The Alaska Factor

Planting the Seed

I remember the phone call from the recruiter asking “Have you ever considered living in Alaska?”  At the time, my wife and I were living in Utah while I finished up residency.  The Wasatch Range in Utah is an outdoor paradise with the “Greatest Snow on Earth” and miles of pristine singletrack.  We had no intention of leaving such a great location and moving to a remote locale 3000 miles away.  Moreover, we were concerned about the logistically challenging move, the high cost of living, distance away from family, and potential difficulty in moving back if the position didn’t work out.

Giving it a Shot

The group offered to pay for the entire cost of the interview for me and my wife, including the flight and hotel accommodations.  So if nothing else, it would be a great way to see Alaska for the first time.  The interview went well and I learned that reimbursement rates are slightly higher in Alaska (at least for the time being), which would  help with my loan repayment goals. After the interview, we hiked up flattop mountain and traversed Crow Creek Pass.  Overall, we were sold and decided to embark on the adventure.

 Making the Trip

By the end of residency, I was fully convinced of the importance of living a modest lifestyle and making prudent financial decisions.  The easiest way to make the move would be to ship up all of our belongings and fly up separately.  However, this would have cost around $25,000.  We also considered selling everything and then re-purchasing what we needed when we got there, but things are much more expensive in Alaska, so this also would have been a bad idea.  It turns out that the cheapest way to make the move was to shove everything into a Uhaul and then drive the Uhaul and our cars over 3000 miles up the ALCAN (Alaska-Canada Highway).  With the gracious help of my in-laws, we drove about 12 hours per day for 7 days to make the trip.  Not the most relaxing week, but it got the job done.  Remember, to get ahead you need to learn how to suffer. 

The Alaskan Experience

In some ways, Anchorage is no different than “The Lower 48”.  The main roads are paved, you can shop at Fred Meyer and REI, and Dropkick Murphys even performed in 2013.

In other ways, Alaska is very different.  In the summers, you need to carry bear spray or a 44 Magnum on the trails in case of a surprise bear encounter.  Seeing a moose in your front yard is normal. There is over 20 hours of daylight in the summer and only 5 hours in the winter. It can be -20 degrees F and +50 degrees F in the winter in the same week. Winds on the top of Sunburst (a popular backcountry skiing destination) routinely top 100mph.

Driving from one side of the state to the other would take 20 hours and many places, including the state Capital Juneau, are not accessible by road.  Outside of Anchorage, most of the small towns and villages are extremely rural. Many people prefer to live a sustainable lifestyle, hunting, fishing, and growing a large proportion of their food.  Because of the limited road system, a larger proportion of people in Alaska hold a pilots license than in any other state.

Finally, most things are much more expensive than the lower 48.  At Fred Meyer, I once bought a cucumber for $5.00, and a small container of blackberries for $8.00. The aggregate cost of living in Anchorage approaches San Francisco and Washington D.C. This may be why we haven’t been able to reduce our expenses below $50-60,000 per year.

How did it go?

It turns out that Alaska has been good to us.  Despite the initial trepidation regarding the move and remoteness of Alaska, the job has gone well and I paid off $400,000 worth of medical school loans in 2.5 years.  We have enjoyed some new activities including packrafting, backcountry ice skating and fat biking, and made some great friends.  Very few people who live in Alaska are “from” Alaska, so it has been interesting to hear all the stories of how people end up here. We even know a couple who sailed up to Alaska on a whim using a friend’s sailboat and then just decided to stay for life.

What is the point of all this?

The point of this post is not to advertise Alaska, or convince you to move to Alaska; it can be a harsh and extreme place to live, as conveyed by the term “The Alaska Factor”.  Rather, it is to remind you to keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities even if they seem outlandish.  Maybe you were offered a great job in the Midwest (low cost of living) with excellent pay but don’t think you could live in a “flyover” state.  It might not be as bad as you think and it might just propel you that much faster towards financial freedom.  Or maybe you have the opportunity to create a cash-based practice with uncertain income.  It might be crazy, or it just might be the best decision of your life.

What do you think?  Would you ever consider living in Alaska?  What opportunities have you pursued that seemed outrageous at first, but turned out to be rewarding, either professionally, financially, or personally?

Remember, it’s not about the money; It’s about the freedom.