It looks there is a good chance that I am going to leave my current set up and start a new fund with some serious capital backing me – not certain yet but pretty far along in the process. Part of the deal includes the ability to relocate to any city I want within the US. I would like to be somewhat but not too far off the grid – major financial hubs have high tax rates and other undesirable qualities.
Major considerations include:
Low tax rate
Low cost of living
Good weather
Good quality of life overall
Reasonable college educated population to pull labor from
Reasonably close to a major airport (not too far off the grid)
What say you, AF?
Cities I am considering:
Austin
Salt Lake
Nevada side of Tahoe
Tampa
Chapel Hill
These are just places I’ve been and know that I like, but I would consider other options as well. Boston, Chicago and Philly are out as are the entire states of California and New York (for tax reasons). I’ve been to about half the states in the US so I have a reasonable idea what is out there, but I also have plenty of time to do research so I am just looking to kick ideas around.
Miami seems a little bit too crazy and I doubt I would get any work done there but it would be awesome I’m sure. Actually when I said part of the deal is relocating anywhere, I left out that my capital partners specifically said “Not South Beach or Phoenix” – I don’t know why Phoenix but I assume it has something to do with Arizona State co-eds right next door in Tempe (which we all know are the hottest college girls in the country outside of maybe a few schools in Florida).
Salt Lake is awesome and has a lot going for it. For one, a couple of my best friends live there. You can also buy an absurdly nice house for like $400-500K. It’s far less Mormon than people think / fear. Good sports in the summer and winter and you can own an AR-15 and go shooting in the desert whenever, unlike where I live now.
Austin’s pretty good, though the traffic is horrendous and COL is rising pretty rapidly due to the influx of people. The city was never built to be a big city and now it’s becoming somewhat unworkable. Dallas/Houston are other good picks, due to relatively low COL and great labor forces and have always been set up as big cities. I live a 10 minute commute from my office, so you can have a long drive or short, just depends on where you set up shop.
Tampa is another good choice; I used to live about an hour away from there for 3 years, though COL in Florida might be a bit higher than other places on your list.
PS let me know where to send my resume if you drop down here.
I’ve been to all 3 and I think Austin is the best pick for me personally. Houston I consider to be basically the armpit of America (it’s a 3 way tie with basically the entire states of New Jersey and Delaware). Dallas is kind of in the middle. It’s definitely a step up from Houston but I didn’t spend enough time there to think it was as good as Austin (which was immediately great on every level). Never been to San Antonio.
This is kind of a weird story but through an investment I met some random people who live in Tampa and ended up staying with a guy and his wife at their house for almost a week while I researched a company based in Florida. Super nice people. Incredible house on the water for
Houston gets a bad rep because its for the most part, a sprawling ugly metropolis. But within that are pockets of some the best and reasonably priced restaurants and bars around, along with reasonably priced housing, and mostly great people. Tons of free or cheap entertainment on weeknights and weekends, great weather most of the year and <1 hr from the beach.
Dallas is like Houston except with worse traffic, colder winters, and douchier people. And arguably fewer illegals though I have no proof for that one.
San Antonio is another good city, but…you have to be prepared for it. It’s not at all cosmopolitan, but I doubt you can find another large city with a better pay to COL ratio. Everything is cheap, great restaurants with a hugely up and coming urban downtown scene.
Austin is full of hipsters, bicyclists, and rediculous traffic (not because there is not enough roads but because people drive like crap, especially the priuses. They have dumb laws like, you have to call the city if you wanna cut a tree on your property down, grocery stores must make people use reusable grocery bags… stupid crap. Houses are very expensive for what you get (thought if you are killing it, you may not care). I prefer Houston so much more.
Come up to Harlem little cubby. I’ll show my hood and introduce you to my peeps. It’ll be fun, we’ll work hard, bbq, listen to hip hop, and have some fun times: NO HOMO!
I can’t deal with the humidity in Houston. Tampa is also relatively humid but Houston is next level discomfort in the summer.
I agree the traffic in Dallas is pretty awful.
I also hate cyclists and Prius drivers with a passion. I can’t imagine Austin is worse than the Bay Area for those but you make a good point. If Austin has a knock against it, it’s that it has more “weird ultra-liberal people” than I would like. I survived the Bay Area though, and it literally can’t get any worse than that in the US (granted, I really don’t like it here for a lot of reasons).
I had your dilemma a few years ago. Became a fairly simple decision. What was the best place for my number one hobby…If you love mountain biking and margaritas, Austin would be cool. If surfing is your thing, San Diego is where it is at. If slalom water skiing turns your crank, West Palm Beach, FL is the winner.
If I had to relocate to anywhere in the US I’ve been, it would be San Diego. The taxes are high, but only slightly higher than what I have where I’m at now. There is no better climate though I think. San Antonio is nice, but probably too hot for my Canadian blood in summer.
Texas summers are a little rough, but it’s mainly just July-August, and as long as you have central AC at home and work, its tolerable. Today I spent the whole afternoon next to or in the pool while drinking beer. $8 a 6 pack craft beer, just to compare to you. haha.
San Diego is incredible but I refuse to pay California taxes and the cost of living is excessively high even for someone making good coin. If you model out the economics, the taxes become very materail under even a “moderately successful” scenario and cost of living is a huge swing factor. I could buy an absurd home in most parts of the country for half a million, where as in San Diego the equivalent home would probably be millions of dollars. I’m not sure any city in the country has enough good stuff to justify that large of a difference but maybe that’s just me. I don’t have any hobbies that are location specific.
