Should I Pursue a Remote Job for a Better Lifestyle?
I am currently working a stable corporate job making roughly $150k. I enjoy what I do and I’m good at it too. I have great career growth opportunity here. There are also perks like travel, dinners, etc. I get some flexibility to work from home. Cost of living here is lower than the average. All is good with my career.
The problem is I don’t have much of a life outside of work. I live in the Midwest, where I grew up, in a mid-size city. The combination of the long/cold/dark winters, lots of drive time to commute to work, and the lack of spontaneous energy here makes me feel drained and unhappy. There are a lot of days where I come home feeling too tired to do anything or there’s quite literally nothing to do because it’s gloomy out. Most people live in family-oriented suburbs here and spend time at home. If you are single, life is car-based in the sense that you need to make plans with friends ahead of time and drive to meet them somewhere. No spontaneous energy.
I’ve had the chance to live on the Pacific Ocean in the past and I was dramatically happier in my personal life. I was active every day, felt the sunlight on my face, and my social/dating life came naturally. This is because people are out and about in densely populated areas doing the things they love, and it’s much easier to spontaneously bump into people and strike up conversation. It’s frictionless and consistent. Unfortunately, I had to move back because I was working a sales job (which wasn’t stable), it was far from home, and there was an extremely high cost of living. I miss it dearly.
I’m 30 years old now and it seems I only have a couple more years to restart again if I want to have kids before 40. I am at the point where I am debating maybe trying to find a remote job in my field in Florida as soon as next year. My thought is that it could be a happy medium. 50% of the cost of California/Hawaii, with 75% of the benefits, a bit closer to the Midwest (where half of my family is). The other half of my family is down in Florida already.
I feel like if I stay in my current stable job situation, I may not meet a future spouse or many friends. However, if I attempt to pursue a happier life, then I risk my career.
Most of the best jobs in my field are located where I am now and even if I do find a remote job, they tend to lack growth opportunity and have potential to get eliminated.
TLDR: I have an amazing job where I live, but it’s preventing me from moving anywhere else. I’m not sure I’ll ever be happy where I’m living. Anyone else gone through similar and have advice?