They say home is where the heart is. Well, it's also where the wallet is, and it plays a large role in determining your cost of living. Where you choose to call home can affect your expenses, salary, lifestyle, and energy consumption.Thankfully, we have some choice in determining this very important factor of life, and making the decision hinges on our personal values. What is important to you, and what are you willing to do without?
Small Towns
Small towns are known as places to live the simple life. Less traffic. Less noise. They offer many advantages in comparison to larger cities, but they also have their own particular drawbacks. For example, prices are generally lower, but job availability and salaries are lower as well.
I grew up in a small town, and remember the complaints that my friends would voice. "There's nothing to do here," and "it's boring." In some ways, that was true. Our town couldn't support the amount or types of entertainment that bigger cities could. We had to drive half an hour or so, to the next city, to find much of that.
Medium Cities
Now that I live in that next city, things aren't much different. Even though I live much closer (distance-wise), it's not surprising to drive half an hour across town to attend an event or eat at a restaurant. The distance is much less, but traffic equalizes the travel time.
That being said, I enjoy the opportunities that my new home provides. For me, it seems a good mix of rural and urban. Costs are similar to my small town home, but jobs and entertainment opportunities are more bountiful.
In some ways, I do pay for the privilege of living here, by enduring things that are foreign to a small town. As I mentioned, traffic can be a pain. The nearness of stores and entertainment can also put some strain on a wallet. Where such shopping was a special trip in my childhood, now it's run-of-the-mill, and those purchases can quickly add up.
Big Cities
Of course, metropolitan areas can offer even more. Cities are actually one of the most efficient living arrangements humans have known. As people congregate closer, their domestic needs are easier to fulfill. Rather than the garbage truck driving for miles to pick up each individual home's trash, a single dumpster can hold everything for the same number of people living in one building. Increases in population density increase the ease of services.
As a result, the opportunities scale up as people live closer together. Job availability and salaries get better, because there are more employers from which to choose. This increased money also brings in more opportunities to spend it, whether in sports, entertainment, or food. Big cities have it all.
This obviously comes at some cost. Rents and property prices shoot up. Traffic becomes something for which you must plan, and cars are expensive and unwieldy to own. Big cities have a lot to get used to, and like the others, engender their own kind of mindset.
So which one wins? That's up to you. The priority of one of these three categories do indeed rely on your own likes and dislikes. There are pros and cons for each. Your individual values shape your preference.
But it is a question about which you should think. Are you living in the place most conducive to your personal happiness? Would you find life easier or better in one of the others? The answer is difficult to find if you have no experience of each, but truth often is.
It's easy to take for granted, but giving conscious thought to these ideas can make a world of difference. People are greatly influenced of their environments, and where one can flourish, others may suffer. It's important to make certain that you are where you should be. After all, where else is success supposed to find you?
