Project Prepper: Purgatory In Illinois First, Sanctuary In Wisconsin Later

In my last entry in the Project Prepper series of posts, I shared with you my plans to leave Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois in the future for some “sanctuary.”

Thankfully, I won’t be doing it alone. Although sanctuary will most likely come later, rather than sooner.

As I note in this blog’s “About” page, I live with my girlfriend. Not only is she fully-aware of my concerns about the direction Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois is heading, but she’s also on board with the move. I can’t say enough about how intelligent and sharp my girlfriend is. She ditched a secure, good-paying local government job in the northwest suburbs when the global financial crisis started to get real ugly a couple of years ago to become a director in a niche business that caters to high net worth clients who consider the particular service the company provides an essential rather than a luxury. While many small businesses nationwide have suffered the last couple of years, hers has been booming. Here’s hoping that gravy train keeps on chugging along.

Several months ago, the company my girlfriend is employed by came under new ownership, and the office was moved out of Chicago (smart move, in my opinion) to a nearby suburb. All things considered, my girlfriend plans on working at this company for the next couple of years at least. She has some degree of job security, as the new owner also happens to be her oldest sister.

Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I sat down and talked about Project Prepper and my desire to leave the area in advance of what I see is an economic disaster-in-the-making. We discussed the following:

• While blogging is just a “hobby” for me, I am planning to launch my own research company next year. This work can all be done from “home”- wherever that is in 2013.
• My girlfriend needs to stay in the Chicagoland area for work. Not only that, she would like to live someplace that’s within walking distance of her office.
• I help take care of an elderly parent that lives in the western suburbs, so it helps to live close by
• My girlfriend is very close to her immediate family, who mostly live in the northwest suburbs
• The goal still remains to eventually leave the city, county, and state before things get really out of control here.
• Southeast Wisconsin, which I’m already familiar with seeing that my family has a place there, looks to be our final destination, our sanctuary.

Here’s what was hammered out the other night:

• My girlfriend and I will be moving out of Chicago this coming spring to the northwest suburbs, where we plan on living in a single-family dwelling and making it our primary residence for the next few years. This will address a number of the above points.
• Regrettably, we’ll still be living in Cook County, as a house in one of the “collar counties” will be too far away for our near-term needs. However, a Chicago-area residence in one of the other counties may still be in the cards for us down the road as we’d like to maintain some sort of presence in a city that we still adore (Chicago- love the people, hate the politics). Commuting between our permanent residence in Wisconsin and a secondary one in the Chicagoland area outside Cook County would be ideal if circumstances permitted it and more importantly, we could afford it.
• Unfortunately, the prices of many homes within walking distance of my girlfriend’s place of employment are extremely high, and considering that this suburban residence may only be temporary for us, I’m not sure buying makes a whole lot of sense here. Because my girlfriend is open to incurring a small commute time, the purchase of a house in an adjoining suburb that has more affordable housing and lower property taxes might be a better option. Plus, should we move into the subdivision of that neighboring suburb that we’ve been looking at for some time now, my girlfriend would be very close by to several members of her immediate family. Renting hasn’t been ruled out either.

So, purgatory in Illinois before sanctuary in Wisconsin for us, it seems. At least the foundation for Project Prepper is starting to be laid. With some movement to boot. If all goes well, sanctuary- a permanent residence in what’s looking to be Southeast Wisconsin- should be achieved by the end of Barack Obama’s second term as U.S. President. Hopefully sooner. Question is, will everything hold together for that long? I’d really prefer to be living outside a metropolitan area when TSHTF.