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Finding the Good Life: Choosing Where to Live for Top Quality of Life

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Do you dislike where you live, or think that it’s just okay but other places are probably nicer? While there are sayings that suggest you can make the best of wherever you are, such as the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, the fact is that you can have a better quality of life in some places than you can in others.

Once you allow yourself to think about the possibility of finding that perfect place, you may feel overwhelmed with all the choices. The tips below can help you narrow down and choose the right place for you.

Know Your Criteria

What lifestyle elements are important to you? You need to get a firm handle on this because it can be easy to get so caught up in other people’s enthusiasm about a place that you lose track of the fact that you like snow better than beaches or that you hate big cities.

Knowing your criteria will make moving easier when the time comes because you will be extra prepared and researched. Your first step should be to make a list of the criteria that matters to you and then think about how important each item is. Which ones can you compromise on and which ones are deal-breakers?

Think About Cost

Whether or not you had cost on your list of criteria, this deserves its own discussion because it’s so vital. Money isn’t everything, but not having enough money to live in a safe neighborhood and take care of your basic needs can be miserable. The range in cost of living is so widespread throughout the United States that you need to make sure you have a good sense of how things compare with where you’re living presently. There are calculators online that can give you cost-of-living estimates for most places throughout the country.

Let Yourself Dream

We’ll get down to the nitty-gritty below, but before we do that, it’s also important to let yourself dream about your new destination. What do you imagine yourself doing? Maybe you’re thinking about buying a house on the beach and fixing it up or living in a little ski community. What would be your ideal?

Whether you’re thinking about drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire on yet another snowy day in Colorado or looking into home elevators in Florida, this can help you really narrow down your priorities.

Don’t get too bogged down in what is possible yet. A home elevator idea may sound far-fetched, but this is actually a reasonably affordable alteration that you can make to most homes. It’s even practical if you want to increase the property’s value or you hope to retire there.

Be Realistic

It’s important to understand that you can improve your quality of life by moving somewhere new, but you can’t fundamentally change yourself. That’s not to say that you can’t change, only that you will be disappointed if you think going to a new place is all it takes. To avoid disappointment, move to your new place understanding that it is not a cure-all but one step toward making your life better in general.