The Grass Is Not Always Greener

The Wall Street Journal took an interesting look at the current migration and demographic problems the state of Vermont is dealing with. The state benefitted from something of a get me out of the city bid during Covid but that has started to reverse due some winding down of the WFH movement, high real estate prices and very high property taxes. If you think about those three reasons, you see they have more impact on younger people which contributes to the state skewing older. 

Forgetting every other moving part, the idea of moving to a less crowded area with a slower pace of life near some sort of natural beauty is going to appeal to a lot of people. That sentiment probably captures how my wife and I felt in our 20's as we set out on a path to that sort of outcome. 

The following comment resonated though in terms of behavior we've seen here in Walker as people have come and gone (this still happens, people move here and do not stay very long). 

This is nothing new. Most urbanites who move anywhere out to the country don't stay there, though they try to initially. Only a few will stay and put down true roots. The dumbest move of all, is those who take over a rural B&B and think it will be quaint and cool.

The idea of making a big change in life, like uprooting to a small town, is a pursuit of what is hopefully a better life or put another way going on the assumption that the grass is greener on the other side of the hill. Things will be better if....we get out of the city or I get that promotion or any others you can think of. 

It takes tremendous self-awareness to discern between running a way from a problem and making a well thought out lifestyle change that truly aligns with what you actually value. Unfortunately, I don't have any secret to share about how to get this right. Maybe the answer lies in taking more of an intermediate approach. 

I've told this story before, make fun if you want, but the catalyst for me going from city kid to semi-rural adult was the tv show Northern Exposure. It gave permission to live a different life than what 24 year old me envisioned. I visited Walker on my second date with my future wife in 1991 and realized it was the answer but we didn't land there full time until 2002. 

It took a while to get here and then a couple of more to find my career groove as an RIA but once I did, I knew that was exactly where I wanted to be. The odds of the grass getting greener were pretty low. There's been the occasional job offer along the way but the autonomy of setting your own schedule is worth a lot to me and anything that hinted of giving that up was non-negotiable. I did side gig at AdvisorShares and there were some schedule constraints related to meetings but I was working from home and while I don't know if they realized, it was very part time for me. 

The most important the grass isn't greener moment was of course saying no to being a partner at my old firm. The partners got in a lot of trouble later and I am 99% certain they are banned from practicing again. I didn't think they were capable of malfeasance or nonfeasance but it was clear we did not align on simplicity. I wanted a small practice and they were trying to build an empire. I still have my small practice and the "empire" has fallen. 

Put in a different context, saying no to them turned out to be preventing a problem I didn't even know I would have.

Looking around a corner or two to prevent or solve your own problems is pretty high on my priority list. The idea of waiting around for them to "fix it" is something I cannot do. Some of the scare headlines lately have focused on changes to the healthcare system that, as bad as things have been, will make it even worse. Will it actually be worse? I have no idea but the risk to us is that it does get worse, that access to healthcare gets more expensive, wait times get longer or any other negative outcome you can think of. 

The healthcare system has been an absolute mess for a long time, I certainly have no brilliant ideas about what to do and again, I don't now if it will get worse now but the risk is easy to identify. The risk is it does get worse. This is part of why I'm kind of a health nut, I've always exercised vigorously but have been learning more about the importance of diet for a long time too to minimize the odds of needing to rely on the healthcare system from some point of being desperately sick, needing care but not being able to get it. 

I think this general approach applies to many or maybe even all aspects of life. If you're 50, you should have at least a general sense of when you want to retire how much you might need (rough number is fine) and where you stand in relation to that number. Is there any sort of problem with your numbers adding up the way you need them to? If you've looked at your situation in this type of manner then you've looked around one corner, starting to figure out what you might do about it is looking around a second corner toward solving your own problem.