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My wife and I moved from Solana Beach California to Sedona Arizona (in the mountains, two hours north of Phoenix) in 1998 and it was a great decision. We did cl

My wife and I moved from Solana Beach California to Sedona Arizona (in the mountains, two hours north of Phoenix) in 1998 and it was a great decision. We did close up our house twice for a while and left town when I worked at Google and Capital One, but Sedona has been our home most of the time. Work wise it has been OK remotely consulting, but that only worked because I usually enjoy whatever someone is paying me to work on. I also write some books, but that is mostly for fun, not revenue. In the last 22 years, I think I have averaged about 15 hours a week working, which seems like a good compromise between career and spending time with friends and family.

bitcoinmoney 6y ago
Dang that’s a good deal. How much salary do you get for 15 hrs/week? Is the rest and vest situation?
- shuckles 6y ago
  His website has a consulting rate: https://markwatson.com/consulting/ https://markwatson.com/consulting/
- mark_l_watson 6y ago
  Salary is not an issue because I worked for 20 years, doing 32 hours a week, and saved money before moving to Sedona. Over the long term, spend less money than you earn and save some. EDIT: I did do a full time onsite gig 2018-2019 managing a small deep learning team. My wife and I saved a good fraction of that income, and I still support that company for the 100+ US patents I worked on.
rblatz 6y ago
Do you live in actual Sedona or do you live next door in Cottonwood or Cornville? I found Sedona beautiful, but a bit too tourist focused, whereas the other cities were actually much better to stay in. Also they have all the wineries :)
- mark_l_watson 6y ago
  We do live in Sedona, and usually stay around home on weekends when our town fills up with tourists. I also really like the "old town" part of nearby Cottonwood but my wife prefers Sedona and I am happy here. I know a lot of people who make their living off of tourism, so I tend to look favorably at tourists and will often halt a hike for 5 minutes to talk with tourists on our hiking trails.

bitcoinmoney 6y ago

Dang that’s a good deal. How much salary do you get for 15 hrs/week? Is the rest and vest situation?

shuckles 6y ago
His website has a consulting rate: https://markwatson.com/consulting/ https://markwatson.com/consulting/
mark_l_watson 6y ago
Salary is not an issue because I worked for 20 years, doing 32 hours a week, and saved money before moving to Sedona. Over the long term, spend less money than you earn and save some. EDIT: I did do a full time onsite gig 2018-2019 managing a small deep learning team. My wife and I saved a good fraction of that income, and I still support that company for the 100+ US patents I worked on.

rblatz 6y ago

Do you live in actual Sedona or do you live next door in Cottonwood or Cornville? I found Sedona beautiful, but a bit too tourist focused, whereas the other cities were actually much better to stay in. Also they have all the wineries :)

mark_l_watson 6y ago
We do live in Sedona, and usually stay around home on weekends when our town fills up with tourists. I also really like the "old town" part of nearby Cottonwood but my wife prefers Sedona and I am happy here. I know a lot of people who make their living off of tourism, so I tend to look favorably at tourists and will often halt a hike for 5 minutes to talk with tourists on our hiking trails.