Moving- how often, how much and why?

[jIM_Ohio]

The "what would it take to move" thread was interesting, and while I think there are lots of moving threads in the archive, I thought I would start another.

I want you to share-
how often have you moved (from age of birth until today)?
how the moves evolved (what caused them, how much decision was involved)
has your outlook on moving changed (it seemed like a good idea at the time, but not going to do that again...)?

and for a bonus (you get an extra star for the day if you complete this...)- what was your college moving situation like the first 5 years after college? Did you have lots of job changes right out of college (or HS graduation) or lots of moves which dealt with getting married and moving to a new city?

[jIM_Ohio]

I have moved between 9-11 times (voted for 9).

One move was as a kid (I was 4 and my brother was in 1st grade)
6 moves were associated with college and jobs
4 moves since I have had this job- one of those was an apartment between when we sold my condo and before we bought our house we live in now- we might have lived there for 4 months- I did not even change the address on my tax return or paycheck or credit cards for that one.

I find the toughest moves are the ones which are out of state/large distances because you need to "pack up and move" and once you move, you do not usually go back to old location because you forget something. Usually some point of the drive it hits you "chapter N is over and chapter N+1 is about to begin". I find these moves to be "life changing" and prone to some mistakes if not done right. I have done too many of those to make moving fun anymore. I would rate 3 of my moves as life changing like that.

[jpg7n16]

Ha I just listed mine in the other thread

Had I known you made this one, I would have posted here! haha

0-18 Home with parents
18-22 moved for college (new city, impractical to live at home)
22-23 moved for job (was living on campus working at a bank, transferred to a different branch with some people I knew back home, lived in different part of town for cheaper rent)
23-24 got a new job with my new degree moved to a city outside where my job was, with a different group of friends, near where they were going to college - shortened the drive to work, kept rent low)
24-25 current; moved closer to downtown - substantially saves on drive time, rent is comparable

I've prob said enough on my attitude in the other thread, so I'll let others reply here

[cptacek]

- House burned down when I was in second grade = 1
- Moved from temporary place to where I graduated from high school = 2
- Moved to college, then home for the summer, then to college, then to a different dorm for second summer, then to college-provided house, then to apartment for summer then back to college-provided house then home for summer before grad school = 10
- Moved to apartment for grad school, then house = 12
- Moved to apartment for first job (there a year) = 13
- Moved to house (there 4 years...bought as a single gal, rented a room a few times, sold with a lot of improvements and a hefty profit) = 14
- Moved to apartment when transferring to new job (met DH, so i moved closer when we were dating...went from 8 hours away to only 2 Only stayed here a few months before buying a house with company help) = 15
- Moved to house the company helped me buy (there a few years, sold 3 weeks before housing bubble crashed. Whew. Spent weekdays there and weekends at DH's house after we got married, for a year. Luckily I got laid off.) = 16
- Moved in with DH = 17

17 if you count all the college moving, 9 if you count college and grad school as 2 moves.

[kork13]

I had 10 moves that I actually counted...
0-2, 2-4, 4-9, 10 (father in the military up to here, so moved when we're told)
10, 11-17 (Father entered federal civil-service with a couple more moves)
18-21 (college--technically I moved over a dozen times during this period, but it was between different dorm rooms every semester and summer, so I didn't count all of those)
22, 23, 24-current (myself being in the military finishing all of my initial training and getting to my first operational duty assignment)

Looking back, I've never had any choice in the moves I've made except for when I went to college. Whether moving because my family was moving (thanks to the military/federal gov't) or because I got my own orders to move, I've always been told where to go and why. But I'm okay with that, I'm used to moving, and kind of enjoy it (except for the packing/unpacking). Now that I think of it, all of those moves also either crossed an entire ocean, or at least half the country--I guess I don't know how to make a 'small' move...

[disneysteve]

Does college count? If so, here is my list:

0-18: home with parents in same house
18-21: 4 different college dorm rooms during school year but back to parents' house on breaks and summer
21-23: apartment #1 during med school
23-27: apartment #2 during internship and residency
27-29: rental home with wife
29-46: present home that we own

So technically 8 moves but 6 of them were school-related. First 18 years in one place. Last 16 years in one place with no plans to move again at least until retirement. The other moves were all pretty much out of necessity.

[MonkeyMama]

I mis-voted because I forgot the moves when I was kid (one that I remember, 1 or 2 that I don't remember).

My dh grew up in the same house he was born in. I didn't move as a kid from ages 5 - 18. I think this is why stability has become so important to us. We considered moving a lot before having kids, and even with young kids, but once they started school, we both agreed we didn't want to move again until they were grown. (Unless we have a compelling reason to, anyway).

As a college student I found a steal on housing and so lived in one place about 5 years. I also house sat full-time for a friend for 6 months (before I found this place). So, that is more "moving" that I remember now too.

Living in a very expensive city, we bought a starter condo about a year out of college, and planned to buy a house eventually. We decided to move to another city and buy a much cheaper house in the end. Circumstances had us looking at houses a few years ago, again, but we stopped looking once the kids started school. (We never found what we were looking for and our home is looking pretty darn nice at the moment!)

I grew up in an area flush with jobs, (which meant no moving just out of college), but part of my plan for stability was having a job/career that I can find most anywhere. I don't want to be constantly moving for jobs.

As an aside, I just don't like making things more complicated than they have to be. My spouse and I had no desire to move while getting married, move the second we graduated college, or to move while pregnant or with young kids. Our moves have always been pretty well thought out ahead of time, and done when there wasn't much else going on. We bought a home together before we married, precisely for that reason. We couldn't really justify to the cost of renting together alone - buying a condo was just cheaper. (No doubt that we would marry, but I didn't want to deal with a new job, a wedding, and moving all at the same time - we broke it out into very *one at a time* steps).

As an adult - the reason I have always moved, is to improve my financial situation.

[Seeker]

LOL - Jim, I love your last one.

6 total, but post college and the work situation had absolutely no "moving" impact for me.

3 of the moves were with my folks pre-adult. 1 address out of state, 2nd address in state (Dad hated the cold in the original state), and 3rd address was when child three was born and they thought that having three kids in one bedroom was a bit too much (especially since my brothers are not the same gender as me). They bought then.

4th, 5th, & 6th, moving out, college and post college.

6th address being my purchase. My DH moved in with me after marriage. If I had to work far from wherever I was residing, I just drove the extra mileage (and there was a time that I drive 70 miles one way for a job that paid pretty good money). Though today, I would not want to work that far from home anymore; driving can be a stress inducing factor as well.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Six times, an average of once every 8.7 years.

[jIM_Ohio]

LOL - Jim, I love your last one.

The good news is no one admits to still living at home with parents

[Kris Jarczyk]

Think of all the packing, moving, unpacking, decorating and rehabbing to make the new home comfortable...all the changes and adjusting...sometimes think the people that bought their first home and stayed in it for thirty yrs had a good plan...just a thought.

[feh]

• Family was in an apartment when I was born; moved to a house when I was 4 (my Mom still lives there) (1970)
• I'm ignoring college years...
• Moved into an apartment in a new town (same state) for first job after college; have lived in same area ever since. (1988)
• Moved to different apartment after getting married. (1989)
• Moved to first house. (1991)
• Moved to second house. (2008)

Five total moves.

[snshijuptr]

Are we counting "moves" or "addresses"? And are we counting permanent or temporary addresses?

Places I have Lived
1. My parents' first house
2. My parents' second house (main childhood home)
3. My college dorm #1
4. My grandma's house (my parents moved while I was at college and stayed there for a couple months)
5. My parents' current house (during 2 summers)
6. My future-in-laws' home (during the same 2 summers, we split our time)
7. My college dorm #2
8. My college apartment
9. My current graduate apartment

Because my parents moved while I was in college, I was moving my stuff a lot. During one summer during college and the summer after college, we split our time between our parents' houses.

I anticipate another move out of graduate housing when I graduate.

[Breton Wench]

This thread really go me thinking - because I have had lots of temporary places in my 20's, then I went to University, then moved on to totally move out to another country

0-5 - Parents 1st house
5-19 - Parents house (that they built and spent the next thirty years there)
19-24 - Ummmm.....does bumming around Europe count? I worked as a groom and vet nurse for years.
24-26 - got respectable -stayed in same house and job for two years!
26-30 - University in Wales. Moved between rented house and parents
31-32 - rented apartment with DH when first married, Dublin
32-39 - rented cottage with Dh and kids, W of Ireland
39- 42 - rented house, Brittany
42 - present. Our own house; Brittany

[Breton Wench]

Think of all the packing, moving, unpacking, decorating and rehabbing to make the new home comfortable...all the changes and adjusting...sometimes think the people that bought their first home and stayed in it for thirty yrs had a good plan...just a thought.

Hear, Hear