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Quite right! My wife and I moved here with 2 small kids from SoCal in 2007 with NO JOBS, and I'm happy to say I got a job within 3 weeks of looking, and was earning the same as the job I walked away from inside of 2. Be where you want to be.
I was lucky - my job in IT is highly portable. Just like a teacher.
Just out of curiosity, isn't NH a destination for Indpendents and Libertarians, that basically want the ultimate in freedom, and small gov't? So, perhaps politics might play a part in your decision. NH sounds like a haven for conservatives.
When I heard about that, it sounded compelling, but it's too far north, and too damn cold for us.
It doesn't sound to me you want NH, but he does. What's His Stuff like? If it is tools, then his stuff will be real handy. If his stuff is golf clubs and brica brack who knows what, it might not be so handy.
A great deal of NH little folks do more than one job in the same day and have a weekend job with a 2nd job on those days to get by. No one comes here to get rich. You either love the land and the weather no matter what it is, or you end up hating the place.
I agree you have no idea what a real winter is. NH is what you make of it. If 18% gray for months on end in winter seems bad then more in rainy wet cold Spring will make it worse till the bugs come out and then they will make most anyone miserable.
June 21st just came and went, being this is the 27th it means winter IS on the way. It means anyone here now has around 90 days to get ready.
Sounds like we are in complete opposite positions! I have spent my entire life in NH and am SO ready to leave. I am actually applying to a nursing school in...FL!
I would suggest trying to visit in the middle to end of January. That's when you will see our real winter. It's looonnng and can be extremely cold. It does get dark very early and it seems like everyone in my family is counting the days until spring. And when I say my family I mean my extended family members who have also lived here their entire lives and despise long winters and short summers.
On the flip side, there are people who LOVE it here. It is beautiful with the lakes and mountains and clean air. But I think a lot of those people are transplants and have only been here a little while. They are gung-ho on the skiing and all things snow, and maybe you are too. If you are this is the place for you!
I am definitely not trying to discourage you. If this is a dream of your family's, go for it! You might just fall in love with the area. I'm just biased about NOT living here because I hate the snow and long cold months, LOL!
As for jobs, I'm north of where you want to be so I'm not so familiar with jobs in that area. Probably not much available (other than when teaching jobs open) unless you want to commute to Concord, which still isn't a huge metropolis. I suppose if you lived in the Meredith area there are quite a few schools, even if you drove to the Holderness/Plymouth area. If you haven't yet, check out this site: Staffing and Salary Reports | Data Collection & Records | NH Department of Education It gives you teaching info. for NH such as salary averages by year, salary schedule, etc.
Sounds like we are in complete opposite positions! I have spent my entire life in NH and am SO ready to leave. I am actually applying to a nursing school in...FL!
I would suggest trying to visit in the middle to end of January. That's when you will see our real winter. It's looonnng and can be extremely cold. It does get dark very early and it seems like everyone in my family is counting the days until spring. And when I say my family I mean my extended family members who have also lived here their entire lives and despise long winters and short summers.
On the flip side, there are people who LOVE it here. It is beautiful with the lakes and mountains and clean air. But I think a lot of those people are transplants and have only been here a little while. They are gung-ho on the skiing and all things snow, and maybe you are too. If you are this is the place for you!
I am definitely not trying to discourage you. If this is a dream of your family's, go for it! You might just fall in love with the area. I'm just biased about NOT living here because I hate the snow and long cold months, LOL!
As for jobs, I'm north of where you want to be so I'm not so familiar with jobs in that area. Probably not much available (other than when teaching jobs open) unless you want to commute to Concord, which still isn't a huge metropolis. I suppose if you lived in the Meredith area there are quite a few schools, even if you drove to the Holderness/Plymouth area. If you haven't yet, check out this site: Staffing and Salary Reports | Data Collection & Records | NH Department of Education It gives you teaching info. for NH such as salary averages by year, salary schedule, etc.
Good luck with your decision!
We actually just moved back to N.H. not to far south of you. Was born, raised and lived my whole life in N.H. except the last ten years spent just outside of Tampa. I sure am glad to be back home. But you are right, not much snow down there. Good luck with your move.
We actually just moved back to N.H. not to far south of you. Was born, raised and lived my whole life in N.H. except the last ten years spent just outside of Tampa. I sure am glad to be back home. But you are right, not much snow down there. Good luck with your move.
Hi Ken
How did you like Tampa while you were there? I have an opportunity to get into a nursing program right off and we would love to see some SUN for a while! LOL! Did you completely hate the area? Is it safe? I appreciate your input since you have lived both here and there! Thank you!
It was OK. I didnt "completly" hate it. It has it's good points and it's bad points. It really didn't offer me the quality of life that i had in N.H. for so many years. It has it's safe areas and not so good areas.Theres a lot of good info on this forum. Take a lot of it with a grain of salt. I will most definatly go back to visit as i have friends there but it's really not a place that i care to live. Good Luck
Movedfromflorida, you sound alot like us. We're low-key too. After nearly a lifetime of living all over the place (Military) we are currently living in Florida---have been for almost 20 years now. We've always wanted to move as we miss the seasons terribly and we are just plain tired of HOT, but we hesitate greatly in this economy and we just aren't ready to lose our healthcoverage. We are looking to move up North one day though and I sincerely hope it's sooner rather than later. My son wants to go to the Boston area, but I feel it's just too expensive for us. We're looking all over the Northeast---along with a few states in the Northwest. We're hoping to take advantage of any opportunity that will help get us out of here.
You all sound like you've got your bases covered and you seem to be doing your research. There is no reason to worry about SADD if you take steps to offset it---you can still enjoy sunlight in a winter wonderland should it come down to that. Also, there are good lamps that help with that issue too. Lots of 'sunlight' lightbulbs on the market that you can use as 'therapy', lol. My husband is alot like yours: he wants to go NOW. Lots of luck to you!
Yes, I realize that the winters will be different. I'm scared that I will get SADD and not like the dark/ cold. I don't like the idea of it getting dark at 4:30PM at ALL. My husband loves the wood stove, but I wonder how many rentals will have one of those? (we're talking a rental single family home, not apt, because we need a garage for all of his stuff - ugh)
The seacoast would be nice, but the cost of living is higher. We're looking at towns around Lake Winni because we like being close to a lake, and we didn't really like the area over by Keene/ Sunapee when we were there. Towns like Gilmanton or Pittsfield seem like they have affordable rentals and are close to the lake and Concord/ Seacoast.
Again, the jobs factor is a big concern for me too. I don't want to spend that money that we have and then come back to FL broke and jobless. We won't have $80k because we just met with the real estate agent here and we're going to (of course) take a loss on this house. We might have around $60k best case now. Then we have to buy snow tires, snow removal equipment (?), etc. We certainly will not have spare money to spend driving all over NH and doing any fun stuff. (and no money to buy snowshoes, skiis, etc to get out in the snow either unless we somehow manage to land a decent job up there fairly quickly)
Our chances of getting teaching jobs in NH are slim to none for the coming school year. So what could we do besides sub, work in a pizza joint, or try to find an HR job for me. Again, we would end up barely making ends meet or tapping into the emergency fund. (which we would need if we had to come back to FL)
What I want to do is take a trip to NH this December and see the winter first hand. Last time we visited, it was late September so we did get to see some nice weather and fall colors.
The other concern I have is my parents and brother live in FL. We would never see them (we can't afford to fly the family down and don't want to fly for other reasons as well). They can't afford to fly up much either and I don't know that they want to drive 20+ hours being age 67.
My husband has an interview here tomorrow, but the competition is stiff for the few teaching jobs. If he gets it, of course we'll stay for now and get a better plan together over the coming year.
Oh and to make matters worse, we don't really own any "winter" clothes!
I grew up 20 minutes from NH and then lived there for about 15 years. If I had kids, I would rather raise them in NH than FL. NH is a beautiful state with mountains, the ocean, no income and no sales tax. It is small in land size so you can get to one end to the other easily, and, you're not far from VT, Canada, Maine, Mass, etc. And, while winter will certainly be a change from what you're used to, a snow storm can be quite beautiful and a good excuse to stay in side, bake, watch a movie, etc.
I understand your concern over money, however, I don't quite undestand complaining about having to buy winter clothes and not being able to afford skiis and snow removal equipment. Unless you have a Duggar size family, get a few sweaters, a sweatshirt or two, a few long sleeved shirts, jeans, for each family member. You don't need to go crazy with the shopping. It's not like you'll be in the northern territories with 50 degrees below zero every night. And as far as not being able to afford skiis .... there is craigslist, and there are always ski swaps. You don't have to spend a mini-fortune on skiis. As far as snow removal, snow blowers aren't that expensive, and, you probably could find one off of craigslist. My roommate got his off of CL for next to nothing.
In terms of "never" seeing your family again in FL, that sounds a bit fatalistic. There are lots of flights between the northeast and FL. And, there are a fair amount of New England transplants in Florida. People manage. They fly back and forth when they can. My grandparents used to drive, b/c they were road-trippers. I understand that moving to another area of the country brings up a lot of anxiety (I am considering relocating myself), but, don't assume that everything is going to be bad, or too expensive, or cost prohibitive. You and your husband are both smart, educated, and would come with a decent chunck of change in the bank (I'll bet a lot of folks would trade bank accounts!).
Have some faith, search CL for jobs and rentals, reach out to a RE agent, browse monster, careerbuilder, indeeds for jobs, and enjoy the new experiences that await.
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Take the Plunge
