If you read yesterday's post, you know what happened and that we must make drastic changes to our life in order to save up money again.
It costs more than a plane, but Amtrak will be taking us down. Since we minimized our belongings when we became expats years ago, we only have 4 suitcases that contain everything the four of us need to live. Mostly clothes and computers. And we think they boys will love riding on the train!
This idea of relocating for more promising locations is at an all-time low, though. Our increasingly mobile world of technology has actually made us less mobile. Fewer people are going to where the opportunities are and choose to stay where they are. We think this is both foolish and sad.
We are lucky that Yana has her remote employment that allows us to live wherever internet is reliable, this means we can go where we want to go. Or, in this case, somewhere cheaper. There are other cheaper places to live, but we also chose Florida because of its climate. See, we've lived in Central America for the last few years and no longer have winter clothes. We were going to have to fork out who knows how much in order to do that in NYC, but now that we are leaving it's an expense we can bypass. Phew!
The cost of living in Jacksonville is 43% lower than in New York City. That's huge for us!
We still haven't decided where we will be staying. We're weighing if it's worth getting a cheap rental to save money, only to have to buy furniture and utilities. We're also looking at possibly getting an older RV (not much different that living on a sailboat) and maintaining our mobility. And then we have the option of going with something like Workaway, where we get to stay somewhere in exchange for helping someone out with a need they would like to fulfull.
In the next few days we'll go over these options. We have some Hilton Honors points saved up, so we might even delay our decision until we are on the ground in Jacksonville and wing it a bit. Knew those points would come in handy, and not having much stuff makes us extremely flexible!
Thanks for reading!