I often ponder where is the best place to live. Not that I don’t like where my family lives now, but you sometimes wonder what else is out there. When I was younger, for several years, I traveled around the United States. I traveled with two friends and we spent time living all across the Southwest: Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada where all places when I rested my head more than one night. On great thing about the southwest is the extremely low cost of living.

Where is the best place to live?

Of course, there comes a time when you need to settle down (mostly because you’ve run out of money with all the globe trotting around the country). So I did what most post grads do: buy a nice, professional suit, fine tune the resume and start going on non-stop interviews.

Now I’m much older and have children and a wife, and the possibility of simply up-rooting to a new region of the country seems very difficult – not impossible though. I’m convinced that if you want something bad enough, and have a passion, and persistency towards that defined goal you will achieve it. Finding the best place to live is something which I do want really bad. Our children are still very young, and they are at the ages where we wouldn’t be removing them from a school by relocating. I imagine, as they get older, a move would have an increasingly negative effect on our children. I can think back to when I was 12 or so. I can’t imagine being told one day from my parents that we’d be moving half-way across the country. I definitely think that being separated from my friends at that age would be somewhat traumatic.

You need to consider the cost of living

Some of my criteria for the best place to live would include a spacious natural environment. I’m not a fan of the city, so I would love to live in an area where ‘outdoors’ is a way of life. Hiking, fishing, skiing, biking; that’s my idea of outdoor life. Like every other person would also agree, the best place to live should have a very low crime rate, and a median household income in the middle to upper-middle income range. ( I am not rich, but don’t mind living around people who are). Using tools like a retirement calculator and evaluating teh cost of living were two exercises which helped me justify a move.

55 communities may be the best place to live for you

And having children makes the education system a major factor in determining the best place to live. My wife and I have been looking for school districts whose high schools boast at least a 98% graduation rate, with at least 90% of those graduates going onto a secondary education, whether it be a 4 year college, community collage, or a trade school.

For individuals who are older, considering assisted living facilities or 55 communities may be a smart move. For my wife and I, however, we have been doing our research with a retirement calculator, looking a the cost of living and we are starting to narrow down our choices. Hopefully in the near future, we will take the leap of faith, and move the family to our own ‘best place to live’.