EIC 033: How to Move in the Middle of a Pandemic

The Empowered in Color Podcast: Helping People of Color Thrive in Business and in Life

If you didn't know already, we moved! We moved from the greater Los Angeles area to Vegas in the middle of a pandemic, and I wanted to share my audio diary of the experience.

Some tips for moving cities in a pandemic:

1. Have a criteria for must-haves in a city and a home and don’t settle or compromise on it.
2. Research the cities you are considering
   1. Look at the demographics, weather, etc.
      1. Highly recommend considering the demographics of where you’d like to live because depending on your racial/ethnic background, moving to certain cities could be dangerous for you despite being an affordable city. Especially if you grew up in a community of color, it would be a big culture shock to go to some of these more rural, predominantly white towns.
   2. Get an idea of the pricing of homes/apartments both for rent and buying (if you’d like to buy there one day)
   3. Take into consideration location of city in the broader context of the region of the country you are in if you would like to travel nearby or be a certain distance from home
   4. Figure out the main “cons” of a city as well and make sure they are not dealbreakers for you.
3. Examine your finances and make sure you have a significant cushion or job/clients lined up for when you move. Minimum of 6 months of living expenses
4. Once you decide on a city to move to, set a timeline that you would like to have before moving. Keep in mind that if you would like to secure a place to live at least 1 month in advance, if you are renting you may need to live in an apartment.

Our criteria:

• Must be a reasonable distance from home by plane (aka Western US)
• Must be a major metropolitan area
• Must have a significant population of people of color
• Must be more affordable than LA

Mentioned on this episode:

• The Racist Sandwich Podcast Host leaves PDX partially due to racism
• EIC 009: Personal Finance with Addy of Creaction Co.
• EIC Newsletter

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