My wife and I went through a very similar journey to what you’ve described. I left Google just 2 weeks before the pandemic to go solo, and as the world opened up, and my wife joined the business, we realized we had a lot more freedom…and we were sick of London weather!
We went on a what we called a Semi-Nomadic experiment, aimed at testing out different cities for about 3 months to get the feel.
For us, we chose Lisbon due to climate, access to nature, great people, and close-ish to my wife’s family in London.
Cost-of-living actually wasn’t that high on our radar (somewhat naively) but after spending a few months in Austin and then going to Lisbon, we realized how much this impacts quality of life (US healthcare as a self-employed person is nuts)
Anyway, thanks for sharing and I’ll definitely use this essay the next time a friend asks for advice on where to live!
Thanks for opening this up. I was surprised that you don’t really talk about what these choices mean for children growing up. Ie who they grow up with, not just where. Schools & family time are certainly considered, but when we moved from nyc to Asheville my daughters life was changed by being in a neighborhood of kids, ours by having 4-5 families we go camping with and hang out with. It was part of what made us grateful to be here.
One of those families landed here despite using a spreadsheet to rank locations, that didn’t include this place. Just a note to engineers, don’t abstract it too much & neighbors matter.
A really great point! Thank you Kurt. I've realised after six years of being here, it has formed a huge part of my own quality of life here in Barcelona. "Community" is now one of my core key values. And it's actually so important that it can trump any of the others.
Great article, thanks Kevin! It's something we are wrestling with right now. We sketched up our own list of priorities but having a more codified system is great (I'm a big fan of frameworks). There's lots of interplay amongst all this, trade-offs and compromises, and even hierarchies of priorities to consider. For us, my wife's job is in Amsterdam and she needs to be in the office three days a week so we have to work everything else back from there. So then, the artistry comes in trying to balance the other priorities - for me: space, culture and proximity to family (I'm from the UK - so need access to train or plane - but my Dutch wife's family is further south in the country - and we'd like to be closer). Culture is an interesting one. I don't just see it as the buzz side but also the cultural identity side - I speak Dutch and have Dutch friends but I would feel a bit of an outsider in a traditional Dutch village.
I think your list is great but I might condense the work options a little? Couldn't 'job security' be wrapped up into 'work opportunities' and is there a place to put 'taxes' so it doesn't get its own title, like in 'income'. Last one: could point 12 just be 'Mobility'?
Great read!
Late commenter here :)
My wife and I went through a very similar journey to what you’ve described. I left Google just 2 weeks before the pandemic to go solo, and as the world opened up, and my wife joined the business, we realized we had a lot more freedom…and we were sick of London weather!
We went on a what we called a Semi-Nomadic experiment, aimed at testing out different cities for about 3 months to get the feel.
For us, we chose Lisbon due to climate, access to nature, great people, and close-ish to my wife’s family in London.
Cost-of-living actually wasn’t that high on our radar (somewhat naively) but after spending a few months in Austin and then going to Lisbon, we realized how much this impacts quality of life (US healthcare as a self-employed person is nuts)
Anyway, thanks for sharing and I’ll definitely use this essay the next time a friend asks for advice on where to live!
Thanks for opening this up. I was surprised that you don’t really talk about what these choices mean for children growing up. Ie who they grow up with, not just where. Schools & family time are certainly considered, but when we moved from nyc to Asheville my daughters life was changed by being in a neighborhood of kids, ours by having 4-5 families we go camping with and hang out with. It was part of what made us grateful to be here.
One of those families landed here despite using a spreadsheet to rank locations, that didn’t include this place. Just a note to engineers, don’t abstract it too much & neighbors matter.
A really great point! Thank you Kurt. I've realised after six years of being here, it has formed a huge part of my own quality of life here in Barcelona. "Community" is now one of my core key values. And it's actually so important that it can trump any of the others.
Great article Kevin! As a fellow Barcelonian I couldn't agree more with your choice. Also love the Venn Diagram that you drew out, nice visual touch.
Great article, thanks Kevin! It's something we are wrestling with right now. We sketched up our own list of priorities but having a more codified system is great (I'm a big fan of frameworks). There's lots of interplay amongst all this, trade-offs and compromises, and even hierarchies of priorities to consider. For us, my wife's job is in Amsterdam and she needs to be in the office three days a week so we have to work everything else back from there. So then, the artistry comes in trying to balance the other priorities - for me: space, culture and proximity to family (I'm from the UK - so need access to train or plane - but my Dutch wife's family is further south in the country - and we'd like to be closer). Culture is an interesting one. I don't just see it as the buzz side but also the cultural identity side - I speak Dutch and have Dutch friends but I would feel a bit of an outsider in a traditional Dutch village.
I think your list is great but I might condense the work options a little? Couldn't 'job security' be wrapped up into 'work opportunities' and is there a place to put 'taxes' so it doesn't get its own title, like in 'income'. Last one: could point 12 just be 'Mobility'?