Just moved from major metro area to rural America - observations

That's not rural. Check out a Midwest town of less than 10,000 population. THAT will open your eyes.

"Boredom is setting in already and I've only been here a few weeks."

Meth will become your very best friend.

As a child and young adult I lived in a variety of medium sized to large cities (200,000 to 2M) on both west and east coasts. 18 years ago I moved to a midwest town of 50,000. Not a small town by small-town standards, but still a huge difference.

To me the biggest difference was that everyone in the midwest town appeared to be moving at one-third to one-half normal speed. Four-way stop signs were absolutely comical.

Yes, people there were nice, and yes, I found it extremely boring.

I moved back to the west coast after four years. I still live in an area of low population density (80,000 population and surrounded by rural areas) but at least people here move at the normal speed again.

apluralityofrurality wrote:

"Boredom is setting in already and I've only been here a few weeks."

Meth will become your very best friend.

Obviously you know very little about boredom and small towns. It is an insult to all of us that you think we are all on meth.

Heroin is our drug of choice.

amkelley wrote:

To me the biggest difference was that everyone in the midwest town appeared to be moving at one-third to one-half normal speed. Four-way stop signs were absolutely comical.

s) but at least people here move at the normal speed again.

I get a big kick out of listening to the big city radio. They actually have to come on in the morning and afternoon and tell where people driving their cars bashed into each other. Some days there may be 5 or 6 of these at once. After that, they tell how slow moving the cars are going on all the big highways. That's probably why once they get out to my rural area, they are all driving 90mph and bashing into and killing each other. The big interstate is 7 miles from my little backwards slow town and all our emergency service gets done is going out to the big highway, cutting people out of their vehicles, and taking them to the hospital or the morgue.

Grapes of Wrath wrote:

Boredom is setting in already and I've only been here a few weeks.

That's very sad on your part. How could you not know how to entertain yourself?

Did you transfer for a job or start working from home for the same salary or did you get a new job at a lower pay rate?

Grapes of Wrath wrote:

I made 80k in the big city and lived paycheck to paycheck.

If you live anywhere in the US and are living paycheck to paycheck on $80k then you have very bad financial management skills. No big city in the US is that expensive.

When the federal tax, state tax, city tax, social security tax, medicare tax, union dues, health insurance deduction, and the portion set aside to cover the property tax and sales tax, is taken out of the weekly pay then the $80,000/year can be barely enough as the Grapes of Wrath understands.

amkelley wrote:

As a child and young adult I lived in a variety of medium sized to large cities (200,000 to 2M) on both west and east coasts. 18 years ago I moved to a midwest town of 50,000. Not a small town by small-town standards, but still a huge difference.

To me the biggest difference was that everyone in the midwest town appeared to be moving at one-third to one-half normal speed. Four-way stop signs were absolutely comical.

Yes, people there were nice, and yes, I found it extremely boring.

I moved back to the west coast after four years. I still live in an area of low population density (80,000 population and surrounded by rural areas) but at least people here move at the normal speed again.

Nothing better than watching coastal Hillary lovers continue to have meltdowns.

Banker wrote:

Grapes of Wrath wrote:

I made 80k in the big city and lived paycheck to paycheck.

If you live anywhere in the US and are living paycheck to paycheck on $80k then you have very bad financial management skills. No big city in the US is that expensive.

A studio in SF costs $2500/month.

Try moving to NYC or SF. $80k won't go very far.

I'm looking to downsize my life in a few years. There has to be a happy medium between a huge city and completely rural. Cities like Austin, Portland, Boulder/Denver seem to have a nice balance, but maybe I'm just kidding myself.

GoW, why the decision to move?

Grapes of Wrath wrote:

3. People. People are MUCH nicer and polite, but also fairly slow (both in terms of speech patterns and...intelectually). Irony is not something they understand. Everything is taken at face value, religion is of high importance, physical fitness is not emphasiezd. People are very out of shape, in general.

My sister married a rural guy. Nice guy, but the whole slow-moving thing is just out of this world. I used to hang up on him routinely because I'd answer the phone and not hear anything from the other end and just assume that I'd been butt dialed or that the call had been dropped. I eventually realized that it just takes him a good five to ten seconds to get around to beginning to talk, and that I need to wait an extra-long time after saying "hello" to give him a chance to say whatever it is he called me to say.

Matching the guy's pace requires me to effortfully slow down. Like there's a pace at which you just aren't actively trying to go fast, and then there's a pace that's so slow that you actually have to intentionally keep the brakes applied. Walking with him is almost like a tai chi kind of thing. Like you end up moving so slowly that the slowness itself becomes a challenge and not just walking off at a normal human speed requires great focus and restraint.

Maybe you can help get him involved in the Special Olympics.

derp wrote:

Try moving to NYC or SF. $80k won't go very far.

I'm looking to downsize my life in a few years. There has to be a happy medium between a huge city and completely rural. Cities like Austin, Portland, Boulder/Denver seem to have a nice balance, but maybe I'm just kidding myself.

GoW, why the decision to move?

I like in SF. $80000 will get you plenty far. You guys have terrible money management skills.

sure they are wrote:

A studio in SF costs $2500/month.

Sure, and there is a house in SF that costs $20 million. I live in SF. You guys have terrible finanical managment.

The Glenn Beck Program wrote:

When the federal tax, state tax, city tax, social security tax, medicare tax, union dues, health insurance deduction, and the portion set aside to cover the property tax and sales tax, is taken out of the weekly pay then the $80,000/year can be barely enough as the Grapes of Wrath understands.

No. You just need to learn how to spend your money. No one's taxes cause them to live paycheck to paycheck. Taxes are at most ~30% of anyone's paycheck.

Banker wrote:

derp wrote:

Try moving to NYC or SF. $80k won't go very far.

I'm looking to downsize my life in a few years. There has to be a happy medium between a huge city and completely rural. Cities like Austin, Portland, Boulder/Denver seem to have a nice balance, but maybe I'm just kidding myself.

GoW, why the decision to move?

I like in SF. $80000 will get you plenty far. You guys have terrible money management skills.

No it does not get you far. Yes you can obviously budget to live like a poor person if you want. Maybe you should move out of SF and see what it gets you elsewhere.

I just moved from rural America to a major metro area and I wish people like you would just stay in the city and stop stuffing up our roads and driving up out rents.