From Rome, Italy: Finding The Floor On Your Cost Of Living
Here’s a review of what we’re doing here and what we’ve done—
This is post #10 of 20 for the month of February, which is coming to you from Rome, Italy. After spending the first two weeks of February in Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid), we’re back in Rome pretty much a year to the day of our last—and first—visit here.
Today, we depart from the format we've been following in these posts to explore an important question about cities and where you decide to live, particularly if you plan on making a change due to cost of living or some other money meets lifestyle factor. Don't worry, we'll get back to the food porn, from Rome, in post #11. But this question has been on my mind since our time in Madrid.
But first, today’s Never Retire checklist item—finding the floor on your cost of living—ahead of a full treatment of the subject in March, when I’ll write 20 posts in 31 days, meticulously detailing each of the 20 checklist items.
It’s one thing to have a low cost of living. It’s entirely another to find the floor on your cost of living. It all depends on how extreme you need or want to go. Extreme carries negative connotations. However, it’s similar to turning Never Retire into a positive. What might seem extreme to one person is perfectly acceptable, if not preferred for another.
If you live in a place like I do where the average rent is $2,433 and people routinely drop high hundreds, if not more than $1,000 a month on car payments, you could claim a cost of living with $2,000 rent and a $500 a month vehicle note.
But have you really found the floor? Be it the objective floor (like the basement) or your true floor (something lower than low that you’re comfortable with practically and psychologically).
In post #10 in March, we expand on the meaning of finding the floor and how to do it so it works for you and ultimately enhances your quality of life.
Does the place make the people or do the people make the place?