I grew up on a farm..9 miles from town…there were cows, sheep, pigs, chickens…and a dog…we always had a pet lamb that we raised,we milked a few cows, we played cowboys and indians, we tried the Jane and Tarzan route in the trees and found out, no you can’t swing from vine to vine as Tarzan does, we saw lil calves, kittens born, etc

and yes there were times, I would say…”I’m so bored’ too bad…. but I learned to drive the straight shift car when I was 11-12

went to a big city shcool for the 9th grade…I made absolutely no friends..back to the lil town school for the next 2 years, and the last year a really big school in Calif..

worked in the big city envirment for several year, made friends, got married, but I craved the country life…so we moved out of the city, and lived way out in the country…some years later, city neices came to stay for the summer…they were horrified…no swimming pools at all to go to…they were absolutely lost..far as they were concerned it was a totally wasted summer….

so I think its easier for a rural child to adapt to the city life, then it is for city child to adapt to the rural life..

and I don’t think that living in a rural area, is a mediocure lifestyle…it depends on the person…for many people less is more…..some folk hate the rural atmosphere, they leave it, some loved it they stayed…

I don’t really fit in here, as I never had any million dollar job, nor million dollar ambitions

just my take on things…

there are some kind of associations, or clubs in places around the country, whereby, you pay upfront…$500, $1,000…(I think there is a minimum amount you must pay)

and if the gas is selling at $2 a gal at the time you join…that is what you will pay for your gas until you use up your money…even if gas goes to $5 a gal next week, you can keep getting gas at $2 gal, until you have spent that $500, $1,000, you paid up front..

of course one has to live close enuff to such a club, association, etc for it to make sense…

I don’t even know what they are called, but I recall reading about some such thing in St. Cloud MN, personally knew someone who had done that…and seems there are more then just that one….

I’m sure there are more details to it, probably a membership fee or something like that…

if that helps anyone….

Thank you for such a wonderful blog – it’s been very informative, and has creative solutions.

I got engaged about a year ago, and my fiance and I live in different cities. His field is more difficult than mine for finding employment, and it took him about six months to get the job he just started in September. He’s got a moderate-sized apartment, and a stupidity-level car loan (underwater about $10k). I have a house I love with a well-earned sweetheart mortgage and a stable job. His new salary is about $15k more than mine before taxes, but with his car debt it’s much less of a difference, and he can’t support the two of us (or children) on just his salary, so I’m very concerned about how we take the next steps, how to get ourselves to the same city, and which city that should be.

I’ve seen calculators on how to calculate if it’s better to rent an apartment or buy a house. Is there any way to figure out if it’s better to sell my house and move to his city or to stay in mine and have him change jobs or even fields? Even for a single person – how much higher does your salary have to be to make it worthwhile to uproot, sell your house and move somewhere else? And in our case, with the ridiculous car debt, how much does that skew the options?

Thank you for your input,
–BudgetBride

I have a bit long-winded question for you. I am contemplating a executive technology mgt. degree at one of the ivy league schools. I already have secured admission and have deferred it till Fall 2009. The main reason being, cost. The program costs $115,000 in total (spread over 2, 3 or 4 years depending on full time or half time program format). I currently work in pharmaceutical R&D and would like to move from science to something which is more at the business-science interface.

Although we (me and my wife, no kids yet) make around $160K per year, the total cost of this program is something which is a little beyond what we really would like to pay for education at this stage. According to my analysis, if I finish the degree, my salary won’t change more than 10-20% over my current salary but I anticipate my move to science-business interface will be much much easier.

So here are the facts:

1. Its a E program so won’t have to leave my job.
2. Will finish in max. 4 years
3. Its a great school (UPenn)
4. Its extremely expensive ($115K)
5. Will not result in more than 20% salary change
6. Will allow me to make the career switch I am contemplating.

The question is, does it make sense financially?

Thank for your thoughts.

B

Going out walking and looking at leaves, or catching frogs, or studying pine cones, or …. you name it… just is very different from city-type activities.

(2) We homeschool, so the quality of the school district was not a concern for us; plus when we did put the children in school while their brother was recovering from cancer treatment, we placed them in a local private school (which was less expensive than the private schools in the city), and it filled in nicely.

(3) The housing, electricity, and water (free, because we have a private well) were way less expensive. Our 3,000 sq. ft. home in the country cost only a third of the same house in the city.

(4) Our home, like Trent suggested, is within a 30 minute drive from town, so it’s no trouble to get back to “civilization.”

The argument could be made that we spend more in fuel costs for our drive, and although we do spend more for fuel, the cost difference is nowhere near enough to negate the housing and electricity cost savings.

Our boys love it here: they can have Airsoft fights with the boys on the land behind us; they dig trenches for their war games; they can actually see the stars, and one son will spend hours with a telescope stargazing; Plus, since we are not far from town, they are involved in community activities as well, such as Civil Air Patrol, their homeschool group activities, and hanging out with friends from church.

Having said all this, I would move back to a suburb if we had to do so, but I would miss our life here terribly.

But in the end, it was good for me and made it a lot easier to make friends in college. Because I’m nice. I don’t think either city or country is bad. Lots of my HS friends and family stayed in the rural area, and I don’t think they consider their lives to be mediocre (especially the woman who was recently elected as a state representative).

I live in a small city now, and I really like it. The rural area would be appealing for the space, but only without the rural attitude that I grew up with (I’m a tree-hugging, pro-gay liberal atheist, about as far from my hometown politics as possible.)

I don’t consider Albany to be a big city (been there). Someone made that comment.

Also, I like the food processor because I’m a cook not a baker. My husband likes the stand mixer – he’s the baker. But the stand mixer is only used about once/year. Food processor is a few times per week.

Besides, there’s more to the city than just “things to do.” You know the story of the city mouse and the country mouse? It says that in the country, the food is bad, but in the city, you might get eaten by a cat. Therefore, the country is better than the city. But that’s the wrong conclusion to draw. In my experience, country people (including myself, when I was one) have a fear of cities that’s completely out of proportion to the actual threat that exists. When I moved to the city, it took me a long time to learn not to be afraid and overwhelmed by situations and languages and people that were unfamiliar to me.

http://www.tennessee-mom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/center.jpg

Folks who are very thrifty would appreciate this, as well as folks who have a limited amount of space.

Check Trent’s archives for “side hustles”. Those articles inspired me to actually get off my duff. I answered an ad on craigslist to do something trivial from home and have expanded that into a fairly steady gig of work on the side. That initial ad was nothing glamorous or particularly “worth my time”, but it’s turned into a good thing for me.

My wife also had a hard time getting back to work and it was hard for her to get back into things. She did try and apply to several places, but nothing panned out for several months. She took on some babysitting as a favor for some friends and then ended up with 3 part-time jobs. So I’d say if it’s possible that doing something part-time at off hours might appeal to your wife, then I’d look into something like that. Any money coming in is better than $0.

A good friend of mine is a stay-at-home mom and she does the coupon/drugstore game. Since she’s perfected it to the point where they rarely pay over $50/month for groceries (family of 5), and they don’t have to pay for childcare, they break even financially.

While your advice would ordinarily be good, read a bit more closely — Tanika and her partner are both women. While it’s entirely possible that they live in a jurisdiction that recognize some form of same-sex civil partnership, to the best of my knowledge, none of those (at least, in the United States) recognize common-law same-sex partnerships.

How do I deal with parents who have absolutely no idea how to manage money? They have declared bankruptcy once, and are close to doing it again. My mom literally has a room full of clothes, but not enough money to fix the car when it breaks down. My husband and I have our financial house in pretty good order, and sometimes I just want to shake them and yell, “It’s not that hard!”. What can I do? Is there anything I can do? I hate seeing them head down this path, but I honestly feel very hopeless. Thanks!

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2008/11/time-to-hedge-against-higher-gasoline-prices.html

I haven’t tried it, but it looks intriguing at least.

The answer is no. Gasoline has a very short shelf life, the lighter hydrocarbons in gasoline evaporate and make the fuel unable to burn properly in the engine. Diesel and kerosene can be stored for longer periods because they do not contain those lighter hydrocarbons.