.C. is just a days drive away. So, in a quick review of the positives of living in Chattanooga: there is cheap housing; cheap energy; cheap water; cheap land; low taxes; and low bureaucracy. There are green lands, mountains, rivers and lakes and fire flies out in nature. And industry - Amazon is out there and Ikea, Home Depot, and a Whole Foods Market in town. The weather is not bad, does not get too hot and does not get extremely cold either. Tornadoes are rare. But, what about rednecks? Heck, I'm used to that, being one myself, but some places, even though they're located in the south, defy stereotypes, just like Austin, Texas, the home of live music. We might miss that, but there's Nashville and Memphis for music entertainment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee) http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/ http://www.chattanoogafun.com/ http://www.nps.gov/state/tn/index.htm?program=all
