Anyone moved to a smaller market where you could get more for your money?

Wife and I are considering a small town outside of DFW (we are both fully remote in tech). We could take current home equity and buy a bigger house in cash and contribute significantly more to 529s (pay off college well in advance to them going to school), investments, 2 weddings, and better chance to be debt free the majority of our lives.

vs

Stay in Dallas where we need to move to new area in next 5 years for better schools. Houses will most likely be double+ (can't afford private schools in Dallas). Play the game, and put coins away vs dollars.

Pros:

• Pay off mortgage 25 years sooner
• fund 529s before college
• fund investment accounts at faster rate
• pay off cars
• cheaper daycare
• everything else a small town has to offer

Cons:

• Family in Dallas 2 hour drive
• Friends in Dallas (not close enough with neighbors, and some of our good friends have already moved)
• Would be dependent on a remote job if current ones end
• Ever need to move back to the city then the costs will be higher
• Everything a smaller town doesn't have to offer?

Poke holes in this please. I want financial freedom for my young family, but I don't know how aggressive this is. 2 daughters are 6 months and 2 years so nothing holding us back there.

Moved out to a small town south of DFW a few years ago. I work remote and wife home schools our son. I wouldn't say it's necessarily cheaper out here, but that might be the recent market and us building a home through Covid. Definitely positives and negatives like you listed. We live in a little rural community with many other young families, so it's kind of the best of both worlds so far.

We love living out here and would be hard pressed to ever go back to suburbia. It's really allowed our family unit to become very close; lots of quality time together since it's not easy to just pick up and run errands. A lot will depend on just how remote you are. Would it be close to anything you value? (Church, Gym, Grocery Store, Golf, Youth activities or sports leagues)

How does your wife feel about it? Would she be okay being pretty isolated at times? Will you have neighbors in a rural neighborhood?

We visit my family fairly often that is 3 hours away; we love the fact when we go, we spend a weekend and it seems like it's more quality time than the quick drop by visits. But that obviously will vary wildly by family.

There is obviously the risk with my job being remote, but I have almost 15 years with the company and the outlook seems pretty solid to continue this way. The downside is that it may limit my career growth as more folks are going back to work and May get preferential treatment (rightfully so), so you may need to think through that.

We have to think through our week logistically; often grabbing groceries on days I go into town to the gym or after church. Church is 30 minutes away, but it's almost nice getting out since we're all home all week. Luckily have a little league 20 minutes away for our son, so that is doable.

One other thing we did was consolidate down to 1 vehicle. Since we are both home everyday, there are rarely times when we both need to be somewhere at the same time. So that's been really nice. Something to think about even being in Dallas if you all are at home together. Easily save a couple hundred bucks and get rid of a car note.

End of the day, if your kids are young and not tied down, you can always try it. If you hate it, go back. You said you'd be needing to move for better schools anyways.

Any other questions welcome to email me at username @ gmail.

CuriousAg said:

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Anyone moved to a smaller market where you could get more for your money?

Wife and I are considering a small town outside of DFW (we are both fully remote in tech). We could take current home equity and buy a bigger house in cash and contribute significantly more to 529s (pay off college well in advance to them going to school), investments, 2 weddings, and better chance to be debt free the majority of our lives.

vs

Stay in Dallas where we need to move to new area in next 5 years for better schools. Houses will most likely be double+ (can't afford private schools in Dallas). Play the game, and put coins away vs dollars.

Pros:

• Pay off mortgage 25 years sooner
• fund 529s before college
• fund investment accounts at faster rate
• pay off cars
• cheaper daycare
• everything else a small town has to offer

Cons:

• Family in Dallas 2 hour drive
• Friends in Dallas (not close enough with neighbors, and some of our good friends have already moved)
• Would be dependent on a remote job if current ones end
• Ever need to move back to the city then the costs will be higher
• Everything a smaller town doesn't have to offer?

Poke holes in this please. I want financial freedom for my young family, but I don't know how aggressive this is. 2 daughters are 6 months and 2 years so nothing holding us back there.

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The bolded parts stuck out to me the most. As you know, tech is not a very stable industry at the moment. If one of you is laid off, it will be VERY difficult to find another remote job, there are literally 1000+ candidates applying to every single remote job thats posted within a few hours. You could be super qualified for a role, but your resume may never get seen due to the sheer number of applicants.

I worked remote for a number of years for several companies, got laid off last year, and it was impossible trying to find another remote role. Thankfully, I live in Houston (has anyone ever said that phrase before lol) and was able to find a high paying in-office position.

Personally, I would stick it out in Dallas.

Yeah, the remote job situation (what you would do if one of you lost your job) would be the one thing that would give me pause were I in your shoes.

I had my main business in the small town that I grew up in. About half the time I am in a store or bank in town, or driving in town or in neighborhoods, I see someone I went to school with, often for all 12 years (didn't go to kindergarten). For a dozen years or so, the mayor (an attorney who lived across the street from my office) had a black lab who would come to my office window. When the weather was decent, I'd open it and we would visit. A few times I'd open the screen and she would come in.

When people need help, like a wheelchair ramp, it gets built. Or a specially equipped van purchased for one of our football players who was paralyzed playing college ball. Or when folks lose everything in a house fire (that situation is going on right now for a young couple). You see everyone at football and softball games. I have been named the champion hugger of southeast Texas for several decades running. You know all the teachers and administrators and school board members and folks on city council. Many are friends, some were clients, but you know them all.

I have little need to go to bigger cities, do much of my shopping online. But when I need to go, maybe 3 or 4 times a year, I do. The other 360 plus days per year, I do not fight traffic, do not deal with the homeless, and don't worry quite so much about crime, etc. Small town life isn't for everyone, but big city life is definitely not for me. Our three children and four grandchildren are the same, all live withing a couple of miles.

Good luck to you in your decision!

I just did this last year, but my work is remote as in I go to remote places to do the work. Wife doesn't work. I found that SETX got the most bang for your buck. My home is on 5 acres, larger than the home we moved from,, is updated, has a shop, pool, outdoor bathrooms, detached garage with apartment, pond and some other amenities and we bought it for roughly the same amount we could have sold our ~3000 sqft 4/3 in suburban Houston. We also put our kids in private school and the school here is about half the cost of the private school we were looking at in league city. Literally everything about the move made so much sense.

Wichita Falls? Good god man, no.

At least do like… Glen Rose or Hico.

Just be very careful about the small town schools. Some are good. Some are lousy. My parents moved us to Prosper in the early 80s when the population was 750 and it burned my sister. She was not prepared for college at all after attending Prosper back then (obviously very different now), so college was a disaster with her in way over her head. She was so far behind on anything requiring foundational knowledge, which is basically everything to some extent but especially math and science. I was 8 years younger, we moved back to the burbs (Plano) for my middle school and HS, and I spent a year or two playing catchup on where I'd fallen behind (particularly math). College went great for me. We are not that different, but had two completely different experiences that traced to our preparedness.

If you can get out of a big city and go rural, absolutely do it. I was born and raised in a small town and still live there today. I'm an hour from college station and Waco and a bit over two hours from Houston and dfw.

I was fling to add....You had me until Wichita Falls.

I would consider other options.

YouBet said:

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I was fling to add....You had me until Wichita Falls.

I would consider other options.

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lol, I missed that part. I wouldn't consider Wichita Falls a small town.

You also mention community. I agree that community is huge and something that most Americans are unfortunately lacking. It takes a ton of work to build community and friendships when you don't have it. It can happen it big towns or small. If you don't currently have a built in friend group, I can see how yall would have trouble right now with your kids at those ages. Once your kids get older and into school and activities you will have much easier on ramps to friendships. Get involved in a church and a bible study, coach your kids team and make friends with the dad that sticks around at practice, talk to people in the golf shop/driving range, etc.