People are always talking about moving after 5 years. Are people really doing this, or do they think they WANT to, but never really do it?

I can understand a young family, a military family or maybe a single person with big hopes for the future, but honestly, in my experiences, people are habits of creature, and once they get settled, that's pretty much it.

I'm just curious about others' experiences. How often have you moved?

The same thing goes for traveling. They say, "I want to travel the world. I want to go to North Dakota." The people I come across on a regular basis never do any of the things they want because something is always stopping them from actually getting off their duffs and doing it.

Well, for me, I've done both of those things. Moved to NC in 2005, bought a house in 2006 (in hindsight not the best decision ever ), moved to England in 2010. I'm hoping to sell the house in 2012.

In 5 years? Who knows. I'm liking London, so I may still be here, but I may decide to try another country in Europe, or move back to the US.

I never got really "settled" in NC, though. It was fine, but wasn't "special" or "home" to me.

We moved quite a bit in the early 90s because hubby was military. We've been in our current city since 1996. Bought a house in 1998 then moved to a new house in 2010. We'll stay in this house until the kids are gone (youngest is almost 13) or we're ready for early retirement and want to downsize. At that point I think we'll still stay in our current city, but who knows.

I have not moved since college and likely won't except for a half-time residence after retiring.

I have traveled the world, at least part of it. But I have never been to North Dakota.

While in college, I moved every year. In law school, I stayed in the same apartment for the whole 3 years.

After law school, I bought a house in the area I was working. About a year later, I was extremely unsatisfied with the firm I was with, found a new firm too far away to commute (still there, so that is good) and moved to a little apartment and put the house on the market.

About a year after that, I got married, and moved in with her temporarily. She lived near her work which was about an 80 minute drive from me. We both like the places we work, so changing jobs wasn't something either of us wanted. I made the commute for a few months, while we looked for a new home somewhere in between.... found one, and don't plan on leaving it for many many years.

I have only moved when I felt "forced" to in some way. I put forced in quotes because only once, maybe twice have I been literally in a situation where I was not given the option to renew my lease. However I have felt strongly encouraged, by life changes or other semi-external forces, to move every 1-3.5 years. The longest I have lived someplace since I was a kid is our current rental, where my wife and I have lived for 4 years now. But the writing is on the wall - we managed to barely squeeze our child into the apartment. If and when we have her future sibling, we'll be "forced" to move yet again.

My mother has moved into "the last house [she'll] ever live in" two or three times now.

Maybe this is taking us on a tangent...maybe not...

I have always viewed moving as a major added expense that can be avoided. I moved at least once a year in college and lived in at least 9 places in 5 years.

I don't really see anything wrong with moving, but when you add up the expense - movers or renting a truck and doing it yourself, startup fees for utilties, real estate commissions or various other fees and expenses if you rent, it really adds up and gets expensive!

Not to mention the emotional toll!

I think the expenses DH mentions are often overlooked when planning a move.

Realtor's commissions, transfer taxes, movers, etc. really can take a toll.

When I sold a house do to a job change (mentioned above), I sold the property for a few thousand more than I bought it, but the commission alone ate up all of that gain and turned it into a net loss for me.

Edit: left out a word in bold

for us, major relocations have always been career or training related. now that we both have decent jobs and live in a place we rather like, we're thinking it might be nice to stay for a while. those big moves do add up in expense.

we made a LOT of small moves along the way too- the great thing about renting is that you stay for a year and if something better comes up for the price, you can grab it! we found really nice places that way. i loved our last tiny little apartment from my grad school days.

i'm so guilty of the wishful thinking on travel, but time away and finances (which aren't as bad now) always get in my way. my career is so demanding. the vast majority of my travel is going back to my home state to see family.

I have moved so many times in my life, I can't even keep track anymore. But I have never owned a house... so usually it wasn't a BIG expense (although there were definitely expenses). My husband and I are getting ready to buy our first house now (we are 30) and it is kind of frightening to me to have tie-downs o.O

My parents moved around the country when I was young. I went to 9 different schools by the time I was 11 years old. But they settled after that. I went to 4 different colleges/universities in 5 years (including one in Finland for a year). We (my husband and I) have lived in Japan for two years (where I moved once midway through my time). We lived in NZ for half a year (but we lived in a van so our stuff moved with us). Since being back to the states, we have moved 3 times, there is about to be a 4th x_X

We have never paid for movers, but having stuff shipped overseas can pile up (we spent about $300 to ship our belongings from Japan). Moving trucks for us have always been relatively cheap since we always live in small apartments with little furnishings. In Japan we interviewed a moving compny and it was INSANE how much they wanted, around $3000 if I remember correctly. We had to stop ourselves from laughing before they left.

We plan on moving in 5 years or so because we want out children to have their formative years in a French-speaking environment (hubby is french-speaker). After that, we will probably move back state side (cheaper cost of living). But we'll see how those plans actually work out!!