69 days left to new year, new me
If you’re 35–50 and ready to put real money or effort to work, the question isn’t “Where’s hot?” It’s “Where will my next three years compound?” That’s the point of Smart Movers Club: make market choices with evidence, not ya cousins opinion. You don’t need a Wall Street background to do this. You need a clean lens for reading what’s happening on the ground and the discipline to ignore the noise. Here’s a straightforward way to pick a city, a county, or a corridor for your next move—career, business, or investment—without getting trapped by headlines or influencer lists.
Start with earning power. Forget generic salary charts; you care about take home pay in a specific place. That means wages for your field, state and local taxes, insurance, and housing costs on the block where you’d actually live. A market with slightly lower salaries can still win if your monthly nut is thousands less and your commute is sane. Run your numbers like a mini pro forma: after-tax income minus housing, transportation, insurance, childcare or school costs, and a realistic savings line. If you’re moving a business, do the same math on your operating budget: rent, utilities, payroll bands, and any local fees you’ll actually pay. If the net cash each month is meaningfully higher, you’ve already created an edge.
Then check staying power. You don’t need a five-page thesis—just three real-world signals. First, jobs. Are employers adding headcount in your sector over the last 6–12 months, or is it one splashy announcement and crickets? Second, permits. Are commercial and residential permits trending up, flat, or delayed? Permits tell you whether builders believe demand is durable. When jobs, permits, and practical incentives point in the same direction, you’re looking at a place with momentum you can bank on.
Now stress test entry price. You don’t buy averages; you buy addresses. If it’s real estate, look at price-to-income and rent-to-income ratios in the neighborhoods you’d touch—not the whole metro. Can you acquire or rent in a zone with schools, hospitals, and logistics within 20–30 minutes? If it’s a business, can you stand up your sales and operations with off-the-shelf tools and one or two local hires, or will you drown in overhead and approvals? The best markets for you aren’t always the cheapest—they’re the ones where the inputs you control combine with outside momentum you don’t control.
There’s also the human layer. You’re not moving for an Instagram photo; you’re moving to stack advantages. Map the week you want: a commute you can tolerate, schools or programs you trust, a network you can tap quickly, and a backup plan if an employer or client changes direction. Talk to one operator who’s actually executing locally: a contractor, a property manager, a small-business owner, or a recruiter who fills real roles. Ask what surprised them in the last year and what they wish they knew before they chose that location. One grounded conversation beats three top things to do in [insert city] youtube video. (reddit is cool too)
If you’re choosing between two places, give each market a simple score from one to ten on five items: take home income, housing access, employer mix, anchor industries, and your personal network there. You’re not trying to be “objective”; you’re trying to be consistent. If one place wins three out of five and your monthly cash delta is obvious, that’s your answer. If it’s a tie, delay the move, visit once more, and see how your assumptions hold up on a weekday—not a long weekend.
If you need help. SMC put together this 12 Month Relocation Blueprint that I will send to you at no cost. Just reply to this message with “want one!”
The last filter is risk. Assume plans take longer and cost more than your spreadsheet says. Does the decision still make sense if you hit a slower job change, a 100-basis-point rate bump, or a three-month delay in permits? If yes, you’re not chasing a trend; you’re building a base. If no, tighten your plan or expand your search radius to the secondary suburb that shares the same job engine but offers better entry.
Smart Movers don’t need secret data; they need a repeatable way to read the obvious before everyone else does. Follow where employers are actually hiring, where migration is trending positve without over population, and where infrastructure and utility support growth and is sustainable. Pair that with your own budget reality and the life you want to live, and your next move becomes an asset, not a gamble.
until Monday,
Stacy
Founder, CEO - Smart Movers Club
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