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Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

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Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#181

Post by stephen_cagle »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #123
georgewsinger wrote: post #101

I had to move from NYC to Oklahoma to save SimulaVR ( https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula ). This was over a year ago, and I'm still here. Because of this I have saved an enormous amount of money (such that I'm still able to work full time on SimulaVR while I search for VC funding elsewhere). The other co-founder of Simula is also remote (in Germany). Since this was pre-pandemic, it's been very hard to explain to VCs…

Just wanted to touch on some of what you said, as I took a year to recoup from burnout in a fairly small-sized town... Saving money, and having "time" are great, but at least for me the people in small towns live very different lives. The pace is slow and it's easy to become complacent. Compounding that is by not following the pace of life there, you're going against the grain and it will cause friction in your life.…

I think the same advice applies to a lot of potential moves.

If you can, AirBnB at least a month before actually making the move.

Far cheaper to do that and realize your mistake early than actually move and realize you screwed up. As an additional benefit, if it turns out that it is a place you actually want to move to, you will have a better idea of the sort of neighborhood you might like.

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#182

Post by kbob »

screye wrote: post #142
david38 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College campuses. The Midwest had several large (student body and size) campuses with strong engineering departments.

Will second this, college towns are excellent places to do this. Especially large public schools within a day trip to a major city or in a non-tech city in general. Examples- Ann arbor, Amherst, Pittsburg, College station TX, Phoenix, Champaign, Chapel hill, Madison, Boulder.

I came here to say this. College towns are my favorite places to live.

I think a big part of it is that the faculty and staff both create and demand culture more than average people. They also appreciate and support public schools and libraries.

And since academia doesn't pay well, there's less cost of living inflation than in private sector tech cities.

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#183

Post by beamatronic »

_dwt wrote: post #127
georgewsinger wrote: post #101

I had to move from NYC to Oklahoma to save SimulaVR ( https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula ). This was over a year ago, and I'm still here. Because of this I have saved an enormous amount of money (such that I'm still able to work full time on SimulaVR while I search for VC funding elsewhere). The other co-founder of Simula is also remote (in Germany). Since this was pre-pandemic, it's been very hard to explain to VCs…

Is it possible that there are places in the United States which are neither the Bay Area, nor NYC, nor Oklahoma? Surely at least some residents of these places, if they exist, might in fact dispute the broad-spectrum superiority of our most culturally legible cities. Some of these hypothetical humans might even work more than 100 hours a week, perhaps even outdoors!

Sacramento. Totally undervalued. No one seems to see this!

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#184

Post by dragonwriter »

georgewsinger wrote: post #101

I had to move from NYC to Oklahoma to save SimulaVR ( https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula ). This was over a year ago, and I'm still here. Because of this I have saved an enormous amount of money (such that I'm still able to work full time on SimulaVR while I search for VC funding elsewhere). The other co-founder of Simula is also remote (in Germany). Since this was pre-pandemic, it's been very hard to explain to VCs…

> Yes, it's true that SF/NY have horrific governance, regulatory policies, taxes, and so forth (which cause high rents)

No, it's true that SF and NY have lots of people willing to spend lots of money in order to live there instead of elsewhere, largely because they expect to be able to make more money there, which causes high rents.

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#185

Post by screye »

flemhans wrote: post #173
screye wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will second this, college towns are excellent places to do this. Especially large public schools within a day trip to a major city or in a non-tech city in general. Examples- Ann arbor, Amherst, Pittsburg, College station TX, Phoenix, Champaign, Chapel hill, Madison, Boulder.

How would it be like to move an existing startup to e.g. Amherst? Wouldn't it still feel like being in the countryside a bit? I'd imagine I would potentially slow down.

It's funny that of all the cities I listed you asked about Amherst, because that's the only one that I have lived in.

There are a few [3] tech startups in Amherst. Umass has a US top 10 AI/ML department [1][2], so most of these work with the world class labs there.

The town itself is wonderful, since it is basically 5 schools with a total of about 30k students, under the age of 30. So, it can be pretty happening. There is also the neighboring town on Northampton which brings in a lot of 'culture'. It isn't city life, but it isn't bad at all. Boston is 2 hrs away, which isn't too bad if you need to do weekly trips to meet investors / important people / others in the startup scene.

You can source talent by giving low-ish paid interns to the really smart CS students, and get amazing consultants by working with the profs there. Ofc, all of this only works if your work and the research/focus of the labs align. For the 'be ambitious' spirit of tech hubs, you can rely on 'overworked grad students' to lend that same kind of energy.

Although honestly, places like Ann Arbor,Champaign and Pittsburg, will probably get you better talent (UMich, UIUC, CMU) at only a marginally higher cost. Amherst is really worth it if the offerings at UMass and Boston align perfectly with your product.

[1] http://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp&ir

[2] https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...

[3] https://www.lexalytics.com/

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#187

Post by 309d9095 »

a-wu wrote: post #70

Yup. Living with parents. Cancelled my lease (saving $3500/mo). My manager agreed to let me stay at home at least for the rest of 2020. Honestly, it's been nice. My mom cooks for me like I'm a teenager again, and I only recently graduated and I went to school pretty close to home so I have close HS friends or college friends nearby to physically distanced socialize. I was planning on moving back here in the future bu…

Wow, $3500/month on lease? In my country, folks "earn" one eighth of that on average.

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#188

Post by cercatrova »

david38 wrote: post #139
_dwt wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that there are places in the United States which are neither the Bay Area, nor NYC, nor Oklahoma? Surely at least some residents of these places, if they exist, might in fact dispute the broad-spectrum superiority of our most culturally legible cities. Some of these hypothetical humans might even work more than 100 hours a week, perhaps even outdoors!

College campuses. The Midwest had several large (student body and size) campuses with strong engineering departments.

I'd disagree, the work that's done in college campuses, are for, well, college. Students don't have time to work on startups really, there just isn't the same commitment as when in the workforce or doing it full time.

Or perhaps I'm missing something else in this comment?

Re: Ask HN: Have any of you moved back home to save money?

#189

Post by vladvasiliu »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #123
georgewsinger wrote: post #101

I had to move from NYC to Oklahoma to save SimulaVR ( https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula ). This was over a year ago, and I'm still here. Because of this I have saved an enormous amount of money (such that I'm still able to work full time on SimulaVR while I search for VC funding elsewhere). The other co-founder of Simula is also remote (in Germany). Since this was pre-pandemic, it's been very hard to explain to VCs…

Just wanted to touch on some of what you said, as I took a year to recoup from burnout in a fairly small-sized town... Saving money, and having "time" are great, but at least for me the people in small towns live very different lives. The pace is slow and it's easy to become complacent. Compounding that is by not following the pace of life there, you're going against the grain and it will cause friction in your life.…

I get what both you and GP are saying, but isn't there some middle ground?

I was thinking of something along the same lines and was fearing pretty much the points you have raised.

However, I'm currently living in Paris, France. So in this particular situation, instead of moving to some small town in the middle of nowhere, I could move to some town in the suburbs. That would be far enough for it to be much quieter and calmer than Paris, also much cheaper, especially since I ride a motorcycle so I wouldn't have to be close to public transportation. But it would still be close enough to Paris for it to be practical to attend conferences / cultural events / whatever without spending a day on the road.

Don't arrangements like this exist in the US? Say some town 100 km or so from NY / SF that would make a terribly daily commute but would be bearable once in a while when you need to meet people / go to events?

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