Where is the best place to live?

Where we live determines a lot about our life.

So today I'm going to share a resource that can help you decide where might be a good place to live.

It started with an article ranking Brisbane suburbs from 1 to 260.

That ranking was based on a set of 17 factors. Here are some of them.

But all 17 may not be relevant for you. And some might matter more than others.

So they developed a tool where you can rank the 5 factors most important to you and it will give you a personalised list of Brisbane suburbs that would be the best for you - based on those factors. There are also Sydney and Melbourne versions.

On the results page, there's also a map that colour-codes each suburb by star rating, for each factor. For instance here's the map for public transport. Five-star suburbs are in blue.

When you click on a suburb, you get the name and the star rating of that suburb - for whichever factor you select.

I find this to be so enlightening. I choose not to own a car. Some people find this shocking, tell me it's not possible, and complain that public transport is terrible. That surprises me, but when it turns out they live in a 2-star suburb (for public transport) it kind of makes sense.

So when we are choosing our next place to live, we can choose the kind of area we like. It can provide the kind of lifestyle we want - and we could save a lot of commuting time and money by selecting an area that has the things we need. You could reduce the number of cars you need to own and maintain.

PS. If walkability is something you're interested in, you may also like to check out walkscore.com - where you can get a walkability score for your suburb, street and even street number.

Comments

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

Less Clutter More Cash - now available

Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Inheriting Clutter

This book stood out on the library shelf. Massive clutter can create anxiety at any time, let alone when it has to be dealt with during one of the toughest points of life. Author Julie Hall deals with estates for a living. Her book covers the nitty-gritty of dealing with all that stuff. It also covers caring for parents while they are here and what to do to make life easier for them, your siblings and you. Parent Logic We may wonder why parents keep so much stuff. Julie explains that our parents (having grown up in a different time) have their reasons. Often they had to 'go without' as kids and so don't want to 'go without' again. Sometimes they think items will become valuable with age. Also there's the thought "the more I leave the kids the more they will have" . This is obviously mathematically true - but whether that's a good thing is questionable. Ironically, this admirable quality of aversion to waste often ends up causing waste. Items get s...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog