5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Moving to the Province

The urban jungle can be an uncaring and difficult place to live in. The daily commute to and from the office can be such a pain that you’re left drained of energy by the time you get home in the evening (or morning, if you’re in the graveyard shift). But for most yuppies, this is where we live and work.

Interestingly, Ms. Cheng Veniles of JobsDB Philippines said that more and more job seekers are choosing work based on location. Besides, some cities in the provinces are emerging places to work for.

So if you’re tired of the traffic, floods, pollution, and the overpopulation, you have one viable alternative.

That is to move to the province. In this article, I’ll share with you 5 reasons why you should consider moving to the province.

 

1. Living in the province is healthier.

Most provinces have more trees and less pollution. You can see more greenery, and at night, noise pollution is almost nil, except maybe for that annoying neighbor whose hobby is to sing sintunado karaoke songs.

Fruits and vegetables are fresh. If you want to, you can even have your own backyard garden. Besides, the “slower” lifestyle is also good for the heart. You just suffer less stress.

2. Significantly less expensive.

In a previous post, I presented the estimated expenses of a single yuppie living in Metro Manila. Guess what, by moving to the province, you will be saving money on rent, on food expenses, on transportation and several other things.

My wife and I sat down one time and tried to calculate the amount of money we could save if we decided to relocate to the province, we were surprised that we could easily save P10,000 per month. Wow. (I’ll write another blog post on this at a later time.)

3. Less traffic, less hassle.

Of course, by moving to the province, you’ll experience less traffic, less hassle. Besides, the traffic situation in Metro Manila is expected to get even worse in the next few years! But there’s a caveat. In a lot of emerging cities in the provinces, traffic is an increasing problem, too. Try going to Bocaue, Bulacan. Or Tarlac City, Rosales, Pangasinan or San Fernando, La Union. You’ll see that the urban creep, including traffic is catching up in these emerging cities.

But still, the traffic isn’t as bad as it is in Metro Manila. Since life moves at a slower pace in the province, you could probably live with that.

4. Capitalize on the growth of industries in emerging cities & provinces.

Speaking of emerging cities. North of Metro Manila, we hear of Malolos, San Fernando (in Pampanga and La Union), Vigan, Laoag, Tarlac City and Cabanatuan City among others. South of Manila, we’d hear of Lipa, Tagaytay, Batangas City, San Pablo, and Sta. Rosa among many others.

These cities are already absorbing some of the industries from Metro Manila. In Cavite, particularly, there’s a special economic zone. By moving to these emerging cities, you may be able to look for companies that require your skill set. Or you can even sell your services to them. If you’re bitten by the entrepreneurship bug, you may even start a business that cater to the needs of people in these emerging cities.

5. Have more time for family & friends.

Since life moves more “slowly” in the province, you can have more time for family and friends. One complaint of people in Metro Manila is that life moves fast and slow at the same time. Fast because there are many activities and tasks that need to be done. Slow because of bad traffic and transportation problems.

But there’s a caveat.

Of course, there’s a caveat. Most of us who are so used to life in Metro Manila could not imagine ourselves living anywhere else. We can become too invested in Metro Manila and feel that we’re too “sophisticated” for the province now.

But are we?

Perhaps the bigger considerations are our jobs and the weight of the years that we have already lived in Metro Manila. After all, it’s very difficult to uproot yourself in a place you’ve stayed at for several years, only to start building connections and new set of friends in another location.

If you had a chance, would you move to the province?