The Premium of Living Remotely

I was driving through the mountains of Northern Georgia on our most recent July 4th vacation and realized how many things I take for granted, like:

• Flat, straight roads (with drainage).
• A 3-minute drive to the hospital in case of emergency.
• Easy access to destinations where I work, shop, or obtain services.
• The ability to drive my 2-wheel-drive car year-round.
• Help being only a phone call away.
• Internet and reliable wireless service.

There is a premium to living remotely, additional time and money spent on the privilege, and it’s obviously worth it for those who choose this lifestyle. Money is spent on gas driving up and down the mountain, buying extra supplies, maintaining “stronger” cars, etc.

Maybe it’s some of the benefits apparent in remote living:

• (Potentially), a lower cost of living.
• A much stronger connection to nature.
• A more developed sense of community.
• A great degree of privacy.

Living out here is a different lifestyle; perhaps this is how many people offset those cost and time premiums:

• Less driving “to” things and more of finding things “to do,” here.
• Use of the space around you for entertainment, pleasure, sustenance, and more.
• Enjoyment of isolation (really, mountain living is not for the avid city-dweller).
• Reliance on support from the community (i.e. your neighbors), beyond borrowing sugar.
• A greater sense of self-reliance (doing your own car maintenance, self-protection such as guns, etc.).
• Alternative career options (e.g. work-from-home), unless retirement is an option.

There are many trade-offs to this kind of life, but I feel a certain draw to the experience. Who knows…will life eventually lead us here?

Where do you live? Why?

Photo by dimitryseliv