I did the rural move February 2020 from upper class suburbia. It was the best decision for ME! It is definitely not for everyone. My biggest 3 points of wisdom: 1. Don't expect to do everything at once 2. leave your urban ways behind, you're moving for a reason! 3. Everyone will know your business. Dont over share your life 🙃
I'm old as dirt. Lived many places, NY to CA, FL to AK. Grew up on a fruit farm, lived on 175 acres near Mt Shasta with hydro and lived in many large cities. Your video made me giggle. Living rural can be cheaper than however you're living now, but that has nothing to do with being rural. I've lived in central Phoenix for 22 years. My total spend over the past 21 months has been $592.04/mo. Over the past 15 years my house has appreciated an average of $1833/mo. I walk every where. In rural areas you're driving everywhere. Cities are way safer...if you choose to live where it's safe. For several months of the year I leave my windows and exterior doors wide open at night. Just 2 miles away is a high crime area. In rural areas the crimes are just different. Things disappear in the country. Everyone knows your business in the country. Meth labs -> rural. Drug addicts in the city aren't too scary. Addicts in the country.... scary AF. And wow there are a lot of addicts in the country with clan members to protect their crime life. I retired at 45, funded mainly by slow flipping my house. Working on house #4 now. Agree working with your hands is great. I get almost all my building materials free. I'm currently building my kitchen cabinets. All the wood came from furniture people tossed. Entertainment cabinets, armoires, etc... Fixing up a house in a good area of a growing city = $$$. Fixing up a house in a rural area is a money pit. I'm getting ready for my next adventure and narrowed it down to 2 options. Option 1: Buy a house in/near Cairo IL for under $10k. It's as you said, 100's of homes in the US under $10k. Declining areas. Almost no one wants to live in Cairo. I like it because I can walk to world class catfishing which is safe to eat and I love eating fish. Being old as dirt I have no need for any more house appreciation so a place like Cairo works. I'd have $500k from the sale of my last Phoenix house and Social Security and Medicare. I sure would have hated to not have had that home appreciation when younger. Funded my life since I was 45. Lastly, thinking go west young man is dead... that's just plain sad. You spoke of people who started businesses having a lot of books, never stopped learning. In my career I was a software engineer and worked in 14 startups. The most exciting and fun people I ever have known. Yup, they are interested in many things. I'm often puzzled by how most people see the world. Always so negative. Next year I plan to move further west. Lived in CA and almost the most western place in the US, Shemya island AK... next stop west... SE Asia. Your view of the American west as being full of opportunity because the land was free thanks to the Homestead Act sounds weird to me. North America had a lot of people living here when Columbus landed. The "free" land was owned by native Americans. Your view of vast open land seems twisted to me. People have always competed for resources. Native Americans killed each other for resources, held slaves and did all the other cool things humans have always done. Europeans just were better at it. There is opportunities for me in SE Asia because I'm from a different world and well capitalized. Just different. Every place in the world you go always has one thing in common... I enjoyed hearing about your book business. Very interesting and you know it very well. Thanks for sharing. And I'm not saying "don't move to a rural area". It will be a great adventure and you will learn a lot. Collecting experiences has been my life. I cherish them all. I write these last ass comments as my journaling, reliving some of my experiences. Guess that's what people do when old as dirt. Maybe when you're in your 60's you'll think back to this crazy comment and we'll be kindred spirits. Or maybe YT will delete this comment. Either way it's time to get going on those cabinets.
Good topic. Living off grid depends on a person's age, health, what they consider to be "wealth", and local/state govt laws/regulations. Those small towns that are now "zombie" towns lost the people for a reason so might do a potential buyer good to do research before moving. I agree that Urban areas are overcrowded and have many pitfalls.
Oh! While I'm here, let me say I didn't even faintly scratch the surface of ramblings that I could have done. If you wanted to hear them you'll have to meet me in person. Maybe bring some really good oolong or green tea with ya too as bribery. ...And, speaking of tea, let me tell ya something. Tea is awesome and I've always loved it. I've always dreamed of having my own tea plantation as well. Yes, I'm aware that's a weird dream. Anyhows, the property and those springs? I think they all might work together for what could be the best possible thing for a tea plantation. That dream may be closer to fruition that I ever dreamed. Just gotta get there, watch the early morning fog rolling over the valley and foothills and see, once and for all, if the fog lays over the land just right for the best tea results. Imagine with me, going out as the tea puts on new flushes of leaves, five new leaves, to be specific. You breathe in the cool morning air and step through a low lying fog, kicking up swirls of mist as you go. Eventually you grab your tools and start cutting the tea bushes, the faintest smell of tea hitting your nostrils as you work and gather those topmost leaves... *rambling continues*
@antiquebookcollective I think farmers used their barn for house overflow storage. I remember when we lived on a farm many years ago, there was a large wooden box upstairs in the barn where they kept the hay. I was very small, but when I opened the box, I found it full of beautiful lamps covered in many layers of dust and dirt. When I brushed it off, I found the most stupid thing I'd ever seen. Why would anyone name lamps after a girl Tiffany. The farm was over 100 yrs. old at the time.
For real! It was so hard to not jump ship as soon as that one sold. I was eying so many 10 and 20 acre parcels and thinking about nothing other than beginning the dream! Alas, I reinvested and am still building up for a bigger fulfillment of that dream. Lord willing, it'll be about 1,500 acres when all is said and done. :) (For the first phase of my plan.)
I did the rural move February 2020 from upper class suburbia. It was the best decision for ME! It is definitely not for everyone. My biggest 3 points of wisdom:
1. Don't expect to do everything at once
2. leave your urban ways behind, you're moving for a reason!
3. Everyone will know your business. Dont over share your life 🙃
Love it! :)
I'm old as dirt. Lived many places, NY to CA, FL to AK. Grew up on a fruit farm, lived on 175 acres near Mt Shasta with hydro and lived in many large cities. Your video made me giggle. Living rural can be cheaper than however you're living now, but that has nothing to do with being rural. I've lived in central Phoenix for 22 years. My total spend over the past 21 months has been $592.04/mo. Over the past 15 years my house has appreciated an average of $1833/mo. I walk every where. In rural areas you're driving everywhere.
Cities are way safer...if you choose to live where it's safe. For several months of the year I leave my windows and exterior doors wide open at night. Just 2 miles away is a high crime area. In rural areas the crimes are just different. Things disappear in the country. Everyone knows your business in the country. Meth labs -> rural. Drug addicts in the city aren't too scary. Addicts in the country.... scary AF. And wow there are a lot of addicts in the country with clan members to protect their crime life.
I retired at 45, funded mainly by slow flipping my house. Working on house #4 now. Agree working with your hands is great. I get almost all my building materials free. I'm currently building my kitchen cabinets. All the wood came from furniture people tossed. Entertainment cabinets, armoires, etc... Fixing up a house in a good area of a growing city = $$$. Fixing up a house in a rural area is a money pit.
I'm getting ready for my next adventure and narrowed it down to 2 options.
Option 1: Buy a house in/near Cairo IL for under $10k. It's as you said, 100's of homes in the US under $10k. Declining areas. Almost no one wants to live in Cairo. I like it because I can walk to world class catfishing which is safe to eat and I love eating fish. Being old as dirt I have no need for any more house appreciation so a place like Cairo works. I'd have $500k from the sale of my last Phoenix house and Social Security and Medicare. I sure would have hated to not have had that home appreciation when younger. Funded my life since I was 45.
Lastly, thinking go west young man is dead... that's just plain sad. You spoke of people who started businesses having a lot of books, never stopped learning. In my career I was a software engineer and worked in 14 startups. The most exciting and fun people I ever have known. Yup, they are interested in many things. I'm often puzzled by how most people see the world. Always so negative. Next year I plan to move further west. Lived in CA and almost the most western place in the US, Shemya island AK... next stop west... SE Asia. Your view of the American west as being full of opportunity because the land was free thanks to the Homestead Act sounds weird to me. North America had a lot of people living here when Columbus landed. The "free" land was owned by native Americans. Your view of vast open land seems twisted to me. People have always competed for resources. Native Americans killed each other for resources, held slaves and did all the other cool things humans have always done. Europeans just were better at it. There is opportunities for me in SE Asia because I'm from a different world and well capitalized. Just different.
Every place in the world you go always has one thing in common...
I enjoyed hearing about your book business. Very interesting and you know it very well. Thanks for sharing.
And I'm not saying "don't move to a rural area". It will be a great adventure and you will learn a lot. Collecting experiences has been my life. I cherish them all. I write these last ass comments as my journaling, reliving some of my experiences. Guess that's what people do when old as dirt. Maybe when you're in your 60's you'll think back to this crazy comment and we'll be kindred spirits.
Or maybe YT will delete this comment. Either way it's time to get going on those cabinets.
Thanks for the comment! Some great thoughts and such, thanks for sharing your experiences too! :)
Not sure if you’re close to Eugene Oregon but that friends of the library sale is really good!
I'm a few hours from there, but I've hit it. I prefer the Corvallis one myself though, but Eugene's is great! :)
Good topic. Living off grid depends on a person's age, health, what they consider to be "wealth", and local/state govt laws/regulations. Those small towns that are now "zombie" towns lost the people for a reason so might do a potential buyer good to do research before moving. I agree that Urban areas are overcrowded and have many pitfalls.
@@thriftingsisters1226 Super true on all counts.
Oh! While I'm here, let me say I didn't even faintly scratch the surface of ramblings that I could have done.
If you wanted to hear them you'll have to meet me in person. Maybe bring some really good oolong or green tea with ya too as bribery.
...And, speaking of tea, let me tell ya something. Tea is awesome and I've always loved it. I've always dreamed of having my own tea plantation as well. Yes, I'm aware that's a weird dream. Anyhows, the property and those springs? I think they all might work together for what could be the best possible thing for a tea plantation. That dream may be closer to fruition that I ever dreamed. Just gotta get there, watch the early morning fog rolling over the valley and foothills and see, once and for all, if the fog lays over the land just right for the best tea results. Imagine with me, going out as the tea puts on new flushes of leaves, five new leaves, to be specific. You breathe in the cool morning air and step through a low lying fog, kicking up swirls of mist as you go. Eventually you grab your tools and start cutting the tea bushes, the faintest smell of tea hitting your nostrils as you work and gather those topmost leaves... *rambling continues*
@@antiquebookcollective Don't ever stop dreaming.
You would be surprised to know the number of great books found in farm houses and barns.
So many wonderful books in those places! A lot of my best finds. :)
@antiquebookcollective I think farmers used their barn for house overflow storage.
I remember when we lived on a farm many years ago, there was a large wooden box upstairs in the barn where they kept the hay. I was very small, but when I opened the box, I found it full of beautiful lamps covered in many layers of dust and dirt. When I brushed it off, I found the most stupid thing I'd ever seen. Why would anyone name lamps after a girl Tiffany. The farm was over 100 yrs. old at the time.
@@darleneaitken1620 Phew! That's an awesome find, I'm a little jealous! Lol
What kind of barbarian stacks their books vertically on horizonal book shelves?
It's better for the books. Laying them on their sides puts less stress on their binding.
Sell one copy of Time Machine, buy a business location. Sounds good to me!
For real! It was so hard to not jump ship as soon as that one sold. I was eying so many 10 and 20 acre parcels and thinking about nothing other than beginning the dream!
Alas, I reinvested and am still building up for a bigger fulfillment of that dream. Lord willing, it'll be about 1,500 acres when all is said and done. :) (For the first phase of my plan.)
My fav book. I named my current house Feydeau in honor of H. G. Wells.
@@waterbug1135 Love it! :)