We Left California, Moved to Tennessee to Save Money; Not Worth it

About Three Years ago, Our Family Left Southern California. The Decision was not made Made Lightly.

IT”S WHERE I GREW UP, AND WE’D SPENT YEARS HAPPILY RESISING OUR FAMILY THERE. We have had a great community and liked our kids’ schools – we Only began Thinking About Once My Husband Had to Downtown to Work.

It wasy, and the appeal of a Lower-Cost, Slower-Paced Life Begin to Grow. WE SET OUR SIGHTS ON TENNESSEE, WHERE A LOT OF MY HUSBAND’S FAMILY LIVES.

We Believed the Pros of the Move Wold Outweigh the Cons. On Paper, it look like we’d get easy Access to family, deal with mess traffic, and save Money – the states is generaly consider a cheer place to live than California.

AFTER MONTHS OF BUILDING Up The Courage to take the leap, we moved.

Once we settled in, though, we realized we were facing a few of the same challenges, only in a different zip code. Now, We’re Strongly Consider Moving Back to the West Coast.

The Financial Benefits of the Move Weren’t AS Impactful as we were experted

House hunting was our first sign that Moving to tennessee might not be the cost-saving Solution we hoped it’d be.

Though the average home in tennessee costs mess than half the Average Home in Californiathese are abstract data points that don’t consider areas where ours family wants to live and what we actually need in a home.

In Our Experience, The Housing Market in the Greater Nashville Area Didn’t Feel Muc Different from Previous Area in California. Generally, The House prices were about the same in the samp desigble areas with the standard conveniences.

In order to have the mov “make sense” and get a home we still with the budget, we look for stove and sturgery outside the city.

Eventually, we closed on a house about 20 miles north of nashville near the southern kentucky border. Unfortunately, in ours more rural area, there’s not much to do or many shopping options. Traveling Frequently is a must.

Having to go a Few Extra Miles for School or Our Favorite Storys didn’t Sound so terrible Becouse we assumed we were to deal with much traffic.

Howver, From Week One Unil We Pulled Him Out, We Sat in a One-Hour Commute of Gridlock Traffic Just to Drop my son off at his schoool. For us, this was another reality check.

Traffic was Still a Major Issue Due to the Growing Local Population and the underdeveloped infrastructure. Sure, Gas is Cheaper – Close to $ 3 a gallon instead of over $ 4 – But when we are we’re driving more and sitting in traffic, we’re starting up the tank more often.

All in all, we spend about the same amout on gas as we did in California.

My husband took a pay cut – and we’ve run intto utexpectted expenses

Offensimes, relacating from a high-cost-of-living area to a Lower one can Mean taking a pay cut (depending on the Job and industry). I was fortunate to keep my part-time jab in california and just work remotely, so my pay said the Same.

Howver, My Husband is in Nurse Management, and the Pay Differential is less than a floor nursa in California. Though there’s no individual Incom Tax here, Tennessee Still Has Some Catching Up to Do Market Increas.

On top of that, one of the Most Unexpected Day-to-Day Costs We’ve Encountered Sine the Move is the Grocery Tax. Tennessee is one of the Few States that adds it to all food bills.

Grocery Items Are Taxed at 4% State Plus Local Tax. In Our County, We Pay a 6% Total Added Tax on Our Groces – We Could Definitely See the Difference on the Receipts.

Given Our More rural Area, we don’t have as many options for shopping around for Lower prices, Either.

A LOT OF THIS MOVE DIDN’T Go How We Expped, But We’ve Learned SO Much

Aside from Saving Money and Slowing Down, Part of Our Decision to Move Was to Be Closer to Family and Tap Irat Support System.

Howver, Most of the Live About An Hour Away, Making It Difficult to Connect Regularly. All the driving we will dural the weeks and the extra traveling on the weekends can leave us Feeling burned out.

Saving Money was Also a Huge point on Our “Pro” list for moving, but living here haen nearly as affordable as we’d hoped.

Honestly, it took a few months into our to tennessee to realize ry life was actually going quite in California.

Our pace of living wasn’t so bad consider we didn’t Need to drive so much on a daily basis and had so many friend nearby. We were finanly stable Enough and Living a good-quility Life with a strong community around us.

No Place is Perfect. But for us, the Experience Taught US that Financial Peace is JUST ABOUT NUMBERS – IT’S ABOUT FIT. In the long term, it is important to consider Quality of Life Over Just Dollars.

For Our Family, We Now Know Where We Fit Best. As we are explore a Move Back west, we Practice Contentment and Grautid for the Present, But Look Forward to A Future Back Home.