Moving to the midwest
Anyone else feel an urge to quit and move to a LCOL area like the Midwest, especially after having a few hundred thousand in assets? I don't wanna grind, I could drastically reduce my COL and work much simpler jobs in bumfuk nowhere. But no stress, good internet, and just pursuing my hobbies seems really appealing. Wonder if anyone here has done something similar, like that FIRE / early retirement stuff. I know some people of that movement go out of the country for the best COL, but I'd prefer staying in the US.
We aren’t just famous for our “good internet,” we are also famous for our “good roads!” Which is why to ensure qquality, both are always under construction. And trust me when I say, neither will cause you any stress.
I moved from NYC to Denver many years ago. My 2 best friends in IB told me it was career suicide. It’s worked out fine. Both have since said they want to move here, but they have to sort it out at work. They are each in PM roles at HFs. I prioritized what I wanted to do versus having my career dictate that. They both make more money than me, but I’d say my quality of life and family time are much better. There are trade offs.
“The Midwest” like it’s a complete ghost town of finance rather than there being a couple of genuinely solid cities. We will ignore Chicago because I’m sure you realize the 3rd largest city in the country likely has finance jobs, but you could work for Baird and live in the Milwaukee burbs like a king and still have a pretty intense hardo finance job. Same is true for the twin cities honestly where Piper Sandler has its headquarters.
There are a lot of solid options between IB and PE firms in the Midwest if you are just willing to make the leap or have family in those areas. LCOL, great comp, many have great public schools. Oh also the people don’t suck.
Take this with a grain of salt since I'm in UG in the Midwest, but as a immigrant dude from the west coast I would say that people in the midwest are friendly, housing is relatively cheap, you get a lot of the amenities of the coast minus nature, and most of all you go to a chill place to raise a family if you care about that. Again I am a student so take everything with a grain of salt, but the Midwest is not as boring as it seems to be.
One thing I forgot to mention…I grew up in Central IL. The main downside is the weather is terrible for most of the year. You get 6 months of grey for Oct-April, zero degree winters, it’s humid and hot as hell in the summer.
There are bigger cities in the Midwest like Indy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, etc that have IB, PE, HF, and large F500 companies. It's not as "prestigious" as working in NYC/SF/LA but you can save $100k+ a year if you make $175k a year and still live a good standard of living. The main downside is that there are fewer opportunities to lateral and stay within the same city.
I also thought of just giving up and moving to Midwest to “chill” because of “wlb” and “people are so much more awesome” and “girls are more family oriented”.
But I just couldn’t accept being a loser.
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