Optimal locations for traders to live

C

clearinghouse

I've been independent for a while, but I still live on the edge of a major city. I'd like to move further out into the sticks, but still want a city job market available to me if all my edges die. I am not single, so I'm still forced to stay near where the jobs and schools are.

Has anyone solved this problem in any systematic way? I have not had enough time to diversify into as many multiple edges as I would have liked, and am always under constant fear that I will not be able to develop new edges before the old ones die out. Typically, an edge for me lasts anywhere from 4 to 8 months.

So, for example, in the NYC area one idea would be to live at the very far end of the metro north train line. In Chicago, perhaps on the Wisconsin border. As an example, where is the ideal spot in either of those major cities to get the absolute lowest cost of living, but still switch over to being employed in case of edge death?
 
A lot of people work through that thought process and come up with similar conclusions. But, there may be a few constraints that can be loosened.

I also used to think it would be best to stay near top schools, and have since changed my mind. My kids go to some of the top schools in our city, but after my youngest one finishes at her private grade school in the spring - I am outta here. The city doesn't deliver on a cost-benefit basis - especially if you work from home.

What an education can confer is worth less and less by the month. My oldest kid goes to a really top high school - best in our state, and for a few states around it. She has band class and is currently torturing a musical instrument (that she will permanently set aside after this year), so that a music teacher can draw a salary. But this kid carries her laptop computer from room to room and barely comes up for air, *yet, she has not had a computer programming class in her high school*. And, unless your kid is going to Harvard, college is pretty much the same - your kids will know the names of the European capitols for a cost of a $100,000, while the next door kid is doing an internet start-up in his basement.

One exception - the socialization your kid gets hanging around with the other sharp kids is a good thing. But just hanging around with well-behaved kids is also "good enough".

So don't let schools be a big constraint.

And finally - "being near a big city". There are websites that allow people to work from home and do jobs on a piecemeal basis if your trading edge doesn't hold up. You income could go down 30%, but your cost of living could go down 40%.

In the future, big cities will be less necessary. You pay much higher taxes and costs (sometimes just to clean up the messes of the worst-acting 10% of the population).

The biggest question - what about healthcare costs? How are you currently insuring your family as a self-employed person? Throw in one or 2 pre-existing conditions, and you can't be self-employed at all.
 
For a discretionary trader I'd think the lowest cost of living in combination with the lowest latency/fastest speed internet connection is optimal.

So this would mean finding a small town with a decent cable or fiber broadband provider would be optimal. DSL or satellite can have higher latency.
 
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