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Originally Posted by benVFR  Clayton can live in the sticks and heat with wood but is he so far out that he won't be able to afford food or be able to work? |
I'm 20 minutes from my current job. I spend about $40 every week and a half driving to work, going out to eat once a week and usually driving around quite a bit one weekend day. That is driving a small 4x4 pickup that gets relatively poor gas milage (20mpg on a good tank). I have three other competing companies within 15 miles of my current employer.
What I saved by purchasing a REASONABLY priced home is enough to make me comfortable for quite a while, even with a decrease in pay or loss of second income.
BTW, there is more locally grown/raised food in my town than in any town you likely commute through, live or work. Release the mindset that being near a metropolis is the only way to survive when the economy takes a dump. I find that to be quite opposite from the truth. The only towns that died during the last recession were the ones with the overbearing property "values" without tangible reason. My 20 minute commute now covers the same distance it would of taken me to go from Natick to Waltham in 45 minutes. A community that holds itself in reasonable proportions with agriculture, industry and service businesses isn't as naked in the wind to transportation costs as a bustling metropolis full of people/goods and service that needs to be trucked in for every last mouth to feed or shelf to stock.