I toyed with the idea of retiring to Alaska pre-FSP. My niece started college in Sitka and she is the one that informed me it was not as bad as Madison, WI. I was merely going off her word and never really investigated the specifics. The area is visually spectacular.
The blood thickens or thins according to the local weather. If 65 is the average high in summer, one would get used to it and it would become comfortable. For me 110 - 118 seems comfortable, but I am in hell when it drops a degree below 50.
Is your plan to become a full time licensed trader?
I like Alaska.
I work in the energy industry, so I see a lot of data that involves climate. The primary consideration with climate is how many days a year the average is below 65 F, because you have to spend energy to keep the house warm for normal human comfort. If the high was 70 and the low was 50, the average would be 60, right? Thats a difference of -5 from 65.
They add those days up, every day, and do all sorts of calculations with those numbers. It translates into the recommended R factor of your insulation and the size of your furnace.
Since the numbers are in all ways greater in Alaska, that means you need a hardier furnace. Basically, its like saying you need more horsepower to pull a heavier load. Which, of course, burns more fuel. And fuel is money.
Changing the inside temp from -10 F to 65 F is an adjustment of 75 degrees. That is some serious BTUs. They have to do it more days per year in AK, and from lower lows. I don't have the specific heating numbers, but I know just by knowing, they would be significant.
Naturally, your niece wouldn't think in those terms, most people don't. She's just a college girl, I wouldn't expect her to do anything but wear warm clothes and turn the thermostat up. And like most people, she wouldn't be going outside in the more severe lows, when its in the bottom numbers. But if you were to run those numerical comparisons, you'd most likely see a really big difference.
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Licensed trader? No. I'm trading my ass off, to be sure. I haven't tried to disguise or hide that fact. But I'm just doing it from home, average joe picking the low-hanging fruit. When I
really get the techniques down I'll probably start posting spreadsheets or maybe make a Twittering community if other people are interested in getting out of the rat race. I'm only making a few trades a week right now, because there are rules to trading. I just applied for a margin contract so I can pattern day-trade and short. That should speed things up a bit.