Now that we’ve discussed reasons WHY you should stop putting off the move you want to make, let’s move on to HOW.

I can speak from experience that exploring and prioritizing the factors that add up to your big move can make your relocation not only possible, but exciting!  Is it scary?  A little, but it’s “fun-scary”– like the feeling you get on a haunted hayride where you don’t know for sure what’s around the next bend or just how deep into the cornfield this thing is going, but you know you volunteered to be there, and you’re intrigued.

Although I’ve always been a fan of spontaneity, I know that it’s not realistic for most of us to just hop in the car and move across the country.  People have done this with varying degrees of success, however, I don’t exactly encourage it.

I approach things a bit more strategically, but with full faith in myself and the end goal all the while.  Some may say that my husband and I are lucky people and, to an extent, we certainly are.  However, I also believe that our patience, willingness, and confidence in planning and plotting for our relocation from Philadelphia to Florida successfully got us here.

HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR REASONING

When my mom and stepdad decided to buy in Florida many years ago now, I wasn’t motivated enough to move.  People retire and move to Florida… that’s what they do.  I didn’t want to just follow my parents down south, especially as a fineeee, young, single lady playing the field. Bahaha.  When I met Patrick, we both enjoyed knowing that we had a place to vacation in Florida, so we made a couple of trips down.

A few years ago, when my sister and her husband were ironically relocated to Florida for employment purposes, I raised more of an eyebrow at the thought of relocating.  Patrick was drawn to the area for the slower-paced lifestyle, the abundance of sunshine, and the year-long warm weather.  As we discussed starting a family, it became apparent to be that I wanted to be closer to my mom and sister when that time would come.  Patrick yearned for a refreshing start in a warmer climate.  The end goal came into view.

ASK QUESTIONS

We officially decided in July 2014 that we’d like to move.  We were to be married 5 months later in December 2014.  It was time to start interviewing ourselves.

• Is a move possible?  (Anything’s possible.)
• How soon did we want to move?  (Pretty soon after the wedding. After all, starting a family wouldn’t be too long after our nuptials.  In the end, we moved 6 weeks later.)
• Will we have enough money to do so, and when?  (Yes… after the wedding.)
  • How much do we really need though anyway?  (Consider security deposits and travel costs like tolls, gas, etc.  The apartment we found did not require a security deposit, so we needed about ~$1300 for first month’s rent, $1200 for a moving truck– unless you can just pack your car and go– and ~$300 in gas and tolls collectively)
• When is our lease up?  (March 2015.)
• Can we get out of lease sooner without penalty?  (We checked the lease.  We could.  We contacted our landlord.  We were able to move our lease end date up to 1/31/15 without penalty. We’d have just January to find ourselves somewhere to live for February, in Florida.  The time crunch was exciting.)
  • If I can’t get out of my lease, can I sublet?  (Check your lease.)
    • If I can sublet, how difficult or easy is it to sublet a place in this area?  (Put feelers out.  Post your place on Craigslist.  You can always delete the ad.  You’re just testing the waters.)
• What will we do about jobs?  (I started a conversation with my company about taking my job remotely.  It was approved.  This is where I’ll definitely admit our luck is often unparalleled.  Would things have been more complicated if one of us did NOT have a job to move down to?  Absolutely.  Were we still going?  Absolutely.)
  • If I can’t take my position remotely, do I have family or friends in the area that can help with networking?
  • Would I be willing to take a temporary “job” in my new area until I can get back into my career?
• Can we survive (long-term, if it happens) on just one of us having a job?  (By budgeting, we could.)
• Does my or my spouse’s industry hire relatively quickly and simply? (Yes.)
• How is the current job market?  (It was…myeh.)
• Am I hire-able?  (N/A)
  • Is my spouse?  (Extremely.)
• Do we have good enough credit to easily find a place?
  • Yes – Great! (We did)
  • No
    • Do I have time to fix my credit reasonably before the deadline I’ve already set for moving?
      • Yes – Great! Fix it and bring up that score!
      • No – Okay, home-share organizations these days, like Air BnB, let you move in to fully furnished places for a month at a time.  Check it out.

LEAVE *SOME* UP TO THE STARS

As we prepared to leave Philadelphia, Patrick put his two weeks in at a great company where he had tremendous potential just because we kept that same end goal of getting to Florida in sight.  We were fully prepared to budget and live off of just my salary until he could find employment down south.

As we literally vacuumed up our now-empty apartment, moving truck full and waiting outside, Patrick received a call from a former co-worker (like, so literally that I had to turn off the vacuum in order for Patrick to take the call).  The former co-worker had heard of our relocation intentions.  He knew of an opening for a remote sales position.

He was calling to see if Patrick was interested.

Sixteen hours on the road, a few more days, and a lot of cardboard boxes later, we both logged in to work from home from the comforts of our St. Petersburg townhouse.

What??

 

Was it all luck or did we possibly follow the right action plan and everything else fell into place?  Did our faith in the situation outweigh the worst case scenario? Was it a little bit of luck sprinkled onto a well-laid-out plan? Does stuff like this only happen to us, or are others just not yet willing to take the leap?

Most importantly, how willing are you to find out for yourself?

Tags: big move, cross-country, decisions, life change, move, moving, relocating, relocation, road trip