East Tennessee Living

 

My wife and I are living in a state with no state income tax and the first two years of college are free when you go to a Community College.

My wife and I are living in East Tennessee where the cost of living is somewhere between 15-21% cheaper ON AVERAGE that most other places in the USA.

My wife and I just purchased a $400,000 house (1500 square feet) that is close to double that price in most other states in the same type of suburban community in which we live.  In 2015, this house would have only been $250K.

Outside of our savings account, my wife and I live off of Social Security with a monthly expense of between $4-$5,000.

We do not live in the city but we do not live in the country either.

We are: 

• 8 miles from the interstate
• 1 mile from a gas station
• 1.5 miles from a Walmart super center & our bank
• 60 minutes from Gatlinburg, Dollywood, and Sevierville for shopping and entertainment
• 60 minutes from NASCAR Bristol Motor Speedway
• 60 minutes from Asheville, NC
• 30 minutes from Knoxville
• 40 minutes from UT Medical Center
• 50 minutes from Tyson-McGhee Airport
• 3 hours from Nashville
• 4 hours from Atlanta

We have two recreational lakes on either side of our location about 10 miles from where we live.  The lakes are several miles long and are good for boating, fishing, skiing, kayaking, and swimming.  Around these lakes are hiking trials several miles long and numerous camping areas and picnic areas as well as open fields.

Most everyone in our community have backyard gardens, including us, where the following is grown corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, strawberries, watermelon, and eggplant.

At our house, we have high speed, fiber optic cable connections for WIFI and use ROKU to connect to Hulu, Netflix, and Prime.  We eliminated cable several years ago.

There are not many illegal immigrants in our area but we do have a lot of Mexican migrants working with our local farmers.  The crime and violence in our area is very low.  There is no movement to defund the police, nor do we have a huge problem with illegal drugs, although drugs are prevalent all around us.

Since TN is a right to carry firearms state, we have very little personal property crime which may involve breaking and entering and theft.  It typical to see many males and females carrying guns on their hips.

We have plenty of restaurants if we ever want to go out and eat which my wife and I do about once a week, maybe twice.

My wife and I became debt free about twenty years ago and have remained that way.  We use credit cards all the time, but pay off that debt at the end of each month before any interest has accrued.

It takes me about an hour to mow the grass and weed eat.

We have two irobots to clean the floors of our house and run them at least twice a day, sometimes three times.

My wife does a little mopping and dusting but very little else.

We have heard that there are lots of people moving into TN but thankfully it is mainly Nashville and not East TN.  It is slow and smooth living here and we have everything we need and want for nothing.

It is a great way to live, especially if you are retired.