Brian recently made his move and was kind enough to answer some questions about the process and what life is like now in New Hampshire.
Q. Where were you living when you discovered the Free State Project, and what was life like then?
A. I was living in Northern California, in the East Bay Area(roughly 45 miles east of San Francisco). Life was decent, I was in a fairly liberty minded area of the county, but between the taxes at the state and local levels, the sales taxes, and the decision my family made for my wife to be a SAHM to our 2 boys with autism it felt like I was a slave to work in order to cover everything.
I work in HVAC/R and have for the last decade but I also have done auto mechanics, electrical systems for helicopters, high level Global Security Operations(with Executive Protection and Risk Identification), as well as a financial coaching business.
Q. How and when did you discover the Free State Project? What was the research process like?
A. The FSP came up during research among various states I was looking at that were more liberty minded. I believe it was linked via a Libertarian Party page in NH. It wasn’t until after my wife and I had already settled on New Hampshire for various other reasons.
When we visited the state we attended a Taproom Tuesday in Manchester and were made to feel very welcome rather quickly. This was huge for us as my wife and I are pretty reserved and community is important.
Q. When did you decide to move?
A. We made the conscious decision on New Hampshire in September of 2021, and made arrangements to visit in December/January to look for housing. We interviewed several realtors, and settled on one who was a NH native and specialized in getting houses sold that weren’t listed. This was huge knowing how competitive the market has been. As for the job hunt, I turned my LinkedIn on for open to work in the area, and worked with a professional recruiter. I learned very quickly that my skills were in high demand in the region and procured seven offers within the 2 week time during our visit.
Q. What are you looking forward to about the most? What are your plans for making life awesome here?
A. As a recent mover, we have found that life is much more accommodating to our interests. The reservations our teenager had about relocation have vanished as his hobbies are far more available to him here(particularly the outdoors hikes and biking). The schools function much more traditionally to what my wife and I experienced and has shown to be a vast improvement for both our boys.
Q. So far, how do you feel about your move?
A. So far everything has been amazing. Even the stressful parts around logistics with movers and such have been small blips in the big picture. We are still getting used to nearly everything being closed rather early(we were used to later night dinners), but it allows us more time together in the home to bond and catch up with one another.
Q. Do you have any advice to offer like-minded believers in liberty who are considering a move to New Hampshire?
A. Move now. It truly is like coming home here.
Q. What are you doing for the cause of liberty in New Hampshire?
A. Currently just interacting via the Facebook pages with people wanting to make the move, and attending FSP events as time permits. As time goes on I do want to get involved with helping to coordinate some legislation, specifically in the professional licensing arena, and maybe as I don’t want to work as much a run for public office may be in the cards.