Cities or towns a trucker might consider living in and building a life?

I'll agree - I was quite impressed by the landscape there. Remote enough to be away from the hustle and bustle, but really not that far from medium cities. And there are plenty of job opportunities in IA, SD,ND,MN.

 

Check into the incentive programs for “remote” workers. Technically if you aren’t a resident of the area offering the incentive and are employed by a trucking company outside of that state (or are an owner operator, or contracted/leased on driver currently working outside the state that you are hoping to receive the incentive from) then you would qualify for anything from $500-$20,000 (in cash, price breaks on real estate and rental properties, memberships to various clubs, etc) to pay for “relocation” expenses from several different municipalities, counties, or state agencies that are seeking out new (tax paying) residents to move to their area. I’ve seen these sorts of programs in Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Alabama, Ohio, and several others.

 

Stay where you’re at to get at least twelve months experience

Get your bills paid on time and get your credit score up

and you’re gonna need some money for a cheap car .
The last cheap car I bought was about five years ago , for $650
And it ran for three years before the transmission fell out .

Unless there’s some reason you don’t or can’t own a car .

there’s plenty of advice above for finding a location

the weather and politics and neighbors are big concerns along with employment opportunities.

cheap houses are available as long as you’re at least an hour or so away from any city .

I have lived in lots of small towns around Georgia

as long as it’s not a tourist destination or attractive for Florida people to build vacation homes , getting 50 or 60 miles out of Atlanta or 15-20 miles from any smaller town is cheap houses .

the House I lived in , in Manchester Georgia is currently worth about $25k

The state income tax is also mentioned but it seems to me that states with no income tax just make that up with property tax or some other way .
Texas gets it back in property tax
Mississippi gets it back in vehicle taxes


unless you’re not gonna own property and just need to rent a cheap place to stay , then a address in a non income tax state would save you $5k- $7k a year .

And as others have suggested
A job where you’re home every day is usually the least stress

I kinda think the auto parts delivery would be much better than food delivery or LTL
Since the auto parts is all at night
You deliver to the store when it’s closed and no cars in the parking lot .

And some auto parts company’s have the distribution center in rural areas for low cost living

I think Advance auto parts has a DC in Lavonia Georgia or somewhere near.
Which is far enough away from Atlanta and Greenville SC to still have not spiked the home prices too much

if you’re wanting to work OTR and be home less , there are places 70-90 minutes out of Atlanta that are dirt cheap .

but gotta get the credit score up or you won’t be buying anything unless it’s for cash .
Which is doable .

I got a friend trying to sell an old doublewide on 1.5 acres in north Georgia for $70k with zero people interested in it

he’s gonna have to drop the price to $50k to sell it

any location that has no jobs , has cheap housing .

 

Starting to build a life outside of trucking….

For me, that would mean a local job, because if I am OTR, where doesn’t matter. First thing I would check would be the state and local gun laws. Next, the state divorce laws. Blue state? Nope. I’d rather deal with bad weather if I am to regularly lose everything I own.

Local, small town with real gyms, planet fitness is for wimpy people to stay wimpy. If it were free, sure, but it’s against my religion to pay money to be wimpy and fragile. Gun ranges. Mom and pop restaurants.

Every place has problems, but as long as I don’t have to pay for them, I don’t mind.

 

When I first started driving I was working a slightly above minimum wage job , had no money and was living in a trailer park.

I worked hard for two years and lived in the truck , I quit renting a place to live since I was never there .
I sold my car too .
Drove the bobtail everywhere if I needed to go somewhere

if I had a few days layover I’d find a safe spot to drop the trailer and bobtail to a state park and stay in the campground .

or I’d stay at my parents house or a friends house .


but I was able to save up some good money

keep your license and driving record spotless ,
Get all the endorsements ; haz mat , doubles triples , tanker , and TWIC
And get rid of the automatic transmission restriction if you have it .

there’s a huge tanker terminal in Cordele GA . you can see all the trucks from the interstate

I can’t think of the name of it though

Fuel tanker delivery is a good paying local job , you’re still gonna be working 10 or 12 hours a day but you will be home every day to begin building a normal life .



And I can’t think of the name of them but there are several websites that are like this one is for trucking but full of advice and ideas for getting your credit score up

sadly , even if you pay cash for everything you need to have a good credit score
But basically that’s paying off your debts and getting a few credit cards and use them regularly and pay them off every month ,
Do not carry a balance over to the next month .


finding a modest place to rent or buy in north Florida with room to park a truck shouldn’t be too hard if you’re not looking to be near a big city .

 

Joplin Missouri
Not much visible from the interstate, but on Route 66 north of town, nice food offerings and cheap housing. Friendly people.

Mahoning Valley Ohio
I bought an emergency crashpad in Youngstown a dozen years ago for 25k. It was a good deal but I didn't realize I could have got it for much less. Lots of Italians in the area means lots of good food. No lines/questions about leases at all for Drivers License/ car registration. No yearly state vehicle inspection. Plenty of truck stops in the area. I met some nice people but was turned off by the "machine party politics" way of doing things. What's yours is mine type vibe permeates the place.

Oklahoma City
Tulsa
Baytown Texas
Toledo Ohio
Gary Indiana metro
Springfield Missouri
Carlisle/Harrisburg Pennsylvania

Choose a place that makes it easy to set up shop. New Hampshire was nice, but since they are the only state in the region with no income tax, they required too many bureaucratic hurdles to get the license (lease, certification letter from the town office etc.)

 

@silverspur Post #39 - Those two look really good to me.
~
Oklahoma City/Tulsa
Baytown Texas