Moving to Alaska

[Stout93]

Has anyone given any thought to moving to Alaska after they've gone on a cruise there? I know it's pretty far-fetched to base a big part of your life on a 7 day cruise but I'm just curious if others have thought about it as I.

 

Me and the girlfriend are still somewhat young and have grown somewhat tired of the traditional 8-5pm corporate job and we're (me mostly) tossing around the idea of doing something a bit different. Moving to Alaska would be a huge step and we're probably only in the infancy stages (2-3 years away) from making a decision. May not even be Alaska, maybe somewhere else.......just curious though.

[Love to Cook!]

My husband and I would like to spend our winters in Ketchikan after we retire. I wouldn't want to do winter there. That's why we want to leave Wisconsin!!!! This last winter was just brutal so we would like to do some place warm in winter and Alaska in summer.:D

[Stout93]

I should have indicated that we live in Minnesota and have lived here our whole lives so the Alaskan weather isnt quite an issue for us as it would be for some other people in different regions around the company.

[Glaciers]

The State of Alaska has a site for folks considering moving to Alaska and finding work.

http://www.labor.state.ak.us/esd_alaska_jobs/ak_over.htm

[Gardyloo]

Has anyone given any thought to moving to Alaska after they've gone on a cruise there? I know it's pretty far-fetched to base a big part of your life on a 7 day cruise but I'm just curious if others have thought about it as I.

Plenty of people in the past have given it considerably less thought than that. Many ended up staying. Many didn't.

[Assateague Island Princes]

We would in a heartbeat....except for leaving family here in PA. My Dad just passed away 1 1/2 years ago, so there is Mom to think about, and I'm extremely close to my two sisters and brother, so....not right now. But SOMEDAY - Sitka is calling me!

 

You're young, you have your whole lives ahead of you, if its what you really want to do - go for it! I'll be so envious, but would wish you all the best!:)

[melodyina]

Hi - "Moved FROM MN to AK" sorry for this mistype...

Though I hadn't taken an Alaskan cruise to help with the decision, I moved to Alaska from MN when I lost my job to the closing of our plant. I packed my truck, sold most everything and with cat by my side, a small savings account, and a resume drove up, in the blind. Didn't no anyone. I wanted to explore around for a couple months, then look for work. I did just that and found an apartment to rent. I intended to stay 2 years. Its now 4 years. JOBS ARE PLENTIFUL. I now work for the State of AK and with only 5 years service have a wonderful vested package and a great job. I would do it again.

[Excited to go crusing]

I moved to California from Europe 25 years ago, & I'm mostly glad I did. I say, if its what you want :D, GO for it :)

[keepercruisin]

I am turning 50 in February, I have traveled a lot and enjoy life the most I can...no regrets...however...once in a while, I wonder if I would of done some things differently, what would of happened, but again, no regrets. If this is what you want, GO FOR IT...trust me, before you know it, you are looking in the mirror at an older version of you, the kids are screaming in the background, there are bills that need paid, etc.... again GO FOR IT!!! Do be the kind of person at 80 yrs old, sitting on the porch and wishing you would of moved to Alaska...even if it was for a short time....;)

[keepercruisin]

DON'T be the kind of person at 80 yrs old, sitting on the porch and wishing you would of moved to Alaska...even if it was for a short time....:p

[trooper 1]

(Edited) Has anyone given any thought to moving to Alaska?

 

Been there. Done that. Some of the best years of our lives were spent up there. Even though we have left Alaska, Alaska has never left us.

I traveled and/or worked in all of Alaska as an Alaska state trooper. It depends where in Alaska you were thinking of going. Southeastern Alaska is the most mild in the winter. Anchorage is quite liveable but is very "citified." I would not go back to live in the Interior, Fairbanks, etc. The winters are just tooo long, tooo cold, tooo dark, tooo snowy, or tooo wet for us now. Others might have opposite opinions just as valid to be considered. If I had to pick one place to go back there to live I would choose Homer. I could go on and on about the majesty of Alaska, but will not. Every summer I sometimes wonder why we ever left.

[BaileyandBella]

I would consider it, if they didn't have such long dark winters, I would get too depressed.

 

But I did really love Seattle. :D

[SeattleCruiselover]

I'm actually pursuing a job at the hospital in Ketchikan. The weather there is very similar to here, other than just a bit more wet up there.

[trooper 1]

I'm actually pursuing a job at the hospital in Ketchikan. The weather there is very similar to here, other than just a bit more wet up there.

 

Right on. We called Ketchikan "North Seattle" because of the weather.

[serendipity1499]

Right on. We called Ketchikan "North Seattle" because of the weather.

 

Is it true that the State gives every Alaskan Homesteader a small stipend from the oil drilling proceeds?

 

My DH believes they used to & I wonder if it's true or a rumor...

[melodyina]

Is it true that the State gives every Alaskan Homesteader a small stipend from the oil drilling proceeds?

 

My DH believes they used to & I wonder if it's true or a rumor...

 

Yes, its called the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. To qualify you have to live in Alaska one full calendar year (Jan-Dec). You don't have to own a home, just live here. Also its per person, not per family. This year's dividend is project to be around $2,000.00.

 

http://www.pfd.state.ak.us/forms/2008Forms/2008PFDApplicationBooklet.pdf

 

So if you move in March of 2008, you would get your first dividend check in october of 2010, because 2008 wouldn't qualify. Your 'first year' would be all of 2009.

[arlodog]

I say go for it and don't wait another 2-3yrs! When my DH and I were first married we moved every 6-9 months because he was transferred and moving up in the company. We never had any notice, we just packed up the truck and went and found a place to live when we got there. We have been in the same town now for 15 years and I am itching to move on! We always figured that the same road taking us into a town could take us back out if we didn't like it. Once the kids got older and into school we didn't want to move them. Our kids don't have our sense of adventure and are very content to stay right where they are...boring!:rolleyes: I keep threatening to move to Alaska (I hate hot weather and he hates cold) so we settled into the midwest as a compromise. We always laugh that when we first got married he wanted to live in California and I said we couldn't afford to live there---If we had bought a house 23 years ago out there we could be retiring in the midwest now! Don't get caught up in the safe corporate world; just think what is the worst thing that could happen? If you are smart and hard working it will work out!

[australian_girl]

I say go for it as well! I moved from Australia to the US by myself in 2001 just after I turned 21.

 

You never know if something will work out unless you try :)

[gg3]

We have thought it would be a wonderful idea to see if someone in Alaska would like to exchange homes for the summer each year.....someone, say along the Inside Passage region. We would love to spend much more time there........now, who would like to come to Texas each summer and "enjoy" our 98 degree temps, with humidity around 85% :rolleyes: ???? There is the rub. We know our kids and grandkids and even our Golden Retriever would love it in Alaska.......so we dream on and try to come there at least once a year on a cruise. :) gg

[kenish]

To the OP- Go for it!! In 5 years, you may have kids, a mortgage, want to grow a career or business, or have aging parents to consider. The choices you have now will be replaced with another set of choices.

 

There's the old bit about having time or money but not having both simultaneously. It sounds like you're young and on firm financial ground for your age...it doesn't get better than that! :D

[Nancyquilts]

Try it. If you don't like Alaska, you can always move back. Our son moved there 20 years ago - obviously likes it (and we get to go visit every year!);) No state sales tax, no state income tax, and the permanent fund dividend on top.

[sharp_cruiser]

We just got back from our first trip and my husband is already researching exactly this! We live in Michigan, which is obviously a dying state, so I doubt we could do much worse there. I read somewhere that people to go Alaska to run away from something or to find something... ;)

[agabbymama]

Has anyone given any thought to moving to Alaska after they've gone on a cruise there? I know it's pretty far-fetched to base a big part of your life on a 7 day cruise but I'm just curious if others have thought about it as I.

 

Me and the girlfriend are still somewhat young and have grown somewhat tired of the traditional 8-5pm corporate job and we're (me mostly) tossing around the idea of doing something a bit different. Moving to Alaska would be a huge step and we're probably only in the infancy stages (2-3 years away) from making a decision. May not even be Alaska, maybe somewhere else.......just curious though.

 

 

Thought about it all of 2 seconds, when I heard -20 and -40 in the Winter.

[Gardyloo]

There are a couple of (in my mind) crucial questions to ask yourself before "moving to Alaska."

 

1. Where? It's a giant place, with settlements ranging in size from Anchorage to bush villages that 20 people call home, to cabins up the holler. And of course there are several climate zones - coastal/SE where it's wet and snowy (winters too) to the interior where it's 90 above in the summer and 60 below in the winter, to the arctic where it's never above 60 F, to the Aleutians where it doesn't rain locally but the wind blows it there from Russia.

 

2. How will you make a living? The range of jobs may appear a mile wide but it's often an inch deep. If you know construction, you can work reliably for 7 months a year; if you're a skilled professional (accountant, lawyer, bureaucrat etc.) you can work, but only in a relatively few places.

 

3. How often do you / will you want to travel outside to see family, thaw out, etc.? "Cabin fever" is no laughing matter - just look at alcohol abuse and suicide statistics for Alaska (and indeed for all northern areas around the world.)

 

4. And a very important point, how well to you get along in a fishbowl? Aside from Anchorage, towns in Alaska are all very small by lower 48 standards. In places with a year-round population of 10,000 or fewer, the business of everybody is everybody's business. Even Fairbanks and Anchorage can feel like very small towns, once you subtract the portions of the population represented by kids and military folk, who are transient and often keep to themselves anyway. We used to laugh (funny ha ha and the other kind) that you never went to a movie or to the airport without seeing somebody you know. Some people thrive in that atmosphere, others find it claustrophobic. Add months and months of living indoors due to dark/cold, and the results can be quite severe.

 

Before anyone moves to Alaska I always recommend that they take a second trip, this time in late January or late March (midwinter and/or "breakup") and spend at least a week.

 

This is not meant to be discouraging - not at all. Tens of thousands of people have made the move and wouldn't think of going back. But the old slogan of measuring twice and cutting once really applies to Alaska.

[mytime53]

Alaska is full of people who came up once for a short visit, went home, sold everything, came right back up, and never looked back. Some (usually younger ones, not so entrenched in their lives yet) never even went home, but had someone else pack their stuff up and send it along.

My husband came up from Michigan to go to college, and never went home except to visit parents. His best friend came with him, thought he didn't like it, so went back to Michigan for a semester. Came right back, and hasn't left since (and he stayed in Fairbanks, where 5 years was enough for us!). Our friends that we travel with came up 20 years ago for a month, went home, sold everything, and came back up the following summer with no jobs, etc. They've never regretted it.

But then there are the others, the ones who can hardly wait to move back home (but then most of them didn't move here by choice...it was work, military, marriage, college, etc., that got them here, and they just stayed. And I think that is the key...they never quit calling where ever they were from "home."