One question that is on my mind when I move out west, eventually is what I will do for work. While I plan within maybe a year of moving to have my own land in the clear and live a simple off-grid homestead, I will probably still need some work for health insurance and to cover incidentals without bleeding down my savings until well into retirement.

My parents are quite dismissive of any future move, noting that I’ll probably not be able to find another job in government and politics. Not that I want another job in this field – truth be told I only work in this industry now because it’s a leading field in the greater Albany area and it pays well with good benefits. It’s allowing me to save a lot towards a better future for sure.

That said, I think my job nowadays in research, communications and middle management actually is helping me to develop skills that could be useful in a wide variety of industries where people have to be managed, papers written, demographic analysis done and communications a key. I also think my growing experience at map making – especially high quality maps for presentations and analysis of GIS data is an asset. While I don’t have any formal training in GIS, my ability to develop good maps entirely using free software and open data is an asset.

But all opportunities need not be white collar too. If I have enough money saved and cut my expenses enough I can probably live on much less income as I won’t need to be saving so much money, and I won’t have rent to pay, utility bills, cheaper gas prices and cheaper items in places with a lower cost of business. I am certainly able to do any kind of secretary work or even maybe work in social services like I did with the disabled years ago. I could even do something like work in a grocery store if that helps cover the bills and pays for health insurance. I could certainly do political communications or run campaigns but it’s not something that I want to do when I move west. Being a long haul trucker might be a good job for seeing the country. I briefly dated a girl that was doing that on the side while going to community college.

I don’t know, I have options. By no means am I tied to Albany for the rest of my life but I’ll probably stay local while I have family nearby and I’m making good money to save for tomorrow. It’s been a great few years in the stock market and I’ve been making enough money to invest and save a fair bit so when I make the leap, I can do it and make a smooth transition. It’s not going to be tomorrow but I do want to have enough time remaining in my life to enjoy some fun things, be able to own my own land and live the life I actually want to live.