re: Return to small town Louisiana vs staying in the big city rat race

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Yes. We are moving back home to rural Louisiana after living in a city for 20 years.

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Shreveport don’t count baw

It’s hard to put a price on deep roots in a community. There is a lot of savings that come from having an established good ol’ boy network for different services, having friends and family members who can provide free or discounted babysitting, and not having to use vacation time just to spend holidays with family.

For most people, the barrier to staying in a rural community where they grew up and have these built up advantages is a lack of economic opportunity. If you can’t find a job, you can’t afford a home even if real estate prices are low. However, if you can’t find find a job, you can live a very high quality of life despite a lower salary.

In small town Louisiana, you will likely pay next to nothing in property taxes, your family will be close by, your childhood friends will be near, and property is dirt cheap. However, gasoline will be more expensive, options for dining or groceries will be limited, and there won’t be much in the way of nightlife beyond high school football, an annual church fair/food festival, and maybe one or two dive bars/honkeytonks.

As for kids, schools are a huge deal. Some public schools in Texas are great, some are not. Most public schools in small town Louisiana are bad, but not all. The cost of private schools should be factored in if necessary.

If you’re not looking for touring musicians, professional sports, and broadway shows, but just to have a beer with your oldest friends, then this isn’t really a minus. Some folks would much rather be hunting or fishing in their spare time than shopping at an upscale mall or eating international fusion cuisine.

I would do a cost/benefits analysis, compare the differences in pay/promotion potential of the two locations vs the costs of living and perks. I would analyze distance to retirement under each choice. If living in the city makes enough to retire early, that might be the play. However, the increased expenses in the city could actually delay retirement.

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That's your wife and her social group (you and your social group for sports), not the city/suburb. You can choose 20 hours a week of travel ball BS at Katy high school, or oversubscription to tutoring and academics at Seven Lakes trying to keep up with the Asians... or you can choose not to.

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Choosing travel ball over school is retarded and your kid deserves to be retarded if you do that

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In small town Louisiana, you will likely pay next to nothing in property taxes

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That's directly correlated to the amount of six figure jobs you're going to find in BFE Louisiana.

That's OK, there are regular threads in the money board about how to retire on cat food and plan your annual excursion to some shitty "big city" like Biloxi for vacation.

Very true