You said moving from Seattle to anywhere else is a step down? You betcha! As far as the continuous rain... we have been telling the rest of the country that line for 30 years. I would say that the only way to improve on trading from Seattle would be by living an hour to the North, West or East. Personally I prefer North. ~EC
The northeastern Aegean has the clearest sea water I have ever seen. At least it used to 20 years ago.
Great for vacation but winters are cold and rainy with nothing going on. Even most of the greeks head back to the mainland after tourist season is over. I doubt internet access is that great out there.
I am fortunate in that I can live anywhere in the world an American citizen may live, so I have chosen... HAWAII as the best place on earth to live. Great scenery, healthcare, you're still in America, tropical island beaches year-round. Seeing all the beautiful asian tourist girls from Japan every day is always nice. I should know, I married one (and have been with her almost 6 years now! www.kencalhoun.com/wife.jpg ). And virtually no violent crime, we have I think the lowest homicide and violent crime rate in the USA (though property crime is high). It's not perfect paradise, but it's dang close. Oceanfront hawaii kai executive condo, a/c and 1600 sft ocean panoramic view with a high corner unit, tough lifestyle, but somebody's gotta do it - yeah baby! Taxes are high, and getting up at 2am to trade is tough (market opens 3:30am local time), but other than that, it's great . I am done by 6am (I only trade the open) and that leaves me the whole day for golf and shopping with the family each day. It'll be Eight years this month, I've been in Oahu (Hawaii Kai) and I wouldn't live anywhere else on earth. Though trips to thailand, hong kong and japan are on the to-do list. http://www.hawaii.com/ ken PS I should try some of the other places you have all mentioned, they sound great too. I also liked Colorado Springs, Colorado as my favorite mainland place to live, back in the early 90s. I could get a 2200 sft large house for 98k there, no way to get that here. And great mountains, back country, pike's peak, manitou springs, excellent place to live. (re below) my wife's born in Kobe, Japan, raised there, though Korean by background.
Good Idea, (Another day in paradise!) I will stop bragging about Seattle and what a great place it is! Let 'em move to China or Thailand..or France...(geezuz was there in May...no thanks! they are back in the 70's) Seattle premarket starts at 5:30am and you are done by 1pm! I would take Hawaii though too...but 2:30 am trading start? Thats rough!
Somebody mentioned this already, but for US citizens, WA state does have a pretty big advantage with no state income tax. It can be an ideal place for a home base as a consequence. Just because you live some place doesn't mean you are always there!
There's a zillion things people routinely do that violate others: People who won't contain their cars to their side of the road or take your turn as theirs at a stop sign, people who plant themselves in front of you when you're both looking at a terminal/shelved goods/etc., people who see you're next up in line but apply the 'who's next?' call to themselves. People can't be that stupid as to not understand that their actions affect other people. Or that we must live in this world together. They can't be so naive otherwise they wouldn't be able to make it through the week. What does that leave besides selfishness? These and other slights of graciousness and exhibits of selfishness I've coined a phrase for: "willfull ignorance". I think that sums it up best. The problem with the best place to live is that no one place has it all. I'd take a brownstone in NY, a winter home in Key West, a summer home in Cape Cod, and vacation in Barcelona, Munich, Aruba and Bermuda. Then again, maybe I'd add a condo in San Diego.