People That Won't Settle Down

I'd love to be a nomad, rolling along on byways, highways and city streets. But with gas being so damn expensive, I barely can afford to drive 90 miles.

2 jobs I had security (weekends) 2 years and a 6 year stint to the day with another. Temp jobs a plenty.
 

I used to move every few years, not just around town, which I did, but also to live in different states & different countries. I guess I couldn't afford vacations so I just moved there instead!

I'm only settled now as circumstances force me to be. Otherwise, I'd be on the road again.
 
debodun said:
I've been reading on Quora about some of the people that say they can't stand to live in one place or have the same job for more than a few months. They get "antsy" or "depressed" and can't relate to people that seem happy living in the same house and working at the same job for their whole lives.
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I don't move quite that often, but I have moved and changed jobs a lot. When I was younger I used to think of it as a 3 year cycle, year one adjusting to the new, year two appreciating it, and year three planning the next move. More or less In order:

As a kid, living with parents:
  • Alexandria, Louisiana
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • New Jersey for a short time
  • Dunedin, Florida
  • Tarpon Springs, Florida
  • Ogden, Utah
As an adult:
  • Logan, Utah
  • brief stents in Idaho and Oregon
  • Jackson, Wyoming
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • Jackson, Wyoming
  • Logan, Utah
  • Maryland
  • California
  • Ohio - with second home in Florida spent as much time there as I could
  • Farmington, Utah - still had the Florida home
  • Tallahassee, Florida
  • Alligator Point, Florida
  • back to Utah, where I am now...
Not sure I am done moving yet... time will tell.
Born_To_Lose said:
Changing jobs, unless the person is very unhappy or not suited to the position isn’t a good idea.
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It was usually good for me, meant a step up.
 
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Jules said:
I wouldn’t want to try to find an apartment now.
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Where I live apartments are readily found bucking the norm of the bigger cities. Part of the reason is so much apartment construction here now and some are moving to these new buildings offering luxury living with tennis courts, saunas, huge gyms etc. $2500 and up up up

This leaves vacancies in the buildings the well heeled left. So you can still move into a nice place fully renovated with your own washer/dryer and dishwasher, ceramics and plank vinyl floors in a well managed building for $1500 for a one bedroom.
 
I’ve been living in the same place for the last 40 years. I have no interest in ever moving again. I moved a lot as a navy brat growing up and that of course seemed normal to me. Looking back I see pluses and minuses.

One plus is I think it makes one’s outlook more flexible. What might seem like just the way things are to someone who never moved are obviously options to someone who has. Plus there is no remaining curiosity about how it might be to live somewhere different.

There is something common to just scratching the surface in a new location. A place is a lot like a person, it takes time to get to know. As with new relationships, new places eventually become familiar and familiarity can breed contempt if you’re not thoughtful about it. It seems for me thst to really cover new ground in either relationships or places you have to dig in and work it out. Of course if the early stages of novel relationships with a new person or a place is the only part you enjoy and you don’t find recovering the same stages repetitive, you might prefer something different. I don’t think it is a virtue to settle down or to keep on the move, it is just finding what keeps your interest.
 
We moved a lot, not that we wanted to but because my husband's company relocated us quite a few times. It was a promotion each time. My husband, I am proud to say, was a very good and hard worker that got recognized for his hard work and dedication but that also meant moving!
I did not mind, I saw that as an adventure.
 
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After one rises above Maslov's survival Levels of Needs with an established job, accumulating home and leisure time things, it becomes increasingly unpleasant moving materials and establishing new social relationships. Obviously with those away from relatives/support, without an established career, low pay without opportunity to advance, lack of significant friends or social life, not involved in a community, and little home assets, it probably is not much an issue. Thus most likely while one is a young adult trying to find where they fit in while reading about how so many other peers have found what they don't have so are frustrated, envious. For many people without interest in regional leisure activities, their world is mostly just another similar urban jumble they feel little long term interest in. What many today do have a social connection to is television and higher bandwidth Internet that is available anywhere in all larger urban areas and increasingly elsewhere. A sign of broken modern societal worlds with the rise of a telecom, science, mobile world with overpopulation.

I was brought up in a large middle class California outer suburban family. My impatient dad loved to move and did well in his modest career. I went to 11 different schools during my K12 years with the longest ever living in one place 4 years. So rootless unpleasantness for a kid that I hated. The Viet Nam War and it's forced draft destroyed any normal transition I expected into adulthood. When I got past that, I moved where employment prospects were best and lived like a frugal peon moving about some for about a decade until rising above that.

At that point, everything I would need for a future was where I lived so didn't need to move any more as one residence was as good as the next. As someone coming of age in the late 1960s counterculture person that rejected dominant culture, I was never into material possessions nor envied those living in more expensive residences with all their fancy modern stuff...YAWN. Have also never been in debt and usually had enough savings I could take off for extended periods between jobs and did so enjoying myself till funds would shrivel away. So have been content to live in one mediocre residence for decades that I consider more a hideout. That said, if someone gave me even a few hundred $$$k, yeah I'd buy a modest unit at expensive Pacific Grove to live out my final decades pleasantly next to the walk to ocean. That could happen if I become sponsored as is very possible, but not something I expect or dream about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Grove,_California
 
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debodun said:
I've been reading on Quora about some of the people that say they can't stand to live in one place or have the same job for more than a few months. They get "antsy" or "depressed" and can't relate to people that seem happy living in the same house and working at the same job for their whole lives.

There used to be a woman in my church that was like that, seemed every time I talked with her, she was moving. When I asked her why she moved so much, she'd just shrug.

I'm just the opposite, I will turn 71 in April and I think I moved 3 times and 2 of those times were my parents decision (one move was from an apartment to a flat in the same house). I worked 38 years for our state's health department.
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We are all so different Deb
My hubby says you should only stay in a job for a few years and move house regular or you become stagnant !!!
 
MarkD said:
I’ve been living in the same place for the last 40 years. I have no interest in ever moving again. I moved a lot as a navy brat growing up and that of course seemed normal to me. Looking back I see pluses and minuses.

One plus is I think it makes one’s outlook more flexible. What might seem like just the way things are to someone who never moved are obviously options to someone who has. Plus there is no remaining curiosity about how it might be to live somewhere different.

There is something common to just scratching the surface in a new location. A place is a lot like a person, it takes time to get to know. As with new relationships, new places eventually become familiar and familiarity can breed contempt if you’re not thoughtful about it. It seems for me thst to really cover new ground in either relationships or places you have to dig in and work it out. Of course if the early stages of novel relationships with a new person or a place is the only part you enjoy and you don’t find recovering the same stages repetitive, you might prefer something different. I don’t think it is a virtue to settle down or to keep on the move, it is just finding what keeps your interest.
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True. I moved a lot when I was a young laborer and had 3 kids. Soon as we settled someplace and I had a couple days off work, we'd totally explore our new area. Like, from Arizona we went all over Arches Nat'l Park and Hoover Dam, and from the western slope of Colorado we went down into the canyon lands. And between moves I'd stop along the way to where we'd be settling to see dinosaur digs, explore caves, check out ghost towns, lakes, airfields, and whatever.
 
Alligatorob said:
I don't move quite that often, but I have moved and changed jobs a lot. When I was younger I used to think of it as a 3 year cycle, year one adjusting to the new, year two appreciating it, and year three planning the next move. More or less In order:

As a kid, living with parents:
  • Alexandria, Louisiana
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • New Jersey for a short time
  • Dunedin, Florida
  • Tarpon Springs, Florida
  • Ogden, Utah
As an adult:
  • Logan, Utah
  • brief stents in Idaho and Oregon
  • Jackson, Wyoming
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • Jackson, Wyoming
  • Logan, Utah
  • Maryland
  • California
  • Ohio - with second home in Florida spent as much time there as I could
  • Farmington, Utah - still had the Florida home
  • Tallahassee, Florida
  • Alligator Point, Florida
  • back to Utah, where I am now...
Not sure I am done moving yet... time will tell.

It was usually good for me, meant a step up.
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I should have wrote changing places of employment is usually not a good idea. Best bet is to find that job you like and is a good company with a good pension plan so that when you retire, you should be in good financial condition.

Changing jobs with the same company as a promotion is always a good idea, so long as the workload doesn’t exceed what you are able to handle or cuts into your family life.
 
Born_To_Lose said:
I should have wrote changing places of employment is usually not a good idea. Best bet is to find that job you like and is a good company with a good pension plan so that when you retire, you should be in good financial condition.
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I never had a job with benefits or prospects. Even with a job requiring a university degree, it was hourly wage, part time, and/or poor conditions.
 
officerripley said:
Are there any jobs like that still? :unsure:
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Most union jobs are still a good place to work if you are willing to work. Caterpillar Tractor, Harley Davidson, General Electric (most sites), Teamster Truckers are an example of good union jobs with very good benefits. There are some offices that are union and have very good benefits. There are still some good jobs with good benefits out there, if you want to dig your heels in and find them.

I had a job with the Federal government, but we weren't union. We also were paid very well and had really great benefits.
 
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