My recent career change means that I now have the freedom to write from wherever I happen to be. Similarly, my wife can pretty easily find work in any sufficiently-sized town - her skill set and resume would make her an attractive candidate pretty much anywhere.

Given that we currently live in one of the most expensive parts of the state of Iowa, does it make sense for us to consider moving in the future? Here are the reasons we’ve come up with for moving in the near future, moving later on down the line, and never moving at all.

Reasons for Moving Soon

Children Right now, both of our children are young enough that a move to a different area wouldn’t be highly traumatic for them. When we moved into our current home, it took about two weeks for my son (who was about one and a half years old) to adjust to the new house, and now he doesn’t even remember our old apartment. There are very few social ties for them as well.

Family. Our move would be designed to take us closer to our parents, who are getting older. They also live quite far from their grandchildren and there’s not nearly the interaction there that any of us would like. Moving closer allows a lot of deeper bonds to grow.

We’re not entrenched, either Although we’ve lived in this school district for several years, we’re far from entrenched in the neighborhood on our street. We’ve become somewhat friendly with two of the families living near us, but we’ve not yet reached the point where we feel that we are a deep part of a community yet. More on that in a bit.

Reduced house payments We could buy an equivalent house to the one we’re living in pretty much anywhere else in the state of Iowa for about 40% less than what we paid for this one. Assuming we could re-sell this house for the price we paid for it (which is reasonable - the housing market is solid here), we could easily take that cash, pay off the full mortgage, and have enough left over for a very large down payment on the next house.

Reasons for Moving Eventually

Time to find the exact place we want. We’d like to move closer to our extended families, likely somewhere on the eastern side of Iowa. If we took our time, we could carefully investigate the whole region of the state and find the right place for us to move.

The opportunity to have the home we’ve always wanted. What we want isn’t extravagant - it’s basically our current house, except on two floors and with slightly larger bedrooms and a slightly larger master bath, in the country. We can likely build that for less than $200,000, and in several years, we’ll have the resources to make it so.

Increased financial resources. Waiting for a few years means we’ll have more financial resources with which to buy or build exactly what we want.

Our current home is in an obvious growth area. Holding onto it for the next several years will see a price increase. We live in an area where the population growth is tremendous - it’s the only “hot” area in the entire state and there’s little startup companies and all sorts of things going on. If we sit and wait, our home will do nothing but increase in value.

Reasons for Never Moving

We’re entrenched in the community. While we may not have settled on our current block yet, we are entrenched in our local community. I serve on one important civic council and have been strongly encouraged to run for another council position. I know literally hundreds of people in this area - some of them quite well. I have a burgeoning professional relationship with at least a few people.

We like the area and resources. The area we currently live in gives us pretty quick access to the greater Des Moines area for cultural events and at least seven grocery stores within fifteen minutes of driving. If we move to the area we’re thinking about, we’d be largely far away from such assets.

Our Conclusion

Taking into account all of these factors and how they overlap, we’ve decided to not move in the short term. Not only would moving right now be a very questionable financial decision, we don’t have a strong plan in place for where we would move and how we would transition my wife’s employment (luckily, being a “transient worker,” I can move much easier).

The one regret we have in this decision is family. All of us - my wife, my two children, and myself - would benefit from being closer to our extended families, both in terms of increased familial bonds, but also in terms of having some additional support for parenting. My mother is so anxious to build bonds with her grandchildren and also to babysit them that she’s traveling up here for a weekend in May and basically ordering us out of the house to spend a weekend together while she watches the children. That says something significant about the family bond.

Tentatively, we’re looking at moving in seven to twelve years, depending on our financial state. If things go very well with my writing, we could move earlier than that. The later we move, though, the less likely we will be to move because of the social changes that would be foisted on our children - I have no real desire to yank a twelve year old and a ten year old away from their friends for reasons that aren’t truly pressing.

Earlier today, I ran across an article at eFinanceDirectory entitled Rent vs. Buy Myths That Ruined the Housing Market. Amazingly, this article was being linked to by a number of reputable blogs - apparently ones who haven’t actually done the research and investigated the real scoop behind the issues in the housing market.

First of all, the problems in the housing market are not due to home ownership. They’re due to lenders lending out ridiculous amounts of money to borrowers who couldn’t afford it, and borrowers agreeing to loans far beyond their realistic level to pay. That has nothing to do with the value of home ownership - it has to do with greed, both on the part of the lenders and the borrowers.

I’m going to deconstruct this article carefully for you guys, so that there’s a clear point-counterpoint to the major issues raised in this article. I’m not stating that the original article is strictly wrong, but that it presents an extremely one-sided viewpoint that deserves some counterbalance.

Buyers throw their money away for the first five years they own a home, because they simply give money to the bank for the privilege of borrowing money. Renters, on the other hand, pay for one thing every month: shelter. They don’t pay interest to the bank, property taxes or maintenance fees. They pay rent.

First of all, buyers are not “throwing their money away” for the first five years of home ownership. Their monthly payments do consist of primarily interest on their mortgage, but a portion of that payment goes towards the value of the home itself, and that portion grows larger with each payment.

Second, buyers have the option of making additional mortgage payments. These payments go wholly against the principal and make a dramatic difference in the interest paid over the life of a mortgage. Even $100 extra a month not only shaves years off of the repayment period, it also goes straight towards the value of your home.

Third, the “first five years” period is the only period where there is a perceived advantage in renting over homeownership. After that, the dual forces of progress on the payments plus the progress of rental inflation swing the advantage around towards the homeowners - but we’ll talk about that later.

Smart renters also take the money they save by renting and invest it somewhere else. Since the average renter saves hundreds of dollars every month, they can afford to invest in stocks, bonds and other vehicles that have a better rate of return.

That’s nice, in theory, but people in rental situations rarely do this and if they do, it’s so they can make a down payment on a home.

Let’s look at reality: the savings rate in America is negative, yet this article is using the argument that people might save and invest as a reason why rentals are more cost-effective? They might be more cost-effective for someone with their financial head on straight, but those people are homeowners who see the long-term losing strategy that is renting.

Contrary to popular belief, buyers do not get back the mortgage interest they paid throughout the year at tax time. Mortgage interest can only be deducted from taxable income. This essentially means that buyers pay a dollar just to save 30 cents. Furthermore, deducting interest has no tax advantage unless a buyer pays so much in interest that the amount exceeds the standard deduction that everyone–including renters–is allowed to take.

For most people, income tax deductions aren’t a consideration when buying. They’re merely a perk if you qualify for them. In my area of the country, very few homeowners would even qualify for any deduction when it comes to their homes, and even in expensive areas, the deduction amount is seen as a perk because the tax rules (including the standard deduction amount) is subject to change.

When it comes to owning, the only guarantee is that buyers will be required to pay property taxes. Since renters are not required to pay any taxes on the property they rent, it seems downright foolish to factor the ‘tax benefits’ of owning into a buying decision.

You do in fact pay property taxes when you rent - property taxes are a part of the calculation that comes up with the amount of rent you’re charged. Just because you don’t see the bill doesn’t mean that it does not exist.

When a person buys a home, the money that is paid upfront is more significant and may or may not be seen again. For example, a buyer must pay closing costs (typically five percent of the loan amount) and real estate agent commission (typically six percent of the loan amount) before being called a homeowner. This 11 percent ‘investment’ ensures that the home must appreciate by at least 11 percent before the buyer can hope to break even.

These costs mentioned above, in most modern homeowner transactions (particularly in a buyer’s market), are paid for by the seller, not the buyer. We did not pay a dime of any of these when we bought our house and the price we paid was roughly equal to the assessed value.

Even in a seller’s market, the real estate agent commission is covered by the seller and, while some of that is figured into the price of the home, the market in an area will end up being the factor that determines the value of the home, not the commission.

Initial costs aside, there are also other costs a buyer is responsible for that a renter is not, such as mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance and maintenance. These costs can add up and may even increase significantly over the years.

Unless you’re living in an extremely run-down area and enjoy living in slovenliness, there are maintenance costs for renting, too. Also, any rational renter will purchase renter’s insurance in order to protect the value of their property - the same logic by which a homeowner would purchase homeowner’s insurance. Plus, renters also have to actually pay the rent, which is akin to the mortgage interest discussed above.

At best, buyers have depreciating assets. Home prices are falling in nearly every area of the country. An estimated 50 percent of the buyers whose loans were originated after 2002 now owe more than their homes are worth.

Homeowners who have been paying on their homes for ten years or more are seeing their equity disappear. This means that the ‘investment’ they made through mortgage payments is gone–dried up virtually overnight through no fault of their own.

This would be true if we were going through the Great Depression, but it’s not. Depreciation in even the worst markets in the country is scarcely up to 20% and in many markets, it’s nonexistent. In fact, based on home sales in my area, prices have held steady (or perhaps gone up slightly) in the last year.

In other words, if you pay attention only to a handful of overheated housing markets, the quoted statement might have some semblance of truth, but once you open your eyes a bit and look at the nation outside of these markets, it’s not as bad as doomsayers want you to think.

Renters may not co-own a home with a lender, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t have assets. Many renters have a large and prosperous portfolio, Star Wars collectibles (just an example) and other assets that can be sold IMMEDIATELY for cash. The reason they own these things is because they haven’t been paying a lender to ‘rent’ money so that they could pretend like they own an asset.

I’m actually scratching my head here as to what the point is, honestly.

First of all, there seems to be some sort of implication that a renter is better off because they may have assets of some sort, which apparently include Star Wars collectibles. This is true of homeowners as well - anyone with stuff can liquidate that stuff if need be.

Second of all, homeowners are quite free to sell their home if they so choose and use the proceeds from that sale to eliminate their mortgage. It is the homeowners’ decision as to whether or not to sell, not the mortgage lender’s decision. Once you’ve signed the papers, it’s basically your asset to do with what you see fit - the only catch is that it’s collateral on a loan. But under that logic, you should always lease a car instead of buying it so that you don’t have to pay a lender to “rent” money so that they could pretend to own that car, even though it’s theirs free and clear in a few years.

During the housing boom, everyone thought that housing was a great investment. Many people bought under the assumption that home prices go up, not down. The result of this madness is the biggest foreclosure crisis in the history of the United States.

The reality is that housing is not an investment. It’s shelter. That is all housing has ever been. Self-serving organizations like the National Association of Realtors like to tell people that buying a home is a good way to build long-term wealth, but this statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

Let’s completely ignore the fact that you get a valuable asset at the end of a mortgage and look at the money you pay into the mortgage as rent. I live in an area where you can easily get a decent apartment for $600 right now. Otherwise, you could get a house with a $150,000 mortgage at 5.5% for about $850 a month.

Right now, the advantage goes to the renter because they’re paying in $250 less a month. But let’s move down the road ten years.

In ten years, with inflation at 4%, that $600 monthly rent has gone up to $888 a month. At the same time, the mortgage hasn’t changed a bit - you’re still paying $850 a month for your home mortgage. At this point, the renter might argue that they’re saving in other areas, like on property taxes and such, so we’ll still say that the renter is ahead here. Let’s roll ahead ten more years.

At the twenty year mark, with that inflation still at a steady 4%, that $600 monthly rent is now $1,315 a month, while that homeowner is still only paying $850 a month. It’s pretty tough for the ol’ renter to argue that the deal is better, but the delusion might still happen.

Let’s jump ahead to the thirty year mark. The homeowner sends in his last mortgage payment and now has to pay $0 a month. The renter, on the other hand, has seen his rent go from $600 a month to $1,950 a month. Not only that, the renter will have to continue paying that rent in perpetuity - and it’ll keep going up with inflation. The homeowner is done with that game.

This doesn’t even include the asset value of the home. Even strictly ignoring the asset value of the home, the homeowner is in a better situation at the end than the renter is.

Normally, I don’t get frustrated by articles like this, but when I see things like this posted on sites that are presumed to be respectable, I feel a deep need to respond and offer up a balance to the perspective.

One personal finance project that a lot of people overlook is the household inventory. It’s one of those “once in a great while” tasks that’s easy to overlook and forget about, but it’s not very hard and it can pay huge dividends if you’re carrying homeowners’ or renters’ insurance and something goes wrong with your living quarters.

A household inventory is a documentation of every item in your home so that you have this in the event of a disaster, such as a robbery or a house fire. It usually consists of a list of the items and/or a videotaped walkthrough of your home which captures images of the items.

Such an inventory can be very useful when dealing with insurance companies, as it provides documentation of the items that you own, thus helping your case for an insurance settlement.

Eight steps for making your own household inventory
One can make an excellent household inventory in just a few hours on a weekend. I was able to do my own home in about two hours of steady effort. It’s not too hard at all - it just takes time. Here’s the game plan.

1. Get a video recorder. If you don’t own one already, borrow one from someone. A video recording is a great way to document all of the items in your home, even the ones you forget to list.

2. Get a laptop - or a very good note taker. When we documented our home, we found it easiest to take a laptop from room to room in our home to jot down all of the information. If you don’t have a laptop, designate someone to be a note taker (maybe yourself, if you’re doing it alone).

3. Do one room at a time. Go to each room in your home and document all of the significant items in it. It’s not necessary to document individual foodstuffs and individual toiletries, for example, but I’d document things down to silverware and plates - my rule of thumb is that if it’s worth more than $10 and easily replaceable, or if it’s not easily replaceable no matter what, it gets documented.

4. Record as much information as you can about each item. Make, model, serial number, purchase date, and so on are all good pieces of information to have, especially for larger items. For smaller items, just list what they are and make sure that some video is taken.

5. Be sure to videotape or photograph any personal valuables. Jewelry and family heirlooms fall into this area. These are items that are not easily described and are best noted with visual proof of their existence.

6. Store the list/video in a secure place not in your home. This is a perfect item for a safe deposit box at your bank, for example. Just make sure it’s not in your home, as this is an item you’ll only need if there’s significant damage to your home or to the property in it.

7. Update the list semi-regularly. There’s no need to do this monthly, but an annual updating of the list can be useful. You can tack addendums on the end of your earlier lists or videos if you wish, covering any new purchases you’ve made.

8. Make sure that everyone knows where the list is, including a person or two who doesn’t live in your home. That way, if a real disaster strikes and you’re incapacitated, others can retrieve the list and help with insurance issues while you’re recovering - or can help your survivors get the insurance settlement that they’re due.

Recently, I mentioned a Consumer Reports article that encouraged people to invest instead of paying ahead on their mortgage. It left me thinking quite a bit about debt repayment and how I should handle my mortgage.

Our situation My wife and I are planning on eliminating our student loans in the next year to a year and a half, leaving us with just our home mortgage as a debt. Our plan has been to eliminate that debt as a top priority, probably via double payments on the mortgage - our plan is to be debt free by the time our son has his thirteenth birthday and then build a home in the countryside.

What double payments on a mortgage does On a thirty year mortgage of any size, making double payments each step of the way reduces the payoff date from thirty years down the road to nine years and two months down the road. It truly does make that kind of impact.

The best way to look at it is to look at your advance mortgage payments as an investment with a certain rate of return - a rate equal to the interest level on your mortgage. So, if you have a mortgage at 5.75%, an advance payment on that mortgage is basically an investment of that money at a 5.75% annual return. Most importantly, though, one should look at these returns as being after taxes (because, for most people, there isn’t enough interest there to create a huge benefit for itemizing versus taking the standard deduction).

Obviously, to beat this we would want an investment that could reliably return more than 5.75% after taxes per year over a ten year period. If you look at the returns on various index funds, like the Vanguard 500, you’ll see that since their inception, they’ve seen returns of over 12% on average. If that would persist over the next decade, one would definitely be better off putting their cash in such an investment than in the 5.75% mortgage.

The other factors This argument would seem to lend itself towards investing the money, then withdrawing it to pay off our mortgage in one swoop when the time comes. However, it doesn’t take into account several other factors that are worth looking at.

The variability of the market Past performance is never an indication of future returns. You can never just assume the stock market will do what you want. The next ten years could be utterly painful on Wall Street, or we could see another economic boom. My personal feeling is that 2008 will be rough, but the election of a new president will bring about a mini-boom, but even I take that with a grain of salt. The variability of stocks is a risk - is it a risk worth taking?

Flexibility With the money in a taxable investment account, it is accessible if I ever need it. If I prepay on the mortgage, the only way that money is accessible is if I take out a home equity line of credit. Let’s say I wish to buy a car. By having the money in the account, I have the flexibility to just pay cash for the car or to take out a loan on it, whichever makes more financial sense. It also serves as a giant emergency fund in the event of job loss or something else disastrous.

Willpower This is a lesser concern, but still significant. Having a significant amount of money just sitting there in an investment brings forth a desire to spend it. Do I have the willpower to resist it? I believe I do, but that doesn’t mean that when I have $50K sitting in an investment account I might not feel differently.

My conclusion The higher your mortgage interest rate is, the better it is to pay in advance instead of investing it. Where’s the cutoff line? It depends on a lot of things, but the big one is your risk tolerance - if you’re fine with a chance for a down market in exchange for a very good chance of being able to pay things off earlier, then it’s probably for you. Prepaying on your mortgage is very steady and reliable, but investing gives you the chance to hit a real home run and become debt free earlier than you thought possible.

For us, this possibility plus the liquidity of the money if we needed it has convinced us to put our money into an investment account instead of prepaying our mortgage, something we’ll likely begin to do by the end of the year.

Recently, there has been some talk in our house of inviting my wife’s sister to live with us on a permanent basis (in fact, my wife and I have already extended the invitation and she is thinking about it, though it is far far far from a done deal). We have the room to allow for this arrangement easily, so that’s not a concern, and our personalities mesh very well, so that’s not a concern either.

What does worry us a bit is the financial arrangement. Should we expect her to pay rent for what amounts to use of our basement as an apartment? What about other living expenses? Should this be treated like a rental arrangement? What about food expenses? What about expected behavior?

Even situations that seem on paper as though they would go quite well often fall apart due to expectations left unfulfilled and feelings left unchecked. I’ve experienced this in the past with college-era roommates (all but two of them, in fact, were problematic and the remaining two wound up being my wife and the best man at our wedding) and I’ve also seen it create some very uncomfortable feelings in other family situations.

Our approach to solving this is to have a few meetings where we simply lay all of this out on the table before we even get started. We’re planning on such a meeting around Christmastime where everything will be laid out on the table and all three of us (and even to a degree our son, who is just over two) will give our opinions and thoughts on any issue that could potentially concern any of us about the arrangement.

For example, I personally don’t feel that she needs to pay rent, but I would like help with the grocery bill. However, if I were to turn things around and be in her shoes, I would feel obligated to pay rent in some fashion, and if she feels that way, then it will be pretty easy to work out a fair number (basically, whatever she feels is fair).

Similarly, I’m very open about the behavior she can follow in our house (basically, as long as she follows some basic tact around the children, I’m okay with whatever choices she makes as an adult), while my wife is somewhat more nervous about it than I am. Along those same lines, my sister-in-law is probably harboring some concern that she would be viewed as a live-in babysitter, which I have zero interest in whatsoever.

These issues need to be discussed fairly and openly. If that doesn’t happen, someone is going to start feeling uncomfortable eventually, and that discomfort can easily grow into a serious issue.

On the other hand, if you’re considering a cohabitating situation and you’re not comfortable enough with the person to discuss such things this openly, you should strongly consider not doing it at all, because there are already factors at work reducing the comfort level to a point that you can’t talk about things and cohabitation will just make it worse.

What do I personally feel is appropriate? It depends entirely if you are willing to view this person as part of your immediate family or not - and I’m quite willing to with my sister-in-law. If it is more of a situation where the person is just “renting” a small portion of your home, then I feel that a rental payment should be required and negotiated and that food should largely be kept separately unless there is a shared food arrangement as well.

With family, though, much of that is out the door. I would expect that the new person would function just as siblings would as children - treating each other roughly as equals, sharing most possessions, and so on. I do not expect any rent payment, but I would expect an appropriate share of the food bill and perhaps some utility assistance since there will be a bit more energy and water usage than before. Anything beyond that is entirely dependent on the comfort level of everyone involved - some people will feel obligated to pay some amount of “rent” while others will see it as family.

As for interaction with our children, she’s still their aunt. I would expect that she would spend some time with them, but I don’t expect her to be a third parent or a permanent babysitter in any fashion. She’s chosen not to have children, so it would be foolish of me to expect her to be the parent of my children.

Whatever the expectations, though, I feel quite strongly that it should be talked through in detail before taking the plunge.

The northern Midwest often faces some very rough winters, often including periods of many days with temperatures below zero Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius). Since I’m about to face my first winter as a homeowner, I spent some time contacting many of the homeowners I know in the area and asking for tips on reducing winter heating bills, and I collected eight of the best.

Use a programmable thermostat Your house doesn’t need to be as warm at night as it does during the day, so install a programmable thermostat and use it to drop that temperature during the time when you’re asleep and when you’re not at home.

Wear clothes in layers This is extremely effective. Just wear lots of layers of clothes. I often wear a tee shirt, a long underwear/insulation shirt, a long-sleeved tee shirt, and a sweatshirt, and just peel off layers or add them as needed, and you can re-wear the outer shirts a few times without washing them.

Keep lots of blankets around Just keep a few blankets in each living room and bedroom so that you can cover up with them. Generally, I only really get cold when I sit still, and thus blankets help with that.

Air seal your home If the temperature difference between the inside of your house and the outside is seventy degrees, even a small air leak can make a huge difference in the amount of time your furnace has to run. Sometime in the fall (or even early in the winter), air seal your home. Go around your house looking for places where you can feel a draft or feel cold air leaking into your home, locate the source, and seal it. Here’s a guide for getting started.

Install EnergyStar windows When you replace your windows, spend a little extra and buy energy efficient windows that minimize the loss of heat through the windows. This also helps during the summer, where the efficient windows slow down the heat from entering your home from outside.

Cook at home Seriously, firing up your oven and baking a casserole makes for a cheaper meal than eating out, plus that heat spills over and helps with the heating of your home. While it’s not hugely efficient, you’re basically just taking advantage of the synergy between your oven and your furnace to your benefit.

Place a “solar collector” in your windows that collect sunlight. If you have windows that receive significant sunlight in the winter, put a simple “solar energy collector” in them to draw some of the heat. Just get some aluminum foil, some cardboard for backing, some black paint, and a bit of duct tape. Paint a big sheet of aluminum foil black, tape the black foil to the cardboard, then put this in the window with the black side facing out, leaving an inch at the top and bottom for air flow, by taping it to the window frame. This can generate some impressive heat, actually, and can help quite a bit for keeping rooms warm in the winter.

Don’t close off unused rooms. If you try to close off unused rooms in your house to save on heating, you’ll often find that the “cool” room isn’t that much cooler than before and your bill probably won’t change at all (and may even go up). Why? Your home’s heating system was designed to heat your whole house, for starters, and you’re also trying to leave a cold room inside your exterior walls, meaning it will draw heat from other rooms and cause them to chill quicker.

In the past, I have made many references to my preference for living in a small town over living in an urban area. For me, there’s no question - the advantages of small town rural life far outweigh the advantages of city living.

That’s not to say that I think city living is foolish - there are many benefits to living in a city that simply aren’t available in a rural area. The difference is priorities - which aspects of life are most important to you? The answer isn’t the same for everyone.

Earlier this week, when we looked at Kathy’s decision to move away from Washington D.C., it was clear that Kathy was ready for a change from her urban environment - and that’s a great thing to have really figured out what you want. She just needed a bit of encouragement.

However, there are a lot of people out there living in urban areas who are unhappy with their environs - and there are also a lot of people in rural areas who yearn for something different (I live very close to at least a few of these folks - they lived in a small town because they thought it would benefit their children, but they’re not happy with the tradeoffs).

Having said that, I tried to build a list of the most positive aspects of both urban and rural life, based on the aspects of each that I find most appealing. I’m quite sure the readers will throw in a lot more factors for each side.

One key thing: if you’re feeling unhappy with your environs, think of making a change. Read through this list and ask yourself which factors are most important to you. They’ll likely point you one way or another, either towards appreciating what you have now or encouraging you to make a move.

So, let’s get started.

Trent’s Top Advantages of City Life

Public transportation One of the biggest leashes around my neck is the requirement of owning a car to get anywhere. For example, I do not have a grocery store of any kind within walking distance of my house. The ability to just walk and use public transportation to get where you want to go is invaluable.

Cultural life If you value going to diverse concerts, attending art galleries on a very regular basis, and other such cultural trappings, city life is for you. I enjoy galleries, but I’m fine with just visiting two or three on a vacation. I do regret the lack of top-shelf concerts in Iowa, but it’s not quite as bad as it sounds - I did get to see Prince.

Diversity You get to meet a huge variety of people on a daily basis. Although it’s not a whitewash, most of the interior of the country is not incredibly diverse with the exception of the college towns. In smaller towns in particular, if you just glance at the surface, you’ll not see a wide diversity of opinion (it’s there, but not obvious).

Trent’s Top Advantages of Rural Life

Cost of living I fired up a cost of living calculator to get some real numbers:

To maintain the same standard of living, your salary of $85,000 in Boston, Massachusetts could decrease to $52,759 in Des Moines, Iowa
Stated another way, it’s 37.9% cheaper to live in Des Moines, Iowa than Boston, Massachusetts.

Enough said. I could go on and on about the inexpensiveness of the housing market, the fact that lower salaries means less of your money goes to the government, and so on. The difference is huge.

Space and nature From my house, I have cornfields directly to the west, a large wooded area to the northwest, a giant park several hundred feet due east, and there’s enough space between the houses in my area that kids play sports games between houses, let alone in their own backyard. I’m close to nature - it’s right out my back door - and I have plenty of room to do whatever I wish. The air is clean and never smoggy, and I can literally sit on my back porch with the lights off and see the Milky Way at night. All this and the low cost of living - I own this 2,000+ square foot house for less than $180K.

Independence In rural areas, you’re generally left alone to do whatever you want. There’s a strong libertarian streak in almost every rural area I’ve lived in. I have a giant compost bin in the back yard full of rotting material that I intend to put on my garden. I have the room to do this and the people that live near me don’t care too much.

Community At the same time, I’ve only lived in my current house for about three months and I already know about one hundred people on my block, many of them well enough that I talk to them several times a week. If I ever need something in a pinch, anything from a tool to a cup of sugar to a helping hand, I can practically just shout out what I need from the driveway and someone will help.

Hopefully, you can sit back, compare these lists (and the ideas that readers offer), and figure out for yourself which side of the fence appeals to you more. If you’re living on one side and you yearn strongly for the other situation, make the move. You’ll never regret it.

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices.

Preventative mainentance is a phrase that makes many homeowners’ eyes glaze over. For many busy people, there’s nothing more boring than going around your house doing various tasks that seem to not really be fixing anything.

On the other hand, look at the tale of my hot water heater. It’s about ready to go bad years before it should, but if the owner had just put in a few minutes a year, that heater would have kept running for many more years. If you can double the life of a piece of equipment in your house with just a few minutes’ work, that’s extremely cost-effective time.

In fact, not long ago, I compiled an extensive list of many, many possible home and auto maintenance tasks, almost to the point of overkill.

But how does one keep up with all of these tasks - or even remember to do them at all? The most effective way I’ve found to keep up to date with home maintenance tasks is to schedule them.

Here’s the game plan.

First, make a giant list of your home and auto maintenance tasks. You might want to use my earlier list for starters. You may have other ones that you find you need to be doing. Obviously, some are more important than others, but it’s always good to keep up maintenance on as much as you can to cut down on long term costs.

Next, figure out how often each task can be done. For example, I have three month air handling filters for my house, so this only needs to happen each season. Go through each item on your list and note how often it needs to be taken care of. Many things on that monthly maintenance list don’t have to happen on a monthly basis - instead, choose a regular basis that works for you, like every other month or every third month for some of the tasks.

Then take your event calendar and assign days for the tasks. I use Sunbird for my personal scheduler - it’s a free program you can get easily online - and I use it to schedule home and auto maintenance tasks. You might use Outlook instead, or use a planner or a wall calendar. Just mark down all of the days where you’ll do the tasks. I often put one simple task on a weeknight, like changing an air handling filter, and move the more complicated ones and the ones in multiples to the weekends.

It takes a bit of time to get this all set up, but the rewards are worth it. You don’t have to remember to do all of these things any more - instead, just glance at the calendar and then take care of the brief maintenance task. The end result? Your home - and the appliances in it - last a lot longer, and that saves you both headaches and money.