When people see rural areas, they think "lower cost of living." They have no idea what transportation costs and the lack of Economies of Scale can do to prices. And you gotta drive 10x as far to get anywhere.
My hubby gets his on line. If you have your prescription and someone to measure the distance between the center of your pupils, you can get a pair of bi-focals for $35.
The secret to wealth is to make more than you spend or spend less than you make. If $2000 in car payments makes you cringe, sell your cars, buy a crap car and just use if for transportation, not to impress people. I lived in a basement apt in Milwaukee where mud flushed into the bathroom when it rained (in my youth). Saved up enough money to buy a small house. Still say they should teach Dave Ramsey in school. Those people struggling with 6 figure salaries don't have to. They just won't take it down to the foundation.
I was just telling a neighbor that I was pushing 40 before I had a car payment. I'd pay cash (one car cost me $1,000 and the rest were under $600), drive them for a few years, then sell them when a better clunker came along. No payment, lower insurance, minimal property tax.
I thought the housing market was going to crash. We get all sorts of people wanting to buy the farm but now my daughter wants to stay and have it be her inheritance. But today I got a post card wanting to buy hubby's house. One of those companies that say they want to buy for cash no matter the condition. They have an offer on the card that is about $75,000 more than it is worth, IMO. I would sell it for that. But hubby is hemming and hawing. Blackrock must still be in business. But, why? If the end of the world is coming, who wants to have all the houses. Although, the dollar may be worthless. A house is still worth a house, I guess.
That, I think, is the strategy. As dollars inflate, hard goods, commodities and real estate will still maintain their value or perhaps gain value. That is why the Chinese and Bill Gates and his ilk are buying property. They feel there is no place they can safely put their huge fortunes. The U.S. bond market was once that place, but if you have followed recent auctions and OTC sales of U.S. bonds, you will see the value is declining and the demand dropping. A switch to digital currency will essentially be the Great Reset, when cash resources will be greatly devalued. It has happened in other countries, but never to one so deeply in debt, so large, and who held the global reserve currency. We have a military to impose our will on others, but, according to one source, our artillery shells cost over $6000 a piece to manufacture, while Russia can make them for under $1000 a piece (equivalent value). Nobody else has to cover the globe militarily. Anyway, the offer on the house is not for the current value but for the value in two or three year's time.
Luckily, due to my wife's current salary (plus her full monthly SS), and that the company she works for keeps extending each month, she was able to save enough to pay cash (cashiers check) for our 2021 Durango. It dwindled down our savings, but now we have a very reliable vehicle that is full of "goodies" (computer sensor stuff). So far, we love the 2021 and it gets great gas milage! There are times we will share a meal at a restaurant or have enough leftovers to take home and eat the next day. I try to cook supper at home during the week (Monday thru Thursday), but there are times I just don't feel like cooking.
We’re in Maryland and yeah, too much. We’ll be here until mid-Dec., then we’re gone. Downsizing, simplifying after 30 years in this house.
We also paid cash for our new F150, but we just wrote a personal check to the dealer... no "cashier's check" required.
The Hannaford supermarket in Bangor, 50-60 miles away, has better prices than the Hannaford supermarket in Millinocket. Not only does the Irving Oil gas station in Bangor have much lower prices than the Irving Oil station in Millinocket, but Bangor has several less expensive options, such as Sam's Club or BJ's. Heating oil is more expensive here than in Bangor. Pretty much all the way down the line, things are more expensive in small towns because stuff has to be transported there, and there isn't as large of a target market. In part because of this and the fact that there are no jobs here, housing prices are a whole lot cheaper here though.
My brother lived for several years in Maui. He said there is almost nothing produced locally, everything comes in by air or sea.
Welllllll, I don't have a computerized truck. So I just dug my '96 Dodge 1500 out of the barn. The gas intake was leaking last time I filled up; not the gas line but the pipe from the place you put gas in, to the gas tank. I looked underneath and low and behold, the pipe was rusted somewhere. I have a good service garage to take vehicles to here but I'm not one to rush in to anything and the gas didn't leak with the truck just sitting. I called last week and asked if I could bring it in before winter and they could not take it till yesterday. They are always busy. As I've said, it has the original tires on it. (along with most everything else except it has a plastic gas tank from where hubby slid down our worst hill and got hung up on a fencepost that held up a neighbor's mailbox, puncturing the original tank one icey winter) To make a long story longer, it has Trump gas in it. I got non ethanol gas for $2.37 a gallon at the end of Trump's stay. Filled up all 20 gallons and added stabilizer. A couple of years ago, I thought I should siphon it out as it was getting old. But could not get a tube in. I went to start 'er up, now, and the gas smelled fine. I pulled her out and all of a sudden such a smell as I have seldom smelled was coming from the exhaust. I believe the muffler was now a mouse condo. I quickly rolled up the window. No smell in the cab which is surprising as my mice generally take up residence in the cab air filters. But I left the truck run a while to cook out some of the smell before taking it to the barnhouse to hook it up to a charger. I had brushed a 1/2 inch or so coating of dust off the windshield so I would not hit my chicken tractor or any other vehicle on the way out but I still felt the need to wash the windows and maybe hose the old girl off a bit for safety and vanity sake. When I got to town, I asked it they could also replace the windshield wiper blade as they were basically just strips of rubber flopping around and have been for quite a while. I didn't drive it in the rain. Too many leaks. He also recommended I get new tires as he did not feel safe with me driving on these. I just did! What a rip off. Oh OK, I guess a truck should have new tires every 25 years or so.