Save Money by Living in a Small Town

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We visited my mother this weekend.  My sister, who is in the Navy and stationed in California, was also there visiting.  My sister plans to retire from the Navy in three years after twenty years of service.  When she retires she will move to the small town where my mother lives.  There are several advantages of retiring to a small town and I might do the same myself.

The biggest advantage is that real estate is cheap.  My mom bought a brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath house a few years ago for only $70,000.  Houses are still cheap there and rent is very low as well.  You also save money on transportation because everything is within a ten minute drive.  If something you want to do isn’t within a ten minute drive you’ll be saving money by doing that activity less often.  Car insurance is generally cheaper than in the city too.  That is just a few of the ways you can save money by living in a small town.

The biggest drawback to living in a small town is that most local jobs don’t pay very well.  If you’re retired then that isn’t a big deal.  Another drawback is the lack of diversity and exposure to other cultures.  I plan to travel often when I retire so I’ll get my culture and diversity during my travels.

Even with the financial advantages of living in a small town I probably wouldn’t live in one if I didn’t have family there.  If I do end up retiring to a small town it will probably be more of a pit stop between hiking and travels than  a permanent residence.

My Bank Was Bought Out

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Wachovia’s banking operations were bought by Citi today.  I have an account at Wachovia.  It isn’t my primary account but I do use it on a regular basis.  Looking over the information Wachovia has provided about the sale it looks like the sale won’t affect me at all.  This is the first that the financial turmoil has directly affected one of my financial accounts but it just isn’t a big deal.  The only thing I’m somewhat concerned about is whether they will honor the Way2Save bonus.

My advice on handling the current financial turmoil.  Pay attention but don’t freak out.

The Requisite Financial Bailout Post

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There are plenty of posts about the financial bailout already but since I’m writing a personal finance blog I feel required to write about it as well, but I’ll keep it short.

I’m against the bailout but I think it is inevitable that some form of bailout will happen.  I’m not too worried about it right now.  I’ll probably be more worried about it when the bill for the bailout comes due.  Many are saying that if we don’t have a bailout it will be bad for everyone.  I don’t know if that is true or not but it seems hard to believe.

So far all the financial turmoil hasn’t affected me personally and I don’t think it will.  I can understand people being ticked off about the bailout but it doesn’t really do any good to worry that the economy is going to collapse.  My life was good at the beginning of the year and it is still good now.  Until that changes for the worse or looks like it is going to I’m not going to worry.

Making Money on the Side

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One part of my plan to retire at 50 is to continue to make money on the side. That might more properly be called semi-retirement. However, if I don’t have to work and can make money when I choose to that is good enough for me.  Any money I earned would be to do things beyond my ordinary budget or to provide a larger cushion of savings.

There are many ways to make extra money.  I’ve covered a few of them with my alternative income ideas.  There are a lot of blog posts out there on how to make extra money.  Here are a few of them:

“Need extra income? Here are some ideas”  from MSN Smart Spending.

“11 Great Ways to Earn More Money” from Free Money Finance.

“5 Ways to Earn Extra Cash” from Get Rich Slowly.

“26 Ways to Earn Extra Money” from The Wisdom Journal.

Not all the ideas are non-job ways to make money but there should be a few ideas there that will work for you.  If you focus on thinking of ways to earn extra money more ideas will probably come to you.