I've been asked that question a lot lately. Along with are you afraid? Absolutely I am TERRIFIED. I'd have to be insane to not be afraid and crazy not to be worried.

Fact we are moving literally cross country with a "semi" mapped out plan. Fact we are moving without a job. Fact we do not know where we are going to live. Fact we are giving up a lot of income and gambling on finding a job. Fact we will be without income September 2015. Fact we have enough saved in cash for 3 years without a job at current burn rate.

Guess - we are guessing that we can rent for less money than we are currently paying in our mortgage (high likelyhood). Guess - DH will land a job in April 2016, so we will be 8 months without an income. Guess - that I may find work. Guess we will be without health insurance but will be able to buy some. Guess that our burn rate will be close to what we spend now. Guess that we will get a large tax refund because we've been overpaying this year at our normal rate something like $10-15k potentially. Yeah we didn't know we were moving so we've just been giving them an interest free loan.

My thoughts are if I manage to even land a minimum wage part-time job like starbucks then perhaps we can minimize the drain on our savings. If we aren't working and see the money going away we may also minimize expenses. We can also focus on lowering our spending.

But the bottom line and truth is we aren't doing this because it makes sense financially. We are doing this because we want to do it. We are moving because long term this is something that will make us happier both lifestyle and career wise. This move will bring us closer to family and friends. This will allow DH to try a new field. And he's moving pretty much home and I'm just much closer.

Even if we take a paycut we are doing it before we get settled with buying our "final" home. Before we got used to the big income and needing it.

It's a hard truth to digest and most people think we are nuts. BUT sometimes life isn't about $ but rather living life. At the end of the day we still have to live our life at a level each of us can be satisfied.

I'm not sure but I think this move could derail us financially for a few years. BUT I believe that overall good financial habits will right the ship and we'll still be able to retire when we choose. And we'll still be able to afford a lifestyle we enjoy.

So we have no plan and will be hemorrhaging money but it's life. And for the record I am afraid.

After test driving the minivan, it wasn't bad and I liked the roominess. But pricing out the shipping it is $1350 for Sonata and $1500 for the subaru. At that price I'm really not sure it's worth shipping the Sonata worth maybe $6500. And the subaru it is, but perhaps to save $1500 it's worth just driving that and deciding if we need a second car when we get there.

Further calculations on moving. Of course we do what we do because we're OCD crazy researchers trying to figure out the cost of our stuff. So my DH calculated the cubic feet of each pod and the cost to move each pod. As well as calculating ABF Uhaul the linear foot cost and the size per cubic foot for that linear foot. A linear foot is actually 1 x 8 x 9 for the truck but we have to decrease the walls. We also got the interior dimensions of the pods we were considering.

We have a complex excel spreadsheet and it works out to Door to Door Pods are $3.72 per cubic foot to move (223 cubic feet) , Packrat/Pods is $6.05 per cubic foot (1024 cubic ft), ABF Upack is $9.95 per cubic feet for first 5' minimum but then goes to $2.13 per cubic feet (we used 16 linear ft). But we obviously have at lest 5 linear feet so really our cost will be $2.13 per cubic feet.

Further thoughts are that using movers even transporters like Budget Van Lines is hiring is $5800 = $6.76 per cubic foot or $5.13 per cubic foot doing it ourselves. Now this is doing their suggested 6000 lbs and approximately 857 cubic ft. So using movers isn't necessarily more expensive than doing it ourselves.

Of course without selling single more piece of furniture we are at approximately with our storage and measurements 857 cubic feet. But we both know that is going down since we are selling more stuff off.

But the question still lies what the most economical way for us to move and what is worth moving?

So we have to further balance out the cost per cubic foot which we did to all our furniture since we could measure it. And we have that on a spreadsheet and we are currently evaluating costs. Most stuff is worth more than $2.13 per cubic feet. However we are between a rock and hard place.

If we move and our stuff doesn't fit in our rental what do we do? And we are definitely moving into a rental before buying so we have to move again. So is it worth purging to buy new stuff we may decide to purge in 1 year when we move into a home we buy?

These are questions hard to put a price tag on. Hope I haven't bored you and made you question the price of moving stuff.

So I've mentioned the plan has been to drive our 2010 Subaru Outback cross country and ship our 2006 Hyundai Sonata. We started discussing other options and one that's come up is selling it where we are and buying a second used car when we arrive.

It will cost $1k to ship. So I've been thinking what about us selling the 2006 Sonata for $6500 and buying a used minivan for around the same price instead?

And we drive that cross country and perhaps keep it for a bit and then sell it? The plan has always been to keep the sonata 3-5 years and it's been 3 years exactly. Then replace it with something else after we decide about more children or what we need.

Would this make sense?

Okay checking again nearby places and seeing what it will cost I found I could rent Penske Truck for $2400 for 11 days. I estimate with 3k miles and unfortunately 10 mpg according to Penske website @ $2.50/gallon we are looking at $750 for the gas at a minimum. Add in hotels at $50/night and minimum if DH drove with someone else, at least 4 nights so $200 + food/drinks and plane ticket for someone else ($300 one way). We are looking at a ridiculous $3700 to move our stuff ourselves in a truck, but we do get to keep everything. There will be no purging.

Also with driving ourselves we will not have a place to live when we get there. We will have to either unload it at a family or friend's house (not wanting to do this) or storage. Since my DH won't rent a place without seeing it. Another option is for him to fly out in June for around $500 RT and find us a place. But that adds to the cost of self-moving.

Now I researched a lot of different pods. Packrat and PODS (name brand) are each $6215 and $6596 respectively for 8x8x16L one huge pod. ABF U pack would be for 3 pods $8837.

Best rates goes with Uhaul and Door to Door (DTD). Uhaul 1 pod is $2217, 2 pods $2868, 3 pods is $3815. These pods are smaller 7x5x8L but we've measured out stuff and we can easily do 2 pods if we throw out the couch and if we keep the couch we can do 3 pods. Ubox charges $144/month to store for an extra 30 days per pod.

DTD is what I've reserved so far just in case. It is 1 pod $1831, 2 pods $2809, and 3 pods $3640, 4 pods is $5950. It is not equivalent per pod as you can see because it appears there is a pick up and drop off cost whether you have one or two or three. The jump in cost for 4 pods I am pretty sure is because it goes on a separate trailer that holds three at a time. It will be only $59/month per pod to store for 30 days. This will give us flexibility to find a place and unpack.

ABF U Pack where they sell by linear foot the truck space is 17" linear = $5226, 12" = 4456, and 5" minimum is $3400 with $154 per linear foot add on. Again I think this is less efficient but I have to call and figure out what the dimensions are.

Right now we are leaning towards 2-3 DTD pods and shipping one car and road tripping for the month. The lack of a mortgage payment will pay for the move. Then driving will be a vacation.

Right now shipping a car is $1k it appears but we aren't sure it's worth shipping. My DH wants a new car when we move but I think waiting a year, settling in, figuring out what we need is more prudent. Yes while his car 2006 Sonata is probably worth $6k and $1k to ship I think it's still the right move for us right now. We are moving without a job and what if we don't need a 2nd car? Or what if we do? Too many factors.

Do you think we should ship our car? Next up calling full service movers. Perhaps they are going to charge us less.

OMG I can't believe how expensive it is to move on our own. Getting a Penske Truck (cheaper than uhaul and budget) is $3049 for 10 days assuming we rush and pack and move and drive. It's closer to $4k if we add extra days.

Now everyone who suggested moving using the rental truck, it's expensive because of the cities we're moving between. If I were to flip the cities and drive from where we are moving to where we are, the exact date and rental rate is.....$1389 for the same size truck. Also moving the dates around doesn't help, it actually goes up. Basically no moving company has enough trucks where I live because a lot of people are using them and they need people to bring trucks to our city.

So packing a truck will cost me at a minimum $3049. This does not include gas, hotels, or food on the driving trip over.

So my next step is research PODS and movers myself. From tentative work it appears that it will be cheaper to use pods or full service movers (the price differential won't be so great) since our rental truck is so expensive.

Okay people across the US give me ideas. This is a sort of list of towns I was thinking we could road trip and I've mapped out miles, driving, and times but can't format it. So instead here's the list and we start in Yarmouth Canada and drive the way the list goes downwards.

Yarmouth Canada
Halifax
PEI
Saint John's
Bangor Maine
Quebec City
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Ann Arbor or Detroit or Cleveland (similar distances from Toronto)
Chicago
Madison WI or should we go to Des Moines IA?
La Crosse WI
Sioux Falls
MT Rushmore (3 days)
Sheridan
Yellowstone (3 days)
Missoula
Spokane

And we should be around 21-22 days on the road. I calculated 20 mpg and 4287 miles driven so we will spend at least $500 on gas and wear and tear on the car. Of course hotels and eating out will cost more.

But am I going the right route? I know it seems like a lot of cities and little driving but I was thinking no more than 4 hours a day driving for the kids.

People help and any suggestions appreciated.