Moving Up North?
 

Any of you fellow Canadians know how nice it can be up in northern ontario.

Anyway, I work a FT job in southern ontario and I would love to quit and move up north. I'm in a pickle.

- Wife and I both make good money along with my side business.
- We quit, we lose out on some good pensions (well not technically lose but no longer able to contribute to them) and we'd have to find something there.
- We stay, we're kind of stuck paying higher prices in this area for housing.

Basically, we can have a better than average life with a shitty day to day in the big city or we can get TONS of property up north and lead a simpler life (yes, they have highspeed!).

How would you treat the situation if you were me? Save a shit load and then quit?

I'm working 10 hr days in a factory for what feels like for no reason, despite a good pay.

you ever done the small town thing?

The minute I am able to get highspeed internet in the woods, the simple life is calling my name.

I say GO FOR IT. I would.

Stay with your current better lifestyle and build up your business so you can afford it.

Never allow finances to force you into a lifestyle that you don't want. Your nickname indicates that you think you have an incredible work ethic. Get some balls and put it to work for yourself instead of the factory.

Nope, but the wife has family there, which may or may not be good. :)

Thanks man! I'm working on some mainstream venture that I'm thinking I can continue no problem if I did move up there. Maybe the deal is once I'm successful with that, then I should get the go ahead?

The thing is, I the mortgage price of the place that caught my eye was $79k. Similar property in my area is $300-325k.

I'm in a condo townhouse right now and it is worth $190k right now, downtown in a thriving city. I expect the price to go higher with it as well.

I'm totally down for it. In the next 5 years, the prices in that area will be the same. I'm wondering if I should just buy the property and make $300/month payments on it because that's fuck all damage to my bankroll. I could rent it out but I'm not really in the mood to deal with stuff like that as it's about 5 hours away from me.

Wonder if I should build an action plan and if I hit near or exceed my goals, I'll make the move?

by my limited understanding, there is no secrets, you will be 'new' for the next 2 decades, but it isn't really all that bad, as you're xaway from 'civilization', whereas i have poked around remote island communities.

mostly it's the bizarre shit that you'll miss.. going out for a burger, seeing a movie. that being said, there is a lot more weight put on 'community get togethers', whatever restaurants are in town etc.

if you have family there, you're already pretty well off in terms of assimilation.. id just be wary on the pension/not-a-small-town-person issues

have you done long-term vacations up there?

It all comes down to what you want. I personally don't like small cities, but I know that a lot of people do. If you want to move to this small city, do it. Find a way to make it work. If you want to stay where you are, do it. Find a way to make it work.

You can do anything that you want to once you decide that you are going to do it. The price of that house in another city doesn't matter if you don't want to be in that city. I can buy a house in Detroit for under $10k. There is no way in fuck I am moving to Detroit. :-)

I've had little weekends away there. I enjoy my time when I go but seriously my FT job just got good (like I have 7 weeks paid vacay, xmas and july off) and I did my visits to this small town more when I was brand new at my FT job (2 weeks vacay) - I was always trying to make something work online and never could enjoy myself. I spent basically 2008-2010 making chump change and getting on my feet and never enjoying anything.

Right now I'm enjoying myself but things are too easy here. All my goals, needs are met, which I'm grateful for but have slowly let my drive weaken.

It all seems to be coming together now. The FT job is sweet pay, but my soul literally is sucked dry working there. It's probably worse than working in a mall all day lol. I don't use my brain, I just build parts according to a standard. I have two clients I met through GFY that also bring me in a little extra every month.

I guess you only live once. I want to do it right and not be broken and sore all day. I also don't want to be completely poor and up north doing nothing lol. So it's all about the right combo of events leading up to this change.

An idea we were tossing around was to buy the place now, visit it during my weeks off to get an idea of what it's like to live there. Keep saving, keep building a business and eventually when that business works for me, I can move. Alternatively, I have 26 years until I can retire at my FT job with full pension (3500/month). Do you see my problem lol!?

I literally hit the jackpot as far as full time slave driven jobs are concerned but I don't want to just up and leave it because I think the grass is greener.

If I buy this place and spend about $300/month keeping it, I can always try and sell it if things don't work out and then keep my situation sound.

That might really be the best idea don't you think? It's all about seeing what kind of risk you are comfortable with. I would rather risk $300/month than my entire livelihood lol.

I agree with Detroit. No thanks.

This small town is close to a big city, it has good people, families, clean water, no manufacturing just mining, mill, etc north of the place.

It looks great and the people are nice.

the property value in the small town area is going to equal where you are now in 5 years?

I don't think so. I think the $79k price point will remain near the same value, maybe a tad higher.

Whereas in my city now, I'm worth 190 in a townhouse and expect to hit 230 in 5 years time. We have a 4-7% growth currently as per the mortgage sales history in my area. 7 years ago my townhouse was worth 130.

You only live once, but small town living is not for everyone. It's nice in the summer, but just wait until you're socked in with snow all around you. It can be very depressing, depending on the economic strength of the area. If everyone is out of work over the winter because of seasonal/resource work, it can be sad as the town empties/goes on welfare.

Now north is north... Barrie, Parry Sound, Petawawa, Thunder Bay, Red Lake? Depending on how far north you go will contribute to your isolation. I prefer small towns (perfect living situation would be 200+ acres and a house smack dab in the middle of it) but I wouldn't want to go north of Barrie. One consideration you may face is that while you may save on housing costs, it's also not likely that your home value will increase as much as what you currently own. Other trade offs would be internet speed.. even only being an hour NW of Toronto.. I'm on Satellite internet.

We moved from Northern Ontario (Sudbury, then Muskoka) after 15 years to downtown Toronto because life in the north was boring. I much prefer the excitement of the big city. But that's just me...

It's the North Bay area. I've used the net there and can get decent 4G cell and DSL internet (blah - not as good as the cable im on now :))

All this talk has left me a little more uncertain about what I should do but one thing that will never be a bad idea is to keep saving, keep sustaining and growing business.

Maybe I'll take a few more trips before getting serious.

But I'm like 15 mins away in Canada, come on move to Detroit, we'll hang out :thumbsup

Well, I think the wife and I are going to pull the trigger. We're going to look next week to see if any properties in the area look any good.

I plan on making it all work - using my vacation weeks down there, having a family member check on the place and slowly setting it up for when I decide enough is enough or retire.

all the best :)

go for it if it's north korea !
Keep up the good kim !

I don't see how this is a good thing?

Let me get this straight. Theres not enough cold and snow where you are so you move further north. Sounds like plan!

Not everybody sees is as such a bad thing, that could not be outweighed by some good things that he mentioned.

find home sellers who will hold a secong mtg if you pay the asking price. Then get a mortgage to cover the remaining %. That will allow you to get the income property for 100% financing (70% mortgage/30% owner financed second) and 5% cash down.

Then rent it. Once rented, the monthly payment comes off of your debt ratio and onto your income ratio. That means you regain your approval and can go buy another home (70% mortgage/30% owner financed second) for 5% down and repeat. You only need to get approved once to buy lots of houses.

When you have 3 or 4 houses, the monthly overage should help cover your existing housing expenses and free up capital for you.

Or, you can go to college and get a promotion so you do not feel like a slave in a factory.

Both will work.

:)

~Ray
www.hardlinks.org

It's not when I could be doing bigger business outside of my ft job.

But ya I'll be about 53 when I retire. Started young. I don't plan on being old and having fun I want to work hard and play hard now.