Rich in country or middle class in city?

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ptownhorn

1,000+ Posts
Hypothetical

In a large city, both you and your wife have 50k-70k jobs. You have two young children. You live the typical life of commutes, having two weeks vacation, only certain amounts of sick time. You are working for the man. When all is said and done, you and your family have the weekends to enjoy a city where there is tons to do in your free time.

Or. Your wife and yourself own a business together in the middle of nowhere. You have about a dozen employees and you make about $350k a year between the two of you. You have the perk of owning the business so you can come into the office when you want, take off to see little league games, and all the other perks of being the boss and owning your own business. However, this business is 2 1/2 hrs from a major city and at least an hour from a town with 20k. Say there is only 5k people in this little town.

Which life would you rather have?
 
Assuming the business is stable, and can run without me, I'd take that choice, and spend more time traveling. The extra income and presumably lower cost of living would make it possible. Then I could enjoy many cities. Plus if I'm rich and can make my own hours, I would just drive the 2 hours into the city if I really wanted to do something there.
 
I'd probably take the city. Main reason is risk: I can find a lot of $50K - $70K jobs in the city, but how many companies (in the middle of nowhere) are there where I can make $350K? If your business gets into trouble, not only do you have to do something else, so do a dozen other people. Probably aren't a lot of $50K jobs in a city of 5K.
 
I worked in Glen Rose for 6 years. The only reason to return is to see some old co-workers and to eat at Hammond's
 
Give me the city life any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I grew up in rural Nebraska and believe Suburbia is the best place to raise kids.
 
I have kids.

I want them to have real educational opportunities.

I want them to have a broad and diverse network of friends and acquaintences.

When they reach their teenage years, I want them to have something to do other than drink, fight, screw, or do meth.

There are no guarantees, but the odds are more in our favor in those regards in the city.

I love the country. I really do. I can be incredibly happy on a porch with a little bit of land to mess with. But while I have kids at home, no way. I surprised myself years ago with that conclusion, but have seen enough in rural counties to make your hair stand on end, and realized that the risks are too great, and there's no "safety net" -- if you hit the skids or fall in with the wrong crowd in the country, there's no secondary place to go.
 
what kind of business are you running that brings 350k in a small town? things to consider, 1. how long is it going to take to get that company up and running? if you're doing a start up, that's no easy living. 2. are these city jobs dead end? or is there room to grow? 3. can this business making 350k run on it's own or does it require you're hands on every day?

last, assuming cost of living in rural areas is much less, why do you need 350k to be considered rich? seems like you'd be fine making 100-175. i haven't looked into it, but i would assume housing prices are going to be lower than a 2 bd rm apt in a big city.
 
what's the point of being rich in the country? no one around to show it off to.
smile.gif
 
You're rich in the country. So what? What are you going to do with your money? Go to Dairy Queen every day?

Then again, your city option is only marginally better. That's what I do now and while it doesn't suck, I at least like being close to stuff. I also like the fact that when I go somewhere in town, I'm not surrounded by rubes.
 
take the big cash... live in the country and know you can always sell the business later if it's as good as billed. Find a person desperate to get out of the city to sell to for top dollar.

SAVE YOUR MONEY! So you have many options. I would probably take a good chunk of the money to get a startup going that I could move ANYWHERE should I want to moooooove at some point.
cow.gif
 
I would sell the dealership right off and invest it in magic swiss gold that triples in value in less than a year.
 
I pretty much live your second scenario without a wife and kids. I'm an hour from airports in McAllen and Corpus. Two and a half from SA. Thirty minutes from Baffin Bay (which is a big deal if you're a fisherman). I caught a 27 inch trout this morning and was still behind my desk by 9am. Fifteen minutes from my favorite deer blind and 5 minutes from my favorite dove field.

I'm over 40 now. I don't need the excitement of the big city.
 
Also, don't discount the downside of being the richest person in this small town. Small town folk can be some nosy ********.

Then again, in the 'burbs, my neighbors are driving BMW 3 seriers on their way to buy Affliction T-shirts and east at PF Chang's. I'm not sure which is better or worse.
 
If pain dont hurt then I imagine that being the rich guy in the small town could be dangerous.

You take being rich wherrever then you can visit wherever.

I happen to live in a small fishing village 10 miles outside a big *** metropolis - so it's 30 minutes from one to the other.
 
I grew up in exactly Scenario 2. Now I'm raising a family with exactly Scenario 1.

There are a ton of benefits to being rich in a small town. We had a golf club membership at the only small course in town. My dad had his own cart. Same with each of my grand-dads. My dad would play golf 2-3 times a week minimum. He would be playing by 2:00 whenever he felt like it since he owned his own business and had excellent workers. Everybody knew everybody, so there was always a game to be played with friends. Small town golf is greatness.

I could have easily picked up where he left off, but chose to live in the Austin suburbs instead. For me, the main deciding factor was church. I go to an excellent church in Cedar Park. The people are open minded and inclusive. Back in the small town, the options are EXTREMELY limited. All the denominations are constantly fighting and it takes all of the joy away. This one thing ruined the idea of small town life for me. I don't want my kids growing up in that environment.
 
I've lived in both. I'd take #2, but I'd rather it be a bit closer than 2.5 hours to the city.

Right now, we live the #2 life, and I don't agree with the earlier comment that there's nothing for teenagers but fighting, drinking, meth, etc. I've had this discussion with my kids when they claim that there's nothing to do. Most smaller towns have most of the teenage type things except malls. My kids have access to more activities than most of our friends' kids back in the city. By access, I mean access. Most of our friends limit what their kids do for logistical reasons.

Within roughly 5 minutes, my kids have their schools, gyms, swimming pool, beach, lake (fishing and boating), golf (and frolf) course, movie theater, skating rink, baseball/softball/soccer fields, shopping/dining (albeit somewhat limited), hunting, trap/shooting range, go cart track, putt-putt golf, library, parks, hike & bike trails, horseback riding, dance studios, etc. It took me almost that long to get out of our neighborhoods in the city. The main thing that limits what they can do is time, not distance.

The town I live in has a MSA closer to 20k (that's a joke), but it's 2-3 hours to any city of greater size. The one thing I will always miss is access to big sporting events like those we enjoyed being close to UT.

Bored kids without close supervision will find trouble anywhere.
 
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