
Ask HN: Are you a remote worker that escaped to the countryside? - keiferski
The civilizational trend seems to be more centralization. I&#x27;m curious if anyone has gone in the opposite direction. It seems that rural areas will become more and more of an opportunity for those able to capitalize on them.<p>Rather than a small apartment in a megacity, live in a restored farmhouse in the countryside. Theoretically, anyone with a remote job can work anywhere - so why not? Especially as a tech salary goes infinitely further in rural areas than it does in downtown SF&#x2F;NYC&#x2F;London&#x2F;etc.
======
dougk16
I've done it, doing it. Not extreme countryside but bears, coyotes, turkeys,
deer, etc. roaming through the yard everyday. Garden, few acres owned,
hundreds of acres of woods around.

Major thing I'd note which bit us more than we expected: a typical "farmhouse
in the countryside" is roughly equal to another full-time job when you add up
all the time and money you have to put in. So if you have an SO, then another
half-time job each. I'm comparing this to renting an apartment or condo or
even a cookie cutter in the suburbs, of which we've done each also. And I'm
not talking about the cost/time to install that deck of your dreams. I'm
talking about your water pump breaking in a heat wave, your heat dying during
a snowstorm, your basement flooding in torrential rain, the slow decay of
exterior woodwork begging to be replaced, etc. The plumbing in general...my
god the plumbing. We've been in the house for over two years working our butts
off and haven't made any real forward progress yet, just battling entropy.

Anyway not to doom and gloom, just wanted to drive that point home. I highly
suggest it regardless. We're much saner and a little more financially ahead
compared to living in a city, but we're not exactly sipping mimosas watching
the sunset every day. The house will be much more demanding than you think, so
just something to put _in bold_ on the balance sheet.

~~~
ptero
This is an excellent point and agrees with my experience and which is why I
like my condo with extensive green walkways, pool, tennis courts and the
exorbitant fee that pays for a management company to take care of all of this.

I think countryside living would be attractive to a lot of people (it would to
me) if I could get a "limited maintenance" setup. Either something that takes
<30min / day to do myself or something that I can outsource relatively
cheaply.

I wonder if technology could help. Current setup for most houses in the
country needs a hacker: someone who is comfortable tinkering with everything
from plumbing to roofing (or at least can competently assess those). Could a
low maintenance setup be bought / developed, even if its sticker price is
higher? Basically, instead of an old custom truck I am looking for a Toyota
Corolla: expected trouble-free operation for a long time with basic
maintenance. If the answer is yes there may be a significant number of buyers.

~~~
MattRogish
I agree. We moved from NYC to suburban Philadelphia (walk score of almost
zero). We both work from home, which is great. But the house has been one
project after another, and although there are ebbs and flows, there's likely
always something going on. We're financially better off (our house is like 1/3
the price of our small 2 bdr rent in LIC) but the never-ending trickle of work
is mentally taxing.

We needed to replace our washing machine when we bought the house, so I did
the research and got the best front-loader we could afford. Turns out, due to
$reasons, it vibrates throughout the whole house (it's on the second floor)
and although it's working fine, every time we do the laundry we shudder at the
annoyance. Now, we eventually will have to settle for a lower-performing top
loader but I'm still not 100% certain that it won't cause the same problem, so
we feel stuck. Keep the good, but frustrating, washer, or take a risk that
another almost thousand dollar washer will have the same problem. Outsourcing
these decisions and annoyances to a landlord is appealing.

Fighting entropy is a great way to put it - we had things come up that
resulted in our inability to tend to the garden, and in a month, it's
overwhelmed with weeds. That's my weekend project. Could we pay someone to
clear it? Sorta. Service providers don't like (for obvious reasons) small
projects, so nobody will return our calls when we say "It's like 2-3 hours of
weeding". Could we find someone (say, a college student or something?) to do
it? Probably, but it'd be almost more work to find and vet someone to do the
work than it is to just do it ourselves. And, there goes a weekend. A weekend
that, if we were still in the City, would be spent doing anything else.

I wouldn't trade it for almost anything, but it's not clearly the best
solution for everyone. I would totally pay the equivalent of a "condo fee" for
someone to manage all this nonsense.

~~~
barrkel
_Turns out, due to $reasons, it vibrates throughout the whole house (it 's on
the second floor) and although it's working fine, every time we do the laundry
we shudder at the annoyance_

This is why washing machines are usually on the ground floor in UK homes -
usually in the kitchen, where they're close to the plumbing, despite there
being very little overlap between food preparation and washing clothes.

------
GvS
Yes. I've escaped from Dublin to Dungarvan, Ireland almost a year ago. In
Dublin, I had to pay 1k euro for a room in a shared apartment, in Dungarvan I
have 3 bedroom house for 800 (it was hard to find something smaller). Also
switched full-time corporate job to part-time remote so I could spend more
time hiking in the beautiful Irish countryside and cooking. I ended up with
smaller numbers on my account but much more happy and I can really recommend
it.

~~~
tejinderss
Do you mind telling what kind of job you do ?

~~~
GvS
I'm a software developer.

------
drewg123
It depends what you consider the "countryside" and what you consider "escape".

Right now, I'm in an average subdivision in a rural county outside Richmond,
VA. My neighbors all commute into the city, but I work remotely for a CA
company. I'm not sure if I live in what you consider to be the "countryside".
Whenever we go anywhere, we drive by farms, etc. FWIW, the walk score of my
house is basically 0, and would actually be 0 if there wasn't a church within
a mile.

In terms of "escape": I've worked remotely since 2001, with a two-year stint
in an office at Google in MTV a few years ago. My initial motivation to work
remotely was that my wife took a job as a professor at a rural college. I
stuck with that company even after she decided she didn't like the job and we
moved back to civilization. So I would not really say that I "escaped". We did
not live in a major metro area before moving to the rural college, so there
was really nothing to escape from. I will however say that finally moving out
of the Bay area and back into our house in VA really did feel like an escape.

------
move-on-by
I have a remote job _because_ I live in the countryside. I'm very happy with
my job, but its not a walk in the park being remote.

* Most companies want to pay you based on your location. If you are already in a the countryside when getting the remote job, they will compare your compensation with all the local farmers and retail jobs. They are the only jobs in the area, so that is what generates the income stats. Its not impossible to find a company that will pay you what your worth working remote, but its an uphill battle.

* Internet options are non-existent. If you happen to have issues that your provider is unable or unwilling to fix, you have no recourse. Its obviously very important to have a reliable internet connection when remote.

* Networking is difficult. If your company is very distributed, this won't be as difficult. But if you are remote while most others are not, your career will suffer. It doesn't matter how great you are, if you don't get facetime in with your coworkers while everyone else is, you will be left behind.

These are just some challenges I've noticed. I'm very happy with my current
company, and I love making a decent wage while living in a low-cost area. Plus
no traffic and online shopping makes up for the lack of local business.

~~~
deedubaya
I'm in a similar boat, and these points are spot on. Some additional points:

* You _have_ to work a lot harder to prove your worth to your peers. With networking be so difficult, it's hard to gain advocates (read references) for your career.

* Staying up to date in your industry can be a challenge, as the community around you is often not even remotely in the same industry. You don't get the idle chit-chat about new/exciting/changing thing, exposing you to new ideas. This might make you appear antiquated.

* It's hard to even idly talk with neighbors and friends about work, especially if you're in tech. They often don't have a frame of reference to know that a software engineer doesn't drive a locomotive. Re-explaining that to literally everyone can become tiresome, making it easier to just say "I write computer software". This can lead to an increased feeling of isolation.

* Travel can be more difficult if not near a central airline hub. Think, take an early connection flight to your connection flight to your main flight. This often leads to an entire day of travel to get to/from somewhere relatively close -- slow enough that it may be a faster option to just drive for 16 hours.

I wouldn't recommend moving to the countryside as a career move. You need to
have something else pulling you there -- family, a non-work activity, pace of
life -- to make it worth the extra work.

~~~
move-on-by
> Travel can be more difficult if not near a central airline hub.

Oh this is a great addition. Remote jobs often have an element of travel
involved. Only having a small regional airline means a least 1 layover minimum
and limited time options. Often that means having to travel on Sunday night to
make the Monday at noon meeting - where others can just fly out Monday
morning.

------
iamthepieman
Yes. I live in a town of 700 in a rural area in the north east of Vermont. I
live on one of the only paved roads in town and have cable internet but a lot
of the town relies on either 4G internet, wireless internet to the local tower
if they have line of site or DSL. It's definitely a consideration when looking
for a place to live.

We have 24 layer chickens and have raised pigs, sheep and meat birds in the
past. There are many opportunities to be involved in the local community from
the local library, to the school PTF, the historical society or the town
selectboard. You do have to drive everywhere, but there's never any traffic.

We are looking to move to the outskirts of a "bigger" town[0] because we love
hiking and want to be closer to the mountains and be closer than 20 minutes
from a grocery store.

[0][http://townoflittleton.org/](http://townoflittleton.org/)

~~~
mparr4
Howdy fellow Vermonter! (I live in Burlington, work in Richmond)

~~~
rograndom
+1 Vermonter here too. Howdy.

------
nateweiss
Yes, this is my situation, I work from home so it was a pretty easy transition
to working in a rural area.

It can be a culture shock though. Even something like Internet access can be
very different from what you're used to, in addition to the nature of your
relationship to your neighbors and so on. To anyone considering it, I'd
recommend trying it first somehow (rent a place for a few months or something,
maybe partly during the area's "off" or "shoulder" season if applicable, so
you see what it's like when the good weather ends, etc). It may or may not
work for you, but if it does it can be a really nice change.

~~~
protomyth
As to internet access, look at that before picking a place. It really does
vary wildly. For example, in North Dakota, several of the rural electric
cooperatives have high speed fiber (One Gigabyte download, 500 Mbs upload -
$105 to $135 per month, no cap), but the cable companies are sparse and
lacking. Seeing what addresses are covered is pretty much a first step before
picking housing.

~~~
ghaff
I do know people who make do with satellite or wireless hotspots but it's
obviously not ideal. Of course, you don't need to be in the back of beyond to
have Internet access issues. My Xfinity has been acting flaky of late--though
not clearly bad enough to deal with customer service hell--and Verizon FIOS
isn't available at my house. I'm not in a city but I'm adjacent to a small one
and only about an hour from a major metropolis.

------
state_less
I live in the middle of a farm field outside a city of ~250k people (Madison,
WI). It's a nice mix of countryside and city. I have deer and other unusual
(to me) animals walking around my back yard often. I can try to grow my own
food if I want, right now I just have some fruit trees.

If I need to get into town, it's about a 5 mile drive into town. I can visit
my friends in the city or go shopping for most of what I need immediately.
Otherwise, it's usually UPS or Fedex, when it's not available in town.

When I started looking for a new job, I made remote work a priority. If you
have friends working remotely, they can be a good source of info on remote
jobs.

------
tlavoie
I'm on an island with ~3K full-time residents, maybe twice that this time of
year with tourism.

Being remote is a total non-issue as a rule, but depends on being in a company
where this is part of corporate culture and processes. I've traveled for work
twice in the last year, most recently for a hardware refresh.

In my case, home is a semi-rural yard, so I get some teasing if the rooster is
heard during a conference call. Others do the same from urban apartments, but
similar costs give me space, trees, and nearby ocean.

We have reasonable amenities on-island, more across a 10-minute ferry ride,
and more yet within an hour's drive. Vancouver (BC) is a very short flight
away, but far enough that real estate is reasonably priced.

When we wanted to make the move, my manager asked two questions. Do I have the
internet, and do I have an airport? Those answered, I could do what I pleased.
Now, I did have an existing in-person relationship there, but it didn't feel
like a burden when I changed companies three years later (back to that
corporate culture thing.)

------
PerfectElement
Yes. We moved to the Grey Bruce area, which is 2h northwest of Toronto. It's
where we used to come for vacations. We bought a nice house that would have
costed at least 3x more in the GTA.

The quality of life has improved considerably. We are always surrounded by
trees, water and wildlife. The downside is that my tolerance for the big city
has quickly vanished. We went to Toronto for a few days and the noise, traffic
and busyness made me really stressed and we had to cut our trip short.

------
raprp
After being in a remote dev job for a while and being confident I can find
others in case this one go bad, I moved to a cheaper and smaller city in my
country.

Just this move made my expenses drop around 30% and I was able to finally buy
my home.

Angel List has lots of opportunities like that.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
Why do you feel confident you can easily find other remote jobs with the same
pay / benefits / work responsibilities / career opportunities / etc., if your
current role goes bad?

I don’t see any reason to think that.. across most job sites, Hacker News Who
Is Hiring, Stack Overflow, etc., it seems quite hard to locate viable remote
jobs _period_ — let alone something that could work out quickly in a pinch and
has high quality pay/benefits/etc.

Maybe if you’re willing to compromise on everything else, then you can quickly
switch to another remote job in an emergency. But it seems very suspect to set
your life up with that risk and the possible requirement of that severe sort
of compromise if you’re very desperate for a single specific perk.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> Why do you feel confident you can easily find other remote jobs with the
> same pay / benefits / work responsibilities / career opportunities / etc.,
> if your current role goes bad?

I'm not the parent poster, but having moved to a rural area in January I've
already experienced this. I spent a couple of days identifying target
companies, and another couple getting my resume together and writing decent
cover letters. After three weeks I was well into the interview process with
five companies, and had an acceptable offer in hand after six.

> Maybe if you’re willing to compromise on everything else, then you can
> quickly switch to another remote job in an emergency.

That's part of the "trick" here - you have to be proactive in making sure you
don't encounter an "emergency" like that. My goal is to have six months' of
expenses in accessible cash, so if I did have to find other employment I'd not
be desperate.

My recent layoff came at the worst possible time for me; I'd just drained my
savings to come up with a down payment on a house and move. Because of this, I
had to use a bit of credit to keep from having a major disruption for my wife
and kids - but it was a "worst case situation" for which I had explicitly
planned. It sucked but it was doable, and we went into it knowing exactly how
long we could hold out and what actions we'd have to take if things didn't go
the way we wanted.

Expenses living in a rural area a _much_ lower than a city. For instance - my
two-bedroom apartment in Charlottesville, VA was $1,860/month. My five-bedroom
home on a half acre in Harrison, AR is $850/month on a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage. My utilities are less than half of what they were. The only
exception is Internet access, which was included in my rent in Charlottesville
and for which I now pay $180/month.

Food... A gallon of milk here is $1.85. Our groceries are less than half what
they were.

> But it seems very suspect to set your life up with that risk and the
> possible requirement of that severe sort of compromise if you’re very
> desperate for a single specific perk.

There is risk in anything.

I wouldn't consider remote working a "perk" for me. It's merely a job
requirement. Does it limit my options? Sure! So does my not wanting to work
certain technologies, or on certain types of teams, or for companies in
certain industries. I find that requiring remote work is less limiting than
many of the other requirements I have for a job.

Finally, I'll say that it has been my experience that getting a remote job is
much easier when you already have a remote job. I've found that it mirrors my
experience with getting a job as a developer at all - I tried for a couple of
years to get my first "development" job and failed. What I did manage to get
was a position as "Intranet Administrator" that was mostly just managing
policy changes and updating a static website. After working there for a while
and sharing some utilities I'd written for my own use, suddenly other
departments wanted to hire me for other jobs where they needed a "tech
person". Eventually I ended up writing an "enterprise reporting platform"
(which was really just a simple Django website with AD integration that
generated some simple charts from SQL queries), which in turn finally gave me
a title that sounded sufficiently like a developer ("Sr. Analyst, Systems &
Performance Support") that it was accepted implicitly by my next employer.

At the end of the day - yeah, plan for the risk, but it's a risk that's both
smaller and easier to offset through planning than you might think.

~~~
raprp
> Finally, I'll say that it has been my experience that getting a remote job
> is much easier when you already have a remote job.

Yep. After I had proven experience working remotely with a known company the
offers started to come more frequently.

Having an active Github and writing on Medium / Linkedin also helps a lot.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
Once again, this experience really doesn't generalize. I worked in one fully
remote job and the company did not care whether employees had prior experience
working remotely and did not generally believe that people who worked remotely
before would be any better at it than people who had not. There's not really a
"skill set" for working remotely, mostly because so many companies require
remote coordination between different office locations that even if you work
in an office these days, it absolutely requires all the same remote-specific
skills that a fully remote worker would have to utilize.

I've also generally experienced developers being hostile to candidates we
wanted to hire when they had active projects on GitHub or they had high-
reputation Stack Overflow accounts. It's very idiosyncratic whether developers
try to cut people down and emphasize only dimensions of achievement that they
personally excelled in, or if they take a humbler approach and have a more
open mind about a variety of ways that a developer can demonstrate skills. But
by no means is it common for people to look positively on GitHub activity.
Most often, interviewers just ignore it and believe it's not relevant to their
job and prefer you to complete silly programming trivia. But occasionally they
go further and even actively hold it against you in petty ways.

Overall, I'd say it's no easier to get remote jobs by already having a remote
job.

~~~
raprp
Once again you are wrong, dismissing the the experience of everyone else and
set your experiences as irrefutable facts.

Even though nobody is putting their opinions as a rule that applies to all.

Seem like the fact that people succeeded in what you dind't really bothers
you.

Hang in there buddy :)

~~~
mlthoughts2018
You said,

“Yep. After I had proven experience working remotely with a known company the
offers started to come more frequently.”

I’m just trying to point out that this isn’t useful for most people: it
wouldn’t work that way.

It seems like you unrealistically need to assert that there can be no
downsides, even for others, about the particular remote working experiences
you have had. Even so far as to make some sweeping, judgmental comment about
me based on the very wrong presumption about my prior remote work.

I hope your insecurities about your choices will subside so you can admit that
the risks implied by your advice are too severe for most people to consider
abd negate most of the upsides you talked about.

------
mark_l_watson
In 1998 my wife and I moved from San Diego to the mountains in Central
Arizona, to the small town of Sedona. Except for some onsite contracting work
at Google and in Singapore, I mostly worked from home. We had a wilderness
hiking trailhead 150 feet from our house. A year ago I got tired of remote
work and took an office job in a Midwest university town - a nice change of
pace!

------
mlthoughts2018
I worked for a remote company and I was based in an east coast city. When I
mentioned the idea of relocating back to where my family lives in a suburban /
rural area of the Midwest, my company said that if I relocated, they’d have to
apply a “cost of living adjustment” to my salary and it would be reduced to
about 2/3 of the salary I would earn for the same position living in my east
coast city.

The salary cut seemed almost perfectly calculated to ensure my personal
savings rate could not be any higher in the Midwest than in an urban center.

My job involved no travel or any other aspects that would have been affected
by my move, especially since I would be in the same time zone. In fact, I
would have lived _closer_ both to most of our customers and to the Chicago
office by moving rather than staying on the east coast.

I’ve heard this is actually quite common, and that even for remote workers,
companies try hard to price your wage based on where you live rather than what
value you add.

Combine this with the huge risk of not being able to find another remote job
or nearby on-site job, and living rurally does not actually seem like a good
idea to me. You’re one layoff away from a job crisis, whereas in a city or
metro area, at least you can quickly find other work.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Just say no to salary adjustments. The point of remote is, it doesn't matter
where you live. Resist letting it be their decision where your remote base is
located.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
What do you mean “say no”?

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Push back by saying "No, you find me valuable at this rate, and that doesn't
depend on where I live since I'm remote already". You may even have to find
another remote job.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
Typically, even for the most valuable engineers, the company will just say
“see ya” at that point.

Finding another remote job with acceptable pay / benefits / work
responsibilities / etc., is very hard and takes a long time.

Honestly, I think you’d have to get another job offer (either also remote or
in the location you want) to use as leverage for your existing employer to let
you move without decreasing your pay.

I just think almost every employer would _force_ a pay decrease in that case,
no matter how unfair or unrelated to your value-add, and unless you already
had another offer lined up, you’d never be in a position to give them an
ultimatum in which you’ll quit if they decrease your pay.

It’s why this idea of earning a SF or NYC salary while living in some nice
Midwestern suburb is still nearly 100% myth.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Huh. I guess I'm a myth then.

------
TamDenholm
I'm a contractor but have my own independent business too so i'm mostly a
remote worker. I live just under an hour from the capital city (Edinburgh).
You could definitely say i live in the country however, i live in the biggest
town in the countryside. It has all the convenience that i want like
supermarkets, restaurants and amenities within a 5 min walk, fast internet and
a 5 minute drive takes me out of the town and into plush green hills and
forests where i walk the dogs.

Theres a direct train into Edinburgh from here that takes 50 minutes and the
view out the window on the journey is awesome. I bought a house here, a medium
sized 3 bedroom with gardens front and rear, for the same price as a cramped 1
bedroom flat in Edinburgh. I also have a 3,500 sqft warehouse with an office i
rent for my business and hobbies (motorbikes, quads, metal/woodworking) that
costs me the same as a 800 sqft office in the city.

I've picked a damned good balance between convenience, ease of commute to the
city and financial arbitrage, i'm very happy here.

------
diggan
Yup! Was living in Barcelona for ~6 years, was working in offices in Barcelona
as well. About 1.5 years after becoming a remote worker, we moved out from
Barcelona into a small town (~6000 people) instead, AMA.

~~~
cpursley
Another small town in Spain? I found that many of their small towns have
really terrible internet, which was a deal breaker for me.

~~~
officialchicken
Depends on the town. As a counterpoint El Hornillo, Gran Canaria is one place
where many people still live in caves - literally - and they have higher speed
and cheaper internet than I can get in most US major cities. According to
wikipedia the population is 390 people.

------
codingdave
I did, 6 years ago. Moved to a dilapidated farmhouse south of Salt Lake City,
fixed it up, and we do some hobby farming. After 5 years, I went back to an
office, so it worked out well that I am still commuting distance to where the
jobs are. At the same time, suburbia grew and they have put housing around us.
So now I live in an old farmhouse in the middle of suburbia.

Based on my experience, I do recommend getting away and working remotely...
but I also recommend not being so far away from a city that your remote
employer has a tighter grip on your financial stability than an on-site
employer would. (Probably will matter less as time goes on and more remote
work is available.)

~~~
fizgig
I'm gonna guess Lehi?

I lived 17 years in Utah, and spent about 10 of that working remotely for a
handful of very small clients (remote unix sysadmin). Spent some time in
Delta, then moved to Vernon, then found my way back to SLC.

Unfortunately divorce threw a wrench into the works, so I moved out of state
to an urban area and ended up back in the 9-to-5 grind. I've been desperate to
get my freedom and quiet life back ever since.

Maybe some day...

~~~
codingdave
Nah, Lehi is a mass of urban sprawl these days, with piles of traffic and
office buildings. I'm down in Spanish, a few minutes out of the canyon.

------
svesselov
I did this and am so glad I did. After being with GitLab (a remote only
company) for 6 months, I took the leap and bought a 5-acre hobby farm in rural
Florida.

Pros: Quiet! No traffic sounds or screaming neighbors. The owls get a little
crazy but I'll take it. Beautiful dark skies at night with no light pollution.
In general, things feel more peaceful and slow, even if I am dealing with work
deadlines.

Cons: Satellite internet (ugh). I had to supplement with a hot spot which has
proved to be a lifesaver. There is a lot more upkeep with 5-acres to mow. I
also have 2 rescue horses on the property but I consider that a pro :)

------
rograndom
I never moved to a mega city but I've been pretty close to the countryside my
whole life. Was very close to moving to SF in the late 1990s and to NYC in the
mid-2000's but those didn't happen for various reasons.

Grew up in a farmhouse built in the 1840's. First house I bought was built in
1890 and was on the edge of a protected wetlands. Second and current house is
much newer, 1990's, but is on the edge of a national forest. There's been a
"city" within 20 miles at all times so we're not totally secluded.

All of my work through the 2000's could've been remote and finally switched to
fully remote about 7 years ago.

I have a choice of either DSL or cable internet. A few miles away some
businesses have fiber either through Google or a local ISP, but it all depends
on if the building had existing dark fiber going in. No one is piping in new
stuff. I've been tempted to rent office space in one of these buildings but
never pulled the trigger as home internet is mostly fast enough.

One benefit that's nice, but sort of outside of the OP's question is that my
family has travelled quite a bit including weeks in Asia and some of my
clients never knew. I just had to schedule meetings either at the very
beginning or very end of their business days to align with my sleep schedule.

Real estate in areas like this can be stupid cheap as well. My wife manages
rental properties and two of the apartment buildings we've bought cost less
than than our cars did new.

------
jcater
Yes, I moved to a small island off of the coast of Georgia, just north of
Jacksonville, FL. Given that it has a vibrant tourism industry, I'm not sure
I'd call it "rural", though it is an hour from any larger cities. It's not
quite surburban either, though.

We love it here.

The "gotcha" is the need for solid internet connectivity. That's still hard to
come by in truly "rural" places we looked at. Finding good schools is also a
mixed bag, but that's true in urban settings as well.

~~~
Troop4Christ
Tybee? Was just down there with my wife for our anniversary. Great little
tourist stop.

~~~
jcater
St Simons Island, about an hour south of Tybee.

------
connectedcloud
(I live in the UK) I not fully in the middle in the know-where but at the edge
of a small town in the middle of the countryside 1hr 45mins by train to
london. Regarding Salary it depends where you want to live as in the UK there
are other parts of the country that are actually a lot more expensive than
london with way higher average house prices as just don't have any low end
properties.

Like Coltswold villages as average houses prices can be 700k - 800k UK pounds
plus. So it all depends, but I being living in a nice average house outside
city now for nearly 2 years which I could not afford in london and highly
recommend getting out of the rat race, as life is much slower when out of city
living.

I actually have IMAX cinema not far from me and lot of amazing pubs and
restaurants so really feel I am not missing out.

Thinks like being able to walk outside your door, with 5 minutes be on a
public footpath and heading into the countryside and having clean air to
breath. It the health benefits for me.

------
linusekenstam
This is an interesting question. And I’m a bit biased, but I’m doing both. So
I’m working remote for a company on the other side of the world. And I live in
Barcelona, in the middle of the hectic @22 area, (BCN Silicon Valley) it’s
kind of a joke, but that’s fine.

But earlier this year we bought a rural house in south-east Sweden. A modest
little countryside dwelling. Completely off-grid. Relying on solar/wind and
Private well.

Our plan is to spend our years like this - 1/3 in Barcelona, 1/3 in the
country side dwelling and 1/3 of the year traveling. When we are not occupying
our apartment or house we are renting them out. So we are basically living for
free and get our travel tickets paid for by the income generated from renting
our apartment/house.

In Barcelona we have 1000/1000mbits fiber. And in Sweden funny enough we also
have fiber but “only” 300/300mbits.

I’m not sure for me personally if living 100% country or city would be
something I’d like to do. I love the seasonal changes. And the getaways. So
being a remote worker makes that possibly in a way a normal fixed office
position simply can’t do.

Also it’s insane what you can get for the same amount of money if you compare
and odd city to the countryside. Quality of life really increases with the
veriety. At least from my perspective.

Ping me on Twitter if you want to chat more about this in person.
@linusekenstam

------
magic_beans
While I LOVE the idea of living a peaceful, pastoral lifestyle, I’m not so
sure I’m ready to abandon the coviences of city living... I love being able to
shop at twelve different specialized grocery stores or cheese shops... I love
getting medical cannabis delivered... I love being able to find a party any
night of the week if I really wanted to...

------
feocco
This is my situation. Worked in DC. Now I live in the Fingerlakes Region of NY
and work remotely as a support engineer. I'll echo others points:

* If you _start_ remote, your salary will be lower for your area. Aim for a transition or a company with decent remote salaries

* If you lose your remote gig and have a mortgage, you could be in trouble. You can plan around this though.

* Internet required for remote work often requires a small village/community rather than complete country living

* There aren't many software engineer's to hang with in the country :P

* Remote work is harder than most think, you'll need to overhaul your habits / work environment

I fucking love it for the most part. Dog loves it even more. I don't go "out"
much. But I enjoy camping, boating, hiking which are all nearby and free. My
hour commute turned into reading/tinkering time. My cost of living was cut in
half(at least). It's peaceful and I have more resources to focus on myself.
Highly suggest it.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> If you lose your remote gig and have a mortgage, you could be in trouble.
> You can plan around this though.

I'm 34, with a wife and two kids. I'm at the stage of life where I feel like
I've had enough of killing myself trying get a bigger paycheck and am focusing
on reducing expenses and building long-term that doesn't require me to work
every day.

While I certainly don't plan on doing it, my expenses are such now that I
could keep all the bills paid working at McDonald's. I wouldn't be able to buy
toys, stay on track for retirement, or maintain our overall lifestyle but it's
a huge weight off my shoulders to know that I'm not dependent on maintaining a
six-figure job to be able to keep the roof over my family's head.

> Remote work is harder than most think, you'll need to overhaul your habits /
> work environment

Agreed, 100%. This is still an evolving process for me. I have a great home
office that's very nice. I started off working from there every day, but I've
found that I was becoming increasingly easily distracted by family, "homeowner
stuff", the fact that my gaming PC was sitting right there, etc. My solution
to that is to physically get up and go somewhere else whenever I go more than
fifteen minutes or so without being productive.

Since this spring, I spend the majority of my days in a hammock. This is an
older pic from before I moved, but it's still representative of my mornings:
[https://imgur.com/9Pi8xaY](https://imgur.com/9Pi8xaY)

When I get too hot or distracted, I go to a diner. When I've been there too
long or am distracted, I go somewhere else - a park, the town square, under a
bridge, on the ridge above a business, to the library... you get the idea. I
just _move_ , reset, and start the process over.

~~~
feocco
I'm only 27. Still lots of adulting to learn over here.

Regular visits to the diner is one of the best habits I've made when working
remotely. Helps ease the isolation of remote work.

I'm not too comfortable working away from my desk. My work feels very awkward
without a full keyboard, mouse, and 2 monitors. Somewhat often phone
communication also makes it cumbersome.

------
JoeAltmaier
Live on a farm in Iowa, 10 miles from Iowa City. Nearest neighbor is a quarter
of a mile away, then half a mile to the next.

I told my silicon valley job "I'm moving back to Iowa. I can move and work for
you, or I can move and work for {pulled out job offer letter} these guys."
They instantly said "Move to Iowa and work for us". No pay adjustment; no
pushback. But I was a senior engineer in the OS group for a proprietary OS.

For a time I went a week each month and sat in my old chair. After a year of
jetlag, I chose a local job (well it fell in my lap) for half the pay, and
gave up the commuting.

A few years here, a remote job fell in my lap, San Jose startup needing
designers/architect. Took it, back to commuting a week a month. Lasted 2
years, startup got bought, and its been one remote gig after another since
then (20 years). No more commuting, pure remote now. Consultant/contractor,
few clients know where I work.

~~~
grawball
I guess I am still on step 1. I moved back to Iowa and kept the same job, and
I go back occasionally to see everyone face to face (it is less than 2 hours
away by car).

I have thought about moving on to your 2nd step and certainly have some
opportunities, but I don't even want to drive 15 or 20 minutes to a town every
day.

------
dougmwne
Yes, my partner and I do this. We work part of the year in a very rural area
near a national park and part of the year in a small beachtown. Both areas are
near family, so rather than being isolated, we are more connected. We're in
our 30's so don't really miss the big city social scene at this point in our
lives.

Two pieces of advice: Rural internet can be crappy, but LTE has made getting
high-speed internet in the sticks much easier. We generally have 2 LTE
networks running at once for extra reliability. External antennas and
stationary LTE-modems can help boost marginal signal. We're looking forward to
5G availability/SpaceX satellite internet.

Choose places that put your hobbies very close at hand. In both our locations,
hikes, sports and nature are just a short walk away. This helps keep you from
just spending a lot more time at home.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> Rural internet can be crappy, but LTE has made getting high-speed internet
> in the sticks much easier.

I'm not sure I'd be able to deal with LTE at home, since I play online games
quite a bit, but I'm _very_ impressed with it for work. I often drive out to a
lake or river and work from a hammock, tethered to my iPhone or iPad via
Bluetooth.

It's incredible to me that I get 50Mbps in a hammock, when it seems like only
a few years ago I was paying $80 / month for 128Kbps ISDN only a few miles
away.

OK, maybe that was twenty years ago. Maybe I'm just getting old :)

------
lylecubed
I did it about 5 years ago. I grew up in a rural area and gave city living a
go in the bay area for a decade. At the end of it I came to the conclusion
that cities aren't good for my mental or physical health and moved back to the
middle of nowhere. I spend more time with my family and people in general than
I did living in a crowded city. More exercise, fresh air, nature, etc.

There are downsides. The 100+ year old Victorian house I now live in is
impossible to pest proof. Rats and bats make an occasional appearance. The
insulation is old and ineffective. Work is harder to come by. Resources, such
an cars and mechanics, are harder to find. I don't travel much, but when I do,
I always wish I lived closer to the airport.

I'm looking at relocating to a rural area that's still out in the woods, but
closer to a smaller city than I am now.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> The 100+ year old Victorian house I now live in is impossible to pest proof.

When we were house shopping, one of our "short list" was this house, which is
about a century old:
[https://www.google.com/maps/@36.222585,-93.1124827,3a,75y,26...](https://www.google.com/maps/@36.222585,-93.1124827,3a,75y,265.41h,80.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1su8dHjOvleO7jzLlziZQClA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en)

We ended up with a slightly smaller home on the outskirts of town that was
built in the 70s. It partially burned in ~2008 and was completely remodeled
afterward - all of the electrical, most of the plumbing, and all of the
ventilation was replaced.

The older home was listed at $99k versus the $135k of the one we bought. It
was bigger, in a part of town we preferred, and we loved the layout and "feel"
of the older one... but I cannot overstate how glad I am that we bought the
one we did.

Even this one has been far more of a financial strain than I expected. One of
the things that wasn't apparent to me is the sewer situation. I knew the home
had a septic tank, and I'm familiar with the care and maintenance burden that
it entails; I wasn't aware that the city has an ordinance prohibiting the
substantial repair of existing septic tanks. When our tank reaches the end of
its life we're required by law to connect to the municipal sewage system,
which I've estimated will cost about $10k. That's higher than usual, but I
believe it's accurate: the plumbing in the home will have to be "reversed"
because the septic tank and the municipal sewer service are on opposite sides
of the house; the sewer access point is 12' underground because of the
neighborhood's landscape; the path between the hookup and the access point
goes under the three 40-year-old trees in our front yard, at least one of
which will have to be removed.

> Resources, such an cars and mechanics, are harder to find.

I've found Facebook to be a huge help for this sort of thing. I grew up in the
area I now live, but it's been five years since I was here so a lot of my
knowledge is outdated. Businesses close, move, and change hands.

Whenever I need something done I post in a local "gossip" group. It generates
a fair amount of the typical drama in the responses, but it's been effective
for quickly finding reliable service workers in particular.

> I'm looking at relocating to a rural area that's still out in the woods, but
> closer to a smaller city than I am now.

I fully understand that. My preference would be to live far away from people
and with another land that I can do whatever I want on my property without
worrying about the neighbors. My wife grew up in a small city and finds that
lifestyle to be isolating - so we compromised on a small subdivision on the
outskirts of town. It's dense enough that we know our neighbors and there are
people around, but rural enough that there's 200 acres of farmland about two
blocks from us. The kind of people who live here seem to be more compatible
with my kind of libertarian individualism than what I've experienced
elsewhere, too, which is nice. Our town technically has ordinances requiring
dogs to be on leashes or fenced at all times outdoors, building permits, etc.
- but my neighborhood has at least four little dogs and a couple of cats
running around during the day and I don't think a building permit has ever
been issued for the entire subdivision. It's quiet, friendly, and we generally
get along with one another. My neighbor has a boy about my oldest daughter's
age (9), and even though they play together all the time, he still stops at
the property line and asks my permission to come over every single time.

I feel like I got all the good parts of 1950s America.

------
shabinesh
I am currently doing it, near to the forest & foothills of a small mountain
south of India. Also, I travel to SE Asian countries to places which are not
so urban. While there are many advantages, I see myself travelling to
Bangalore quite often to feel the developer vibes and talk to like-minded
people to beat loneliness.

After spending enough time in Bangalore and then in Cebu (Philippines), With
the convenience of remote work, it influenced my priorities to clean air and
water than meetups and people. Work-life harmony is much better, while the
work-life balance is out of question currently with the workload. I find
myself not spending money, there is some energy left in the evening to read, I
go walking near the mountains and meditate every morning. Life has turned out
to be better overall.

------
jperras
That is my exact situation.

I'm currently on 2-ish acres of land (we are renting), in 100+ year old brick
farmhouse. My neighbours are 3 soy fields. You can hear coyotes not 50m away
most nights. We have a dog, and he loves the space to run. We've planted
~30m^2 of vegetable gardens, and participate in community supported
agriculture programs that let us fill our pantry, deep freeze, and
refrigerator with amazing seasonal local produce and local beef/poultry/pork
while supporting the local town economy.

Internet can be troublesome. We "lucked out" with a 7mbps DSL connection, but
my nearest neighbour about 1km away has no choice but to use a satellite
connection which is shaky at best, and unusable in bad weather.

Your perspective changes, too. It takes at least 15-20 minutes to get anywhere
(we have a walk score of zero), so driving a half hour doesn't seem like a big
deal. Heck, we drove 40km each way a few days ago to find some sushi, since my
partner had a craving for it.

The rental aspect takes away much of the negative of country property
maintenance that has been described by others, and does give us a bit more
mobility/liquidity should financial emergencies arise that would require us to
move back to the city. The downside, of course, is that we have less freedom
to change or modify the property to better suit our needs, but such is life.

My quality of life has significantly improved, mostly because I have a lot of
space to do things I've always wanted to do in the city but couldn't, and it's
all stuff that gets me off of the computer. I taught myself how to fix old
cars. My partner is learning carpentry, and has taken up leatherworking. I
make ~20gal of wine in my basement from fruit that we pick ourselves. We
garden.

I grew up in farm country as a kid, so it's not _that_ jarring for me, but I
it was still a bit of an adjustment after living in major cities for most of
my adult life.

I hope that I can continue to live in the country and work remotely; it's been
quite the positive lifestyle change.

------
ivm
I moved to a small city in the south of Chile with my wife who's also doing
business remotely. You can live really comfortable here for less than $2k/mo
for two people.

While we are not in a countryside yet, we bought a half hectare of land on a
hill near the city and plan to build a house in a few years. I except the
total cost of land + cleaning some forest + construction to stay under $150k
(but we want a relatively small house).

If you are interested in moving to Chile, I made a whole site about it:
[https://valdiviaguide.com/](https://valdiviaguide.com/)

------
gwbas1c
Yes, I work remote for my old job in Silicon Valley. I really haven't tried to
find a new employer, and I'm many years away from retirement, so I don't know
what will happen when it's time to change jobs.

~~~
raprp
Are you working with outdated technologies?

If so I would suggest start learning new technologies, start adding simple
projects to you github and writing on linedin.

Seems like too much but just start one thing at a time. This way you will
dramatically increase your changes of finding another remote when when
necessary.

But in the end of the day you also need a plan B, which is money saved and
some idea of where to go in case you need to move back to the city to find a
regular job.

~~~
gwbas1c
That easy before the wife and kids came along.

------
derencius
I used to live in sao paulo, working for large software consultancies, and it
has been 10 years that I started working remotly and moved to a small beach
town 3 hours away: more productive, more free time, less expenses.

------
foxhop
I live in Connecticut 2.5 hours from Boston and NYC.

I've worked remote for the last 5 years.

I'm toying with the idea of starting a web series on tips and tricks of going
remote while living in a non urban area, spreading the wealth and trying to
spend locally.

Here is part 1:

[https://russell.ballestrini.net/how-to-work-from-home-the-
ro...](https://russell.ballestrini.net/how-to-work-from-home-the-road-to-
remote-chapter-1/)

I'm an avid permaculturist and I grow some of my families food.

~~~
LyndsySimon
It sounds like our lifestyles have a good deal of overlap. Interested in
collaborating? I don't have the passion to make a series like this myself, but
I could put together a few blog posts and contribute.

~~~
foxhop
Sounds Interesting, feel free to reach out (contact info on my blog)

------
Y_Y
Would anyone like to share how they went about getting such a job?

~~~
thebigspacefuck
My company is pretty good about letting people that have worked with them for
a while move to a remote job. One person moved to Ireland, another near
Yosemite, a couple to Oregon. I've considered it before but I need to stay
where I am for other reasons. I wouldn't mind moving closer to my home town if
I have kids.

------
grawball
I live among cornfields in rural Iowa.

Worked for the same place in a different state for several years then moved
here some years ago to begin working remotely.

The entire county has 1G fiber to the home internet service available at a
reasonable price and everything works out wonderfully.

You can get a nice, sturdy old house on an acreage for significantly under
$200,000. Even the ""fancy, big houses"" on 10+ acres are rarely listed for
more than $300,000 to $400,000.

------
mbielski
I am escaping at the end of this month when I move into the house that I grew
up in, situated on 1.5 ac in Northern California. It's on a hilltop on a
private road. The peace and quiet will be refreshing after years of living in
the noisy suburbs. The only problem is getting a strong enough internet
connection. So far, the best I can get is 6/1 DSL. After years of 100+/5+ that
hurts more than you realize!

~~~
nickdevore
I live in Northern CA too, about 40 miles Easy of Sacramento. I live in
Comcast's zone (so I get 100/5) but my friend .5 mile away only has DSL as an
option. A lot of people around me have to use radio frequency internet or
satellite. Before I even considered a house, I would first confirm with
Comcast that they serviced that house. Double check though! We were in escrow
for a different house before I realized Comcast had given me the wrong info
the first time.

------
Tade0
Among the people I've been working with this is a trend - especially once they
have children and need some inexpensive real estate.

One extreme example: Our tech lead from two projects ago has four children and
his wife is a homemaker so they're living exclusively off his salary.

One downside is employers are aware of the fact that the cost of living is
lower in rural areas so wages for remote workers(at least where I live) are
generally lower.

------
ninjamayo
I 've been working partly from home in the English countryside and partly from
our offices in London for many years now. Definitely wouldn't want to go back
to working 100% from an office. There are disadvantages of course working
partly or fully from home but having a walk in the mornings with our dog makes
me forget them.

------
kayoone
> Especially as a tech salary goes infinitely further in rural areas than it
> does in downtown SF/NYC/London/etc.

They will also pay less though. It's not like even Google, FB, MS pay the same
salaries in Europe that they pay in SF. I guess remote workers would get even
less in most companies.

~~~
Matticus_Rex
Depends on the company. The salary scale at mine doesn't take into account
where you live (which I think is smart; we don't target people who live in any
particular place, so we try to pay what the work is worth to the company).

~~~
chrisseaton
> so we try to pay what the work is worth to the company

As in you pay a percentage of the revenue that person generates? How do you
work that out per person? Or is it aggregated over all developers? What do you
do to determine the worth of cost-centre work like support?

Do you find paying based on worth to the company is massively different to the
market rates?

How do you work out the worth of work that isn’t generating revenue yet but
might in the future or might never, like research?

~~~
Matticus_Rex
I'm not a developer, but the process is the same for them.

Where revenue is directly attributable to something, that's taken into
account. For non-technical roles, business decision-making ability is heavily
accounted-for, as are skills like legal research that are fairly specific
(that's one of mine). It's not a very precise process, but I have yet to see
any precise process for compensation that wasn't obviously pretty bad. There's
also a requirement around capital contribution in relation to your pay level,
and then you also get some quarterly/yearly distributions.

Our entire company is remote, so comparing to market rates is tricky. It's
below-market for the Bay Area (but so are most startups), and far above market
rates for the area I live in. Anecdotally, my pay (and responsibility) has
gone up significantly here compared to previous jobs because this system
allows a pretty dynamic evaluation base, whereas my previous employers'
compensation systems didn't know how to account for outliers in output and
competency, at least below executive levels.

------
ajenner
Yes - I took a remote job partially so that I could live whereever I wanted.
I've been living in remote South-West England (Cornwall) for 6 years now and I
love it here! It does limit opportunities in some ways but it's beautiful and
a wonderful place to raise a family.

------
cmain
I didn't quite make this jump, but did switch to a remote role at my startup
so I could move from a big city to a relatively smaller city (Pittsburgh). So
far I have been really happy with the move, mainly because housing in the
major cities is insanely expensive.

------
ab71e5
This is definitely my dream! Unfortunately I work in embedded which is
especially hard to find remote work in (I`m guessing?). So I`m thinking about
switching to more high-level work, maybe back end web development, I can at
least leverage Linux experience.

------
vidanay
100% WFH, Live on 15 acres and surrounded by literally several thousand acres
of corn in northern Illinois. Closest neighbor is more than a quarter mile
away. We only have five neighbors in a one mile radius.

We have a dog, cats, chickens and horses.

------
RickJWagner
I do it. I work remote, live outside the county in a rural state.

It's not for everybody, especially if you're a workplace social butterfly.

But if that aspect doesn't bother you, there is a lot of upside (especially
financial). It works well for me.

------
cdjk
Does living in the Santa Cruz Mountains count? I have a couple acres, lots of
redwoods, and can’t see my neighbors. And I’m 35 minutes from Mountain View if
there’s no traffic.

------
Demoneeri
No, countryside seems like prison to me. You have to drive everywhere, you
have to shop at the only one shop with limited choices. The isolation, etc.

------
beauzero
Live in rural West Georgia. Work in Alabama. ...i have a lot of advice and
tricks. PM if you need help. It is very doable.

------
ArthurBugan
No, I already live in a small city and I want to get remote jobs from big
cities

------
ryanmercer
No and no but that's my dream.

------
AR-sh1n0b1
Yes, we have. We did this 10 years ago. We moved from Santa Barbara,CA to
northern Arkansas and bought a 5 acre piece of land with a 2-story farm house,
on a 3 mile dirt road, on the edge of Buffalo River National Park, very
peacefull, very pretty, very "remote". We wanted to create an off-the-grid
life by growing our own food (my wife focuses on the animals, I focus on
veggies and fruits) and use open source technologies to assist at this if it
made sense. My wife started a local and resonable successfull business
(today), while I would do what I do, remotely. I'm a back-end developer,
focused on LAMP stack technologies, trying to go from employee to freelancer
to ultimately, a international software business (Isn't that what we all
want?). I loved my 15 second commute. Most things went well as planned, but it
was hard work. Days start at 5AM (it gets hot here) and end at 9PM, 7 days a
week. Upkeep and repairs took most of the time and resources. Lessons were
learned, mostly the hard way. But we made progress and our place is now our
Home. Still, internet sucks (DSL), power losses several times a year,
sometimes for half a day or more. We're still not off the grid (except for my
greenhouse), but that's not on my todo list anymore. I have bigger fish to
fry. Of course, setbacks had to happen .. about a year ago I was part of a
company-wide layoff. Initially, I wasn't too upset .. the house needed a new
coat of paint and I needed to update some skills, as I want to work on back-
end automation (Jenkins, Ansible, Chef, NodeJS, Docker, cloud tools and what
not) and focus less app development, so I took time off and focused on what I
wanted to do, according to my yearly plan. A few months later, the house was
painted, the courses were finished and I was re-charged to get back into back-
end work again. .. i n m y d r e a m s .. Long story short, it took me 8
months to get into a new position and I took what came along first, a full
stack web developer position, 2-hours drive (twice a day) from where I live at
a payrate I had 10 years ago. Now, all I do is work, sleep and drive. My
weekends are packed with chores to upkeep our home. During my job search time,
my wife worked more IN her business (to increase our income) as opposed to
working ON her business. We had to get rid of 80% of our life stock, simply
because neither one of us was home long enuf to take care of them. My
greenhouse ended up empty. I'm still looking for a remote position, but they
get sparser by the minute. I didn't get a single inquiry where telecommuting
was an option. We're glad we had an emergency fund that covered our bills for
about a year. It's close to depletion now. We both love our home a lot, enuf
to not sell it anytime soon, but living remote and working remote come at a
price. I never was really concerned about losing my job when we moved here.
"Jobs are everywhere", I thought. True, but that don't mean you can get one of
them, even with +15 years of experience and an updated education with skills
much wanted. That was definitely new to me. I've been 'in between' jobs and
contracts before, but this time it was different. My advice on moving to the
countryside .. have a plan B and resources to cover for it.

------
hyperberry
Also doing it in rural Missouri. I grew up & lived in the St. Louis area/
suburbs first 30 years of my life; that's where (most) family still resides.

I have a small agency and work independently from home. Currently have a sweet
gig for a Global Fortune 500 corporation with offices all over the U.S. and
around the world. Every day I collaborate with colleagues spread across North
America, yet I still get to enjoy the beauty of the countryside. Occasionally
I'm asked to travel into St. Louis (90 minutes) or Nashville or Cincinnati (6
hours each, respectively) for meetings.

Several years ago I "escaped" to a large wooded property just outside a small
town with population around ~4500. Fortunately I also have a small college
town 20 minutes away - home of the University of Missouri tech & engineering
campus - with full-year population ~25k (it's also the county seat), where I
can shop at Wal-Mart, Lowes, Staples, Kohl's, etc. In fact, there is also a
brand new Starbucks + new development just opened with a Menard's, PetSmart,
TJ Maxx and more.

So while I enjoy the privacy and peace of rural living, I also have a number
of modern conveniences within easy reach. Also worth noting: my small town is
fairly affluent, so there are nice restaurants (including a place with 20+
craft beers on tap), and we have a full-size grocery store.

Upsides of working rurally:

* Money goes significantly further. Not so much for typical everyday items and consumables, but especially because:

* Housing is VERY affordable.

* Property taxes are extraordinarily low. I have a 4000+ sq/ft home with 5BR and 3BA on 160 acres. Total annual real estate tax is less than $2k. Smaller home on 1/3 acre lot in STL suburbs was 2.5x that amount.

* Personal property tax and sales tax rates are also quite low. That makes it much more affordable to purchase/own vehicles, farm equipment, etc.

* Multiple, awesome farmer's markets every week -- 52 weeks/year -- where you find (inexpensive) produce, eggs, meat, dairy, baked goods, and you buy directly from the actual farmer/producer.

* Don't see any neighbors. Rarely hear them.

* True sense of ownership over your environment - no need to "keep up with Joneses" like you do in Suburbia

* Feeling of isolation. That's an upside for me, but won't apply universally of course.

Downsides:

* Maintaining a large property is a lot of work. A DIY mindset is helpful. So is a chainsaw.

* Poor cell service.

* Few/expensive internet choices. Currently using a 20Mbps satellite connection (which works just fine, including for realtime screensharing via Skype or WebEx) that costs $120/month. Earlier this year my telco line-carrier (CenturyLink) finally began offering DSL, so I plan to look into that -- cheaper but may be slower.

* Not much nightlife, few opportunities to socialize.

* No Whole Foods, Costco or Sam's Club. So I generally go into St. Louis once or twice a month to stock up.

If you're considering making the "escape" yourself, I would strongly consider
the following:

* Road access. Rural properties differ significantly -- even within a small area -- based on the length & quality of roads you need to travel. Personally, my driveway connects to a _numbered_ state highway with hard pavement in good condition (maintenance and slow plowing are prioritized over smaller _lettered_ highways & county-maintained roads). Plus it takes only 10 minutes to get to the Interstate highway... a huge win. Compare that with some rural areas where you might either: A) travel a long distance on two-lane roads to reach the Interstate; and/or B) drive for miles on a gravel road just to hit pavement.

* Related to above: your driveway. In case of snow you'll probably need to plow yourself. If it's gravel, you'll need (or need to hire someone with) a tractor for periodic road maintenance/grading. Likely need to haul in & spread more gravel every few years.

* It's stark contrast from life in a metro area. Everywhere you look parking lots -- including at the golf course -- are filled with pickup trucks. I was previously accustomed to an abundance of luxury cars as far as the eye could see.

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nZac
I moved from Boston to the upper Midwest in 2008 for school and haven't left.
I tried moving back into the city and it was not enjoyable and left after 9
months (traffic... ugh, I don't know how you people do it!)

I live on 20 acres on the back side of a farm quarter, have a 2,000/sqft
garden, a tractor, a big truck, ATV's, dirt bikes, a river in the back section
of the property, wildlife, a dog, farm land, clean air, and the best drinking
water! We regularly have bonfires, do target shooting, watch the sunset (and
sunrise which can be even better!), and the stars are way bigger here.

I'm about 20 mins out of "town" which is about 60-90K people. I rent a small
12x12 office in town for $200/mth where I get internet (75down/15up) to work.
Considering my 3br, 2bth house rent is $400, I think I am ahead of most as far
total cost of housing.

I have everything I need, most of what I want, and very little of what I don't
want. It's a great lifestyle. I have found that the people here are what keeps
me.

There are a few things to note...

1\. Rural life requires that you be creative and assertive to survive, no one
will entertain you. For example, if you want to attend a meetup every week on
React... you better start one. Want to have your choice of farmers markets...
you should just plant a garden. That isn't to say we don't have farmers
markets, concerts, festivals or things like that but there are fewer of them
and they aren't as grand as they are in other places. In general, we have
"everything" but we don't have all the choices.

2\. Building a community can be difficult unless you are intentional. I am
active in my church which makes a big difference and is where I find most of
my friends (my family is still in Boston). If I didn't have that, I don't know
where I would find friends. This is especially hard if you are single. Often
times, the people are very friendly. Don't expect to jump straight into a
group and be best friends, things move slower, and take time. HOWEVER, once
you earn trust you are "in" and the people care deeply about you. I can't even
explain it. I can list at least 5 people right now that, if I called, would
drop anything and come help with something. Anything from help with car
troubles (it's cold and snowy in the winter) to more sensitive and private
parts of life which take years to develop. Relationship, I am firmly
convinced, is life.

3\. If you actually move out into the country prepare to get dirty. We mow for
3 hours a week at least. At least 2-3 large trees fall on our property every
year that need chopping / hauling / splitting / burning. Gravel roads can be
tough on vehicles. There is snow to move and spring cleaning / fall prep. It's
work, but very fulfilling work if you are used to being behind a computer all
day.

4\. Finding another remote programming job is hard unless you are in the top
1% of performers in which case they probably want you on site anyway. The
competition for remote work is FIERCE, I was lucky to land the job I did and
am so thankful for it. Save some money just in case because you never know
what could happen.

5\. Don't expect to "change" things over night, everything is slower. People
are open to listening to new perspectives but don't expect them to adopt them
right away or ever.

AMA.

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Troop4Christ
Yup.. I miss definitely escaped the insanity of Silicon Valley in Commiefornia
last November.

Took an $85k+ pay cut to move out to a BEAUTIFUL 40 acre ranch in Middle
Tennessee. And I STILL have more $$ in my pocket at the end of every month
than I had back in crazy land.

I shoot & hunt n my woods, fish in my pond, ride dirt bikes and horses with my
kids. We have a massive 1000+sqft garden my wife planted that we get awesome
produce out of.

I work remotely for a company in MI. So I rarely have to go anywhere..

It's like a dream come true.

~~~
tohmasch
Sounds like a real charm. Congratulations to you. I envy the fresh produce.

~~~
Troop4Christ
It's GREAT.. We're working through the plans to build a chicken coup. I have 4
kids, so we go through 9 eggs every morning. Some of the locals around here
keep giving us their home-grown, free-range (REAL free range, not the nonsense
they define that by out on the West Coast) eggs and we LOVE them!

Homemade smoked sausage too! People here are SOOOOOO much more friendly than
any city I ever lived in. It's such a breath of fresh air.

