[benVFR]

Yep you're definitely right there.. for people with education, tech skills, etc.. MA has a lot of high paying jobs, and it can still be cheaper to live in NH even if you pay MA taxes.

But you're driving like crazy, reducing quality of life and/or health, etc..

I got a raise to work in NH. NO way I could possibly justify having anything to do with MA anymore.

Now I guess I need to do my budget *real* careful and see if the claims on financial sites are true that the cost of living is $10,000 less in my new setup versus the old one.

It is very weird & strange to have no commute. I walked to work this morning, about a 10 minute walk. In the past 2 weeks I've driven about the same distance as 3 days of commuting in my old setup. It's going to be a signifcant savings in gas.

About the only service I took advantage of in MA was collecting back about $4k in unemployment insurance in 2002. Quick guess I would guess I paid in about $30,000-35,000 in state taxes over 7 years. I have no problem paying taxes but rationally with no kids and a wife I'm getting almost nothing back for my taxes, might as well try to minimize them.