Coastal HCOL Dwellers Head to LCOL Midwest

We coastals used to mock the midwest as "flyover country."

Now, as The Wall Street Journal documents, we're embracing locations such as Wisconsin, Missouri and Ohio as a Promised Land of affordability. Prime example: Because it provides LCOL (low cost of living) home ownership and rentals the majority of us can live here and keep that particular expense at one-third of our income.

Actually my rent here in Toledo, Ohio is less than one-third. The utilities covered in that monthly nut include:

Water

Sewer 

Trash

Heat

Air-conditioning

Parking.

That's not unique. A number of apartment complexes provide the same deal.

Other fixed expenses such as car insurance are also lower than when I resided and operated my business in the New York Metro area. 

In some parts of the midwest the regulations are citizen-friendly. For example, aside from the VIN number, there was no initial or annual inspection for my Toyota Prius.

In addition, there are lots of freebies. There is no cost to enter or to park at the world-class Toledo Museum of Art. 

Overall, this location is a Paradise for the aging and retired. 

Although the McDonald's discount on coffee for those 55 or older is not nationwide, it is available here. 75-cents for a cupper.

The state parks, including parking, are free. No need to pony up money for a vacation. Day trips to Geneva on the Lake will do it. BTW, I have even been able to pick up tarot-reading assignments there.

At the Toledo Humane Society, we older residents receive a $75 discount on any adoption. I would have brought Bentley into my life any way but that financial arrangement allowed me to spend more on making the apartment animal-comforting. However, he ignored all that and headed right for the human sofa.


After a year residing here the aging can audit at no cost courses (for no credit) as the University of Toledo. Those can help me enhance my knowledge base and skills in my current lines of work. 

During this unusually cold and snowy season, yes, the weather can be a downer. Some of us daydream about how it could be in the deep South. On the internet I did research Birmingham, Alabama. But recently I did a workaround. At the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop on S. Reynolds I found a fur coat. The cost? $30. It's a step up from the one I bought at the Salvation Army in Ann Arbor, Michigan when a graduate student in the late 1960s. But it did cost less. 

A sign of the times which values affordability: No one from my former life on the coast challenges: How could you be living in the midwest?

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