Americans are looking for cities with a low cost of living, and strong economies. The Wall Street Journal has run the numbers and found the top 10 cities in what it calls The WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index Summer 2022. The cities on the WSJ's list are nearly all in red states, most of them are in my Super States, and the one standout, the Visalia-Porterville area in California, is in what is essentially a red island in the state's sea of blue. The WSJ's Nicole Friedman reports: Low-cost cities with strong economies fared well in the second quarter as high prices and rising … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: This State is Dominant Once Again
Originally posted on December 9, 2019. You’re familiar with my piece Rich Grandchild, Poor Grandchild. Now I want you to shift gears and think about which states are the rich states, and which ones are the poor states. “For each of the past 12 years, Arthur Laffer, Jonathan Williams and I have answered that question in ‘Rich States, Poor States,’ an index of economic competitiveness published by the American Legislative Exchange Council. Every year the top performer has been Utah,” explains Stephen Moore. Yes, that's right, the winner once again is Utah. On a recent ski trip to … [Read more...]
PREPARE: No Go Zones Coming to Your Neck of the Woods
Your Survival Guy’s Super States map gives you a bird’s eye view of where to immediately look for a better America—one where you can raise your family, own a house, and have a job with the peace of mind you deserve. The American dream. But simply putting your finger on a map and moving is easier said than done. Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States: #1 New Hampshire We’re talking about a moving target here, where one election could make or break how life moves ahead in your neck of the woods. Believe me, there are plenty of nice places to live in blue states like Newport, RI, but the … [Read more...]
LOOKING FOR LIBERTY: Retirees Revive Rural America
You know Your Survival Guy is passionate about helping hard-working Americans achieve a “liberty retirement” in a Super State. A Liberty Retirement means maintaining a strong standard of living, even after retirement, in a state where the government looks at you as a customer to be served, not as a piggy bank to raid. Thanks to the 2020 census, it’s easy to see just how many retirees are actively pursuing their own liberty retirement plans, and the impact they’re making on rural America. As Matt Murray notes in The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Point email: Retirees are helping swell the … [Read more...]
Kill the Death Tax
States taxing death are hurting themselves, writes Regina M. Egea, president of the Garden State Initiative, a New Jersey-based independent research and educational organization. Ms. Egea's state, New Jersey, is one where assets are taxed upon death. At Real Clear Policy, she explains how detrimental policies like New Jersey's can be: As a Founding Father and inventor, Benjamin Franklin was a visionary without peer in his time. His famous utterance “nothing is certain except death and taxes” could easily apply to New Jersey in 2022, as residents of one of the highest taxed states in the Union … [Read more...]
Bomb Cyclone to Hit New England and Other Observations
Happy Thursday. Your Survival Guy and coastal New England are prepping for a “bomb cyclone” that could dump over a foot of snow on Saturday. Bring it on. I don’t mean to sound like a parent, but, when I was a kid, we didn’t plan four days ahead for a snowstorm. It would snow. We’d help clear the driveway, and then we’d play outside to the point of exhaustion. If we went inside for hot chocolate, and wanted to go back outside, we’d put our feet in sandwich bags and stuff them into our boots and go back outside. Not a big deal. Your Survival Guy’s boots on the ground experience on Monday: … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Living in Vacation Destinations
Here’s a problem that’s not going away—the cost of living in certain vacation destinations is prohibitively expensive. I see this in Newport as well as Key West. When there’s no place for workers to live, what happens to the service industry? When the Fed pumps too much money into the system inflation is the natural result. And when million-dollar houses and then some, are selling sight unseen, there’s too much money in the system. How is that good for places you like to visit or live? It’s not. Read about Newport's housing problems here from Bethany Brunelle of The Newport Daily … [Read more...]
An Island of Freedom Where You’d Least Expect It
If you’re looking for the island life, consider my favored liberty retirement state of New Hampshire, which sits on an island of freedom surrounded by tax-hungry blues states of the Northeast. As a fair disclosure, my family owns a log cabin in the White Mountains of NH and we're looking forward to spending time there over Thanksgiving. Once you start thinking about your retirement life, you quickly realize you deserve to keep more of what you earned or to live free or die in a place where you’re looked upon as a resident, not a piggy bank. Here's a list of small towns in New Hampshire … [Read more...]
BIG CITY SUCCESS: Miami’s Secret Recipe
You've read a lot about the failure of the big blue blob cities of the Northeast, and how everyone wants to escape San Francisco. But there are a few examples of big cities done right in America. Miami is one of them. With its Republican Mayor Francis X. Saurez, Miami has found the secret recipe to running a big city the right way. Karol Markowicz explains in The Wall Street Journal: Residential real estate here is a seller’s market, repeatedly setting records for total sales, percentage of asking price and lowest inventory. More homes were sold in Miami in the first nine months of 2021 than … [Read more...]
Survival SUPER States: A Place to Call Home
When you can’t even send your kids or grandkids to public schools, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your local police force is gutted, you ask yourself, “What am I paying for?” When your politicians treat you like a piggy bank you ask yourself “What am I paying for?” This simple question is being asked at kitchen tables all over this country every single day. But it’s different this time, as big blue cities and states, usually the recipients of workers, are suffering from a once in a lifetime exodus to RED STATES. As retirees tell loved ones “Don’t worry we’ll be back to … [Read more...]
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