It is getting colder as winter approaches and I find myself wishing I lived somewhere warmer. Now that I’m finished with school and no longer with my GF there really is nothing keeping me here in KC other than the fact that I’m already here.* In deciding where to live I would like somewhere warm but it also needs to have a reasonable cost of living. That rules out Southern California. I have lived in Las Vegas and Austin in the past and think both of those cities would meet my criteria. The drawback to Vegas is that I like to gamble and that could certainly raise my cost of living. Austin has the advantage of being within a long day’s drive of my family.
It would also be interesting to move somewhere I haven’t lived before. I know Florida and many other parts of the South and Southwest would also meet my criteria. If you live somewhere warm I’d like to hear your opinion of where you live and what the cost of living is like. Then I can compare the pluses and minuses of various places to live.
Another option would be to act like a snowbird and go south for the winter and return in the spring. That would mean moving twice a year but it might be worth it.
*I think a lot of people are living where they live by default. When I moved to Texas people would always ask, “Do you have family here?’ , “Were you offered a job here?”. When I replied that I moved there just because I wanted to live there the answer seemed to confuse them.