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The Tell Coach Rich Where He Should Live Thread

So...

I've been thinking that there's really nothing keeping me in LA. I have a manageable mortgage on a house I'm kinda meh about (needs work), on a street I don't like, but in an incredible training area. Local rents would cover my mortgage and a bit extra for a property management company to handle it for me. 

I can't help but think that I could move somewhere, rent a smaller place, and give myself about a $20k/yr raise in the form of reduced cost of living, etc. Then I'd probably apply that savings to doing a lot of traveling, keeping my home footprint low and simple to facilitate an active, go anywhere lifestyle. Basically, Mariah is my hero .

And of course I'm looking for a significant quality of life upgrade. Boxes that need to be checked:

  • Good weather. I want to be able to ride outside pretty much year round and will go as low as the high 30's, low 40's. I don't do stupid cold or stupid hot
  • Good cycling and tri community so I can meet new people in my existing tribes.
  • Convenient access to good off road motorcycling. Mountains, deserts, forests, etc. 
  • Able to rent a 2/1 apartment, condo or townhouse for ~$1500-2k/mo. Need to have a garage too. 
  • Need to have access to good dining and "sophisticated" type stuff. I'm in kinda a weird place where I dig getting all Grizzly Adams, off the grid, etc, but I also REALLY like an urban vibe where I can swing a cat and hit any type of food, etc that I want. 

Anyway, that's the quick list. Any ideas?

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Comments

  • Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!

    FYI - Your needs list just described "Southern California".  Congrats!  You are home....

    I would avoid these:

    After analyzing the biggest 250 cities in the country, here is our list of the worst cities to live in America:


    1. Macon, Georgia
    2. Jackson, Mississippi
    3. Detroit, Michigan
    4. Knoxville, Tennessee
    5. Chattanooga, Tennessee
    6. Rockford, Illinois
    7. Savannah, Georgia
    8. Memphis, Tennessee
    9. Mobile, Alabama
    10. Springfield, Missouri
  • Dino nailed it. Based on your climate guidelines along you are pretty much limited to SoCal.

    Another thought...why don't you do the snowbird thing. Rent a place from Oct-Mar in Phoenix then in the summer rent a place in Denver.

  • Posted By Jeremy Behler on 19 Feb 2016 12:32 PM


    why don't you do the snowbird thing. Rent a place from Oct-Mar in Phoenix then in the summer rent a place in Denver.

    My grandparents did this sort of thing with Phoenix and NorCal.  They also loved to eat dinner at the "Cracker Barrel" at 3:30 PM.

  • I used to like you Dino. Now I just think you are a D!CK
  • Florida is out - stupid hot! If I didn't have constraints, my wife and I would consider moving to Boise, Idaho. That fits a lot of your requirements. Other possibilities for you might include Bend, Oregon and Asheville, NC. LA is a nice place to visit, but there are too many people, too many cars, and way too many taxes for my taste.

  • Posted By Jeremy Behler on 19 Feb 2016 01:14 PM


    I used to like you Dino. Now I just think you are a D!CK

    Not trying to poke holes in your plan.  I loved my grandparents!  They were good people.  Salt of the earth.

  • It's going to be a fun challenge for you to find a spot that checks all your boxes. Assuming that Dubai is not an option for you (massive assumption I know) and considering somewhere outside of Southern CA... I feel some of these places might be worth a look:

    (not including costs in the following as I cannot weigh in with any certainty on cost of living)
    - St. George Utah
    I know you enjoy the area from your motorcycle days. Year round training, good athletic community, plenty of outdoor/motorcycle ops would be a plus for you; however, small town atmosphere will fall short of your "sophistication" vibe.

    - Nashville, TN
    It's close to the smokey montains = great outdoors and motorcycle options. Fairly moderate weather will allow you to train outdoors almost all year round. I know a few people in Nashville and they love it. It's central location might be a nice appeal as well. Has a nice mix of outdoors and sophisticated options.

    - Willmington, NC
    I know there a Willmington, NC contingency in the haus so I will let them speak for this great area!

  • Sounds like you want to live in my neighborhood.



    Good weather. I want to be able to ride outside pretty much year round and will go as low as the high 30's, low 40's. I don't do stupid cold or stupid hot-- Avg winter temp is 43 and Avg summer temp is upper 70's. I run outside year round, bike not so much.

    Good cycling and tri community so I can meet new people in my existing tribes. --Lots of great tri clubs in the area, miles and miles of bike trails. Some worldclass tri and bike shops.

    Convenient access to good off road motorcycling. Mountains, deserts, forests, etc. -- 30 minutes to the mountains, 2 hours to the ocean, I live in the forest, 2 hours to the desert. Killer moto riding in all three locals.

    Able to rent a 2/1 apartment, condo or townhouse for ~$1500-2k/mo. Need to have a garage too. -- Rent is cheap.

    Need to have access to good dining and "sophisticated" type stuff. I'm in kinda a weird place where I dig getting all Grizzly Adams, off the grid, etc, but I also REALLY like an urban vibe where I can swing a cat and hit any type of food, etc that I want. -- Urban opportunities abound within a 15 minute drive or 45 minutes if you want worldclass Seattle vibe.
  • I agree with Steve. Come join us in the Pacific Northwet - err Northwest! It's never too hot or too cold, the mountains and sound are both within an hour drive from most locations, and the inland desert is just a couple hours away to the east. In addition, there is plenty of opportunity to train in the rain!

  • If it aint broke dont fix it..... What are you going to give up to save $20k a year?.... Yep thats a lot of cash but we get what we pay for.... You live in Nirvana with 2 downsides in my opinion.... Cost of living which you mentioned and traffic... However if I currently lived there and could afford it , I'd be hard pressed to go anywhere else... Time and quality of that time , is the most valuable thing on this planet !

    Of course my choice is Tucson ! It aint perfect but checks most of your boxes no problem. Sure Phoenix has nicer roads, better sophisticated stuff, but now were getting into that cost of living / traffic thing!
  • guess your not coming to Canada
  • So I've lived in Southern California, Washington State, and Colorado. I also have a weather bias: nowhere East of the Rockies, due to unconscionable humidity.

    Knowing what I know now, I'd pick from among Boulder, Tucson, Seattle, Santa Monica Bay (Palisades to PaloVerde), or North County San Diego. Bay Area: you ain't gonna save any money. Portland: you're no hipster. Phoenix - too big, too spread out, there's no there there. Boise, Salt Lake: too cold, snowy in the winter. 

    I was just in Denver, passing thru on my way home, last week. It was 64F and sunny. A touch of cold in the winter to kill the mosquitos is all, otherwise, you could handle Boulder. Tucson may not be big or cosmopolitan enough for you (sorry, Tim). Seattle, despite being able to ride and run outside year round, gets kinda dark and dreary Nov-mid Feb - that's why I leave for CO in the winter. LA coastal towns...your life would be too spread out and the infrastructure is getting ratty.

    There's a reason the tri-tribes settle in North County and Boulder. Join them. Boulder wins for you, as you need to travel via plane enough to make DIA nearby a big asset. Currently, Denver and Seattle seem to be the hottest growth spots in the country; buy in while you can.

    Having ridden GMR and such, there's really no comparison to riding in the Rockies - same heights, but the scenery is just not comparable. You want desert - try Eastern Utah any time of year. Seriously, man, you're the co-boss of the leading long-distance triathlon team and coaching service in the world. You gotta be in the triathlon nerve center. Take the leap.

  • NorCal around SF East bay/Walnut Creek should work well for what your asking. May be pushing on the higher side on rent though.
  • My vote is Bend, OR. Beautiful local. Great tri vibe. John Stark can tell you about that. Easy access to any where. Elbow room and a cheaper cost of living than Denver but with similiar benefits. Great beer too. 

    Good luck on your quest.

  • Thanks for the tips. Quick notes:

    • Traffic: not an issue for me in SoCal, as I never really "have to" drive anywhere. 
    • Like Al said, I'll never live east of Denver. I lived in the Southeast until '95. Never going back, sorry, except to visit my sis in ATL. 
    • I've thought about OR, due to cost of living and no state income tax. Bend and Portland are both on my list, need to visit both. 
    • Boulder...I dunno. Personally, I feel like the anti-tri coach, in that I can't really imagine a worse thing than being surrounded by triathletes and tri coaches all the time. I like the gig I have now, which is to show up to the odd tri club ride and while people know who I am, I'm not surrounded by "it" and them 24/7. In other words, a high density of type A, potential DB triathletes and coaches doesn't appeal to me, at all. 
    • But...I do love CO and the mountains.
    • Tim has some very good points regarding my current situation. 
    • Phoenix and Tucson are out also. I really, really don't like how those areas don't really cool off at night in the summer like SoCal does. 

    Maybe I'll knock about all summer in the van and explore stuff 

  • You should move in with Patrick! I hear he is remodeling right now. The timing is perfect!
  • A note on Portland. I left Portland for a reason. For one thing. It has the highest antidepressant use in the nation!  Canby, ORegon is beautiful and only 30 minutes from clothing option hot springs. 

    Portland is rainy, dark. Bend averages 300+ of sunshine. 

  • I hear all the cool kids are moving to Calgary, because more winter is more better. Ok fine, that is just me. In Anaheim right now for a conference- running in shorts and a t-shirt in February is awesome. I'm jealous of SoCal people, but then again I saw your traffic and I don't like it. When I lived in Bakersfield for a couple months (obviously not recommended) I spent some time with family friends in San Luis Obispo- that seemed like an awesome place to live.
  • @J: thanks for the notes on Portland. I need to check out Bend
    @R: SLO is a bit too small town for me. It's also a bit of a haul to quality dirt bike riding due to some hard to explain legal riding restrictions in CA, private vs NF vs BLM land, etc. Tough to beat the deserts north of LA or the mountains anywhere else. SLO makes it tough to get to either...I think.
  • Rich - no need to make a decision now. Once your 'summer-travel' season starts up, be a "Traveling Tri-Coach". Take that van of yours and go to a few different places....live there for a few weeks to a month in an Extended Stay Hotel, and then move to the next....lather/rinse/repeat. After visiting all your candidates and a few of the more unlikely places, you'll probably have your answer.

    That is what my aunt and uncle did after a 31+ year Navy career. They bought a motorhome and travelled around the US for a couple of years. Eventually they ended up in Gulf Shores, AL. And that was *not* on their original list of possibilities.

    But, if I have to give a recommendation --- join us in CO. We're moving to Colorado Springs in June. If we didn't have to worry about schools for the kids, we would probably end up somewhere between C-Springs and Denver. Not too close, not too far.
  • You already live in a nice area (from my north Canadian perspective), I always wondered why people would leave SoCal! hah

  • Posted By Francis Picard on 20 Feb 2016 08:44 AM


    You already live in a nice area (from my north Canadian perspective), I always wondered why people would leave SoCal! hah

    If I had kids, I might be concerned about the state of education, etc, but I don't have much knowledge of all of that. If had to drive to work, I'd be concerned about traffic and the state of the roads...but I don't. In general, my life in SoCal is pretty atypical from everyone else and I have it pretty good. 

    For me, the bigger issues are the cost of housing. If you saw my house and I told you what the market says it's worth...you'd absolutely flip. When I look at home prices in nearly every other area of the country my first reaction is "wow, they're practically giving it away!!" But my house needs a good bit of work to make it a nicer place to live, for me, but...I fundamentally don't have an emotional investment in where I live. It's a place to sleep and keep my stuff. I'm much more into focusing myself on doing and going places vs where I live, so intuitively it makes sense to explore other location and/or downsize my living space by moving into a clean, efficient studio apartment and doing the minimum work on this house to make it suitable as a rental at market rates.

  • Come stay with me in Nor Cal to check it out. As Amulya says above, this area is pretty good for everything on your list except cost of living. Once you get here, cost of living drops to the bottom of the pile as an issue because everything else is pretty awesome; great weather, big city / middle of nowhere are 30 minutes apart. Lots of outdoor stuff year round. I'm not that sophisticated, but I've heard there are lots of people that are image
  • Rich, couple notes about Bend. I'm headed there this afternoon to look for housing for my son who will be starting a job in 2 weeks. Renting a 2 bedroom will cost you 1000-1500/month but it is a tight market right now. Winter low temps can be in the 20's or cooler however the cascades keep a lot of the northwest precipitation at bay. There is state income tax in Oregon, no sales tax. Good TRI community and lots of outdoor activities.
  • My ideal would be snow-birding like a few others have said. But I also agree with others about your capabilities now...try out any area you're thinking of, and decide after you've done that!
  • I know you already said  Phoenix is out as it doesn't cool off in the summer evenings.  But, I have to tell you, that's the only time i can hang out in my pool-with misters on the patio and the pool a perfect temperature, i spend a lot of time on my patio in the july and august evenings.  It does make running in those months a chore though.  

  • @Dino, now you are really being over the top! Unless there's mainlined Aloe Gloe in every bathroom courtesy of Snoop Dogg, RI might not be big enough for RnP. Hell, what would we do if we were in the same time zone and shared more than 2 hours of overlapping work time a day? image
  • Buy an RV and live everywhere. image That's kind of our retirement plan. Live at the Villages in FL ~ 6 months, then travel the rest of the year.
  • @ Kim - great suggestion, but 6 months is a little too long in Florida if you have the option. I would recommend Dec-Mar at Clermont and then get out of Dodge!
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