{"id":107962,"date":"2011-11-07T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=107962"},"modified":"2019-10-30T23:53:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T06:53:57","slug":"the-economics-of-country-mouse-vs-city-mouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/the-economics-of-country-mouse-vs-city-mouse\/","title":{"rendered":"The economics of country mouse vs. city mouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I’ve lived in a small town for most of my life. The drive home includes steep hills with panoramic views and winding country roads that ramble past ranches and wide-open fields.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t always have positive feelings about the country life. In high school, I hated it. All of the action was in the city, where coffee shops, museums, restaurants, and concerts happened. When I moved to the city my freshman year of college, I thought that would be the end of country living \u2014 I was finally a city mouse.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, after seven years in the city, I did move back. It began as a purely financial decision, and one that, at the time, made me feel a twinge of anxiety. I remember that as my husband and I were packing up our apartment in town to get ready for the move, I had a mini meltdown, asking him, \u201cAre you sure you want to do this? Are you really<\/em> sure you want to do this?” (He probably thought I was nuts since the whole thing was my<\/em> idea, but he’s a wise man and kept that to himself, simply saying that yes, he was sure.)<\/p>\n

<\/span>The Move Becomes Permanent<\/span><\/h2>\n

We planned to save money for a down payment on a home, but none of the houses that we viewed were just right. Then one day we happened upon a beautiful lot that was for sale, and we started thinking about the possibilities of building a home. More excited about the prospect of building than we were about any of the homes we had toured, we bought the 4.5-acre lot and have now started the slow process of paying-with-cash home construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This bit of background is just to let you know that I don’t view country life as better than city life, or vice versa. Having lived in both places, I see advantages and disadvantages to each, especially when it comes to finances. (There are exceptions to every rule, but for the purposes of this article I’ll make a general comparison between living in a rural town of large ranches and 2-plus acre lots with living in a mid-sized city.)<\/p>\n

<\/span>Advantages of Being a Country Mouse<\/span><\/h2>\n

One of the biggest financial advantages of living in a small town is a lower cost of living. Housing is cheaper, and where I live, the closest parking meter is 40 minutes away. Using CNNMoney’s Cost of Living Calculator<\/a>, I compared the cost of living in Austin, Texas, population 790,390, with Seguin, Texas, population 25,175. The results were as follows:<\/p>\n

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