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Being  1mo ago (text post)   1732 thread views

The Motte Picks Where I Spend the Rest of My Life

Alternative Title: Where would you live if you had only minimal constraints?

While I am very much soliciting genuine requests and hope to follow through on the post title, I hope this prompt will also be a fun one.

Many of us fantasize about living abroad or starting over. But there is always an excuse. Some factor tying us down or preventing us from making the lunge: a job, a partner, a sick relative. I have found myself with these excuses recently plucked away.

Since any (good) recommendation should be tailored to the recipient, here are the aforementioned minimal constraints:

  1. American citizen. Native English speaker.
    • Not restricted to English speaking locations, but the difficulties of learning a language and assimilating should be considered
    • For simplicity and op-sec, assume fluency in other languages can be rounded down to 0
  2. Long Term, Stable Couple
    • All preferences are shared between both of us
    • Do not need to consider relationship prospects of destination
    • Monogamous
    • Straight
  3. Young (~30) years old
  4. No children yet. Will have first (of several) children within next 3 years.
    • No adult dependents (such as sick family members that need to be cared for)
  5. $250k household income
    • Assume standard income growth for competitive tech field: +5-10% real growth per year.
  6. Fully Remote Work
    • This is the big one that opens up the world
    • Assume remote work will remain viable (fair assumption given our fields)

I'm a believer in the idea that constraints can paradoxically increase creativity, but if you have a dream destination that is incompatible with these constraints don't let me stop you from sharing.

The Motte has an eclectic mix of users and I specifically want to know YOUR ideal destination, NOT what you think someone like us would want. The standard lists and rankings of "best places to live" are either bizarre (they overweight metrics that don't matter to most) or end up just being too blank - effectively just a list of major cities.

I'm hoping to discover some unusual preferences. Maybe your dream is a few hundred acres of farmland in a rural spot. Maybe it's something incredibly niche like needing to be walking distance from the Louvre or being able to view the Khumbu at sunrise from your porch. Now is the time to sell me the rest of us on your dream :).

We will be visiting a number of options this summer and would love to add some additional locations to either this trip or the next. The goal is to move to this location early 2025.

Will include some of the options I've been toying with as a comment.

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Not enough detail to say but if the goal was cheap COL, English, nice weather I would likely choose Pensacola. Downside is it’s a second tier or maybe even third tier draw for people. So the high IQ types won’t be there. It’s like a vacation area for plumbers.

If you want cheap COL, high IQ people present, good weather than you look at top regional cities in developing world. But you won’t get English. Mexico City or any of those capitals will have global people and cheap COL.

It’s like a vacation area for plumbers.

Haha, don't sell it too hard! What about Pensacola drives it the #1 spot on your list?

Which developing world city would make be at the top of your list? Mexico City? My hesitation (perhaps unfounded) around many developing countries is instability of the political/economic variety. The Americas, at least, tend to more extreme swings than the first world typically experiences. Instability isn't a big deal if you are buying a vacation/second home, but for someone like me I'd be hesitant investing the significant resources (primarily time) to assimilate in a place that has a high chance of becoming significantly less hospitable.

Pensacola because I was tempted by it when I visited a now ex-gf dad so know what it would have costs. Dad was an idiot and had a reverse mortgage so could have bought 3500 sq ft for around 200k. So some renovations 100-150. Big enough to make some of the space Airbnb. 350 all-in with a little Airbnb money on the side. About a mile walk to ocean and about half a mile to downtown. Plumbers are a joke because they can make really good money. Pensacola isn’t going to get your highly educated friends to visit but if you have nurses or the skilled trades in your family it would sound fantastic.

Maybe more now with Florida boom but I would call that a nice QOL.

I am in Buenos Aires now and it’s completely chill. I feel completely safe. If you are Italian or like Italian food you may like it. There is no crime like big American cities. People are so passive. But then you are outside the American empire and it’s Spanish speaking.

Mexico City I do not know. I might visit some friends there but it seems much louder there.

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