Today we’re talking about a question that we know has been on a lot of your minds. How would my financial situation change if I moved from a high cost of living area to a medium or low cost of living area? What would the trade-offs be? Would they be worth it, or would my social life and quality of life take too much of a hit? On today’s episode, we bring in Allison Irby Voo to talk about her experience from moving from Washington D.C. to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Allison made her move using the Tulsa remote program, which offers money to incentivize people to move to the city and help revitalize it. And while there’s many programs like that out there, this episode is not to encourage you to specifically think about one of them, but more we want you to consider whether or not your city is holding you back financially and whether making a move like Allison’s can help alleviate your financial stress and further you down the path to financial independence.
Mindy: Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mindy Jensen and I am flying solo today because Scott is out gallivanting around town. Just kidding, he’s taking a well-deserved day off and we’ll join me again soon. As always, I am here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else. To introduce you to every money story because I truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you are starting. Without further ado, let’s bring in Allison. Allison Irby Voo, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today.
Allison: Thanks for having me. It’s really great to be with you as well, Mindy.
Mindy: Allison, right around the beginning of the pandemic, we started to hear about people who were leaving big city life and moving to smaller towns. During that time, you hopped on board that bad wagon and you moved from Washington, DC to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Do you remember the moment you started really considering making the move?
Allison: I do, actually. Um, I was going on a walk with my son. We found this trail near our house. Um, and while I was there, it was just the two of us and I thought, I could do this anywhere. We were just in the middle of nature, just kind of exploring and, yeah, it was just kind of, why do I want to spend a crazy amount on rent to stay in a place where I, I work remotely, so I’m working at home, and then other than that, I’m out in nature with my son every day. Um, and I thought we could really be exploring places that we normally wouldn’t. Uh, and the pandemic really opened up this, um, this way of thinking. It’s something that I’d wanted to to do, but being in that environment where it’s like, it’s just the two of us, we could do anything and go anywhere, is when it really started to click for me.
Mindy: I love the idea that you can go anywhere. It seems like our jobs keep us really geographically cemented, but during the pandemic, everybody was working from home, or most people were working from home. So being able to go someplace else is awesome. Let’s backtrack a little bit. You grew up in DC. Can you tell us about your relationship with money growing up?
Allison: Sure. So I will be very clear. I as a native Washingtonian, uh, you have to state clearly if you grow up in the suburbs of DC or in the city. It’s a real thing. Um, so I, my parents both grew up in DC proper and then I lived both in DC, um, and in Maryland in the suburbs of DC. But it’s all still, you know, kind of one ecosystem. Um, and I grew up with my mom who’s a single mom, um, who worked for the federal government her entire career and, um, provided a really solid, you know, stable life for me. I always felt like I had everything I needed. Um, but it was very, it’s a, it’s an area where you think a lot about who you’re going to be and what you’re going to be, um, and where you, where you sit, you know, kind of politically and, uh, academically. Like I, I spent a lot of time thinking about, uh, kind of doing future planning. And that I think was sparked by my mom always insisting that I needed to go, you know, to the best universities and I needed to, um, get a great government job, right? That’s like in DC, you want to be a contractor or government worker. So that, that’s kind of, um, the direction that I, I thought growing up.
Mindy: The government benefits are unparalleled. My husband used to work for the VA hospital and just the amount of basically everything you get, minus salary, of course. The salary is okay, but the benefits are huge. So I can see why your mom wanted you to have a government job. What did you settle on? What is your job?
Allison: So, I’d like to say I haven’t settled. Uh, I try not to ever settle.
Mindy: That’s a great answer.
Allison: I, I do have the great pleasure of working in financial planning. Uh, I get to work every day with really amazing, uh, amazing human beings who are just navigating getting financially liberated and I love it.
Mindy: That sounds like a, I can work from anywhere job. So before you moved to Tulsa, you had documented your journey online of paying off a large sum of debt. I’d love to go off on a little bit of a tangent here and talk about that. How much debt did you have? How long did it take you to pay off and how did you acquire that debt? What what did that debt, what was that debt comprised of?
Allison: Yeah, so I’ll say I never thought I would work in personal finance at all. It was not something I was, um, aspiring to. I got a lot of student loans, um, because I have two master’s degrees and three bachelor’s degrees. So I, I definitely love to learn and explore all of the opportunities that are out there. Um, but that landed me in a lot of student loan debt. Um, and it was really paralyzing for a really long time in ways that I didn’t notice, um, or fully understand.
Um, I, eight years ago, almost, um, had a baby. And that changed everything and knowing that I was going to have my son, I wanted to get into the best financial place that I could. Um, knowing that the student loans weren’t going anywhere super fast, there were other things I could take care of. Um, and so I, I got lots of jobs. Um, I I worked, um, a full-time job that I really enjoyed. I got a second job, that was really wild. I’d got to listen to jail conversations and get paid to do it. Um, it was really cool though. Um, I’m, I speak Spanish as well, so I got to listen to Spanish calls in Spanish and then, uh, transcribe the calls.
Um, and I sold a bunch of stuff. I read the Marie Kondo book, um, uh, around just like the idea of getting rid of things that don’t serve you. Um, and so I paid off somewhere over $30,000 in debt. Um, but yeah, it was just kind of working really hard knowing that the goal was to get at least credit card debt free before he arrived. He was coming and I needed to be ready. Um, so I even shifted away from living in DC and moved back to Maryland, um, which changed things as well.
We’re speaking with Allison Irby Voo, who left her life in DC and got money to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. You just heard Allison tell us about her financial situation before her move. Next up, you’ll hear about how living in a smaller city changed her financial situation. But first, we’re taking a quick ad break.
You just realized your business needed a hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. That means you can stop struggling to get your job notice on other job sites. Indeed’s sponsor jobs helps you stand out and hire the right people quickly. Your job post jumps straight to the top of the page where your ideal candidates are looking. And it works. Sponsored jobs on Indeed get 45% more applications than non-sponsored posts. The best part? No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts. You only pay for results. And speaking of results, in the minute I’ve been talking to you, 23 people just got hired through Indeed worldwide. There’s no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/biggerpockets. Just go to indeed.com/biggerpockets right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. indeed.com/biggerpockets. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need.
Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. Let’s get back on topic and talk about Tulsa. You moved from Washington, D.C. to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I have actually been to both of those cities and Washington, D.C. is a little more big than Tulsa. Why? Not that Tulsa is bad. Please don’t email me that you think I’m doing Tulsa hate, but it’s a big difference. Why Tulsa?
Allison: Well, was community. And honestly, I want to say it was New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, something like that that I got an email from some travel blog, some some, I don’t I don’t even know, uh, which one it is honestly, but I followed some bloggers and they posted about this opportunity to move to Tulsa for this experience of community and to make $10,000 doing it. And I thought, huh, I really want community. And I’ve lived in the DC area, if I didn’t live internationally somewhere I lived in DC or the surrounding areas. And I know a lot of people, but I still felt like I wasn’t in community with people.
And that, that I felt that before the pandemic, but even more so during the pandemic. Um, and so this opportunity to go to a new place where I didn’t know people, um, but could be in an environment where people were seeking community, where other like-minded people and completely different people were seeking to build something. I just thought it would be really powerful to go and see what it was about, especially knowing it was only a year commitment. Like what did we have to lose in the midst of a pandemic where all we’re doing is sitting at home, doing art and wandering around in nature.
Mindy: I love that. So you got $10,000 to move from Washington, DC to Tulsa, Oklahoma and live there for a year?
Allison: Yes.
Mindy: I have moved cross country for not for free, it came out of my pocket. That’s awesome. And like you said, it’s a one-year commitment. Are you still there?
Allison: I’m still here. It will be three years in two weeks.
Mindy: Something else that you said, you said, in DC, I knew a lot of people, but I didn’t feel community with them. And I think that’s a really important distinction to make. Just because you know a lot of people doesn’t mean that’s your community. Community is the people that get what you’re talking about, that understand where you’re coming from, that you don’t have to explain the concepts of the community, whatever the community is. And did you find community in Tulsa?
Allison: I am still finding community. Um, it’s really, it’s very cool. I would say just the the idea that these are people who were willing to do this crazy thing I was willing to do says a lot about us collectively in that there are people from all over the country, people who moved here from other countries, um, even that are seeking the same. And so it’s really helpful to be around such openness. Um, I have met friends that I’ll have forever, people that feel like family. Um, and if it hasn’t done anything else, it’s helped me to create a more clear sense of what I want community to feel like.
Mindy: I love that. I love that so much because your community doesn’t have to be somebody else’s community. You can create your own community. And I live in Longmont, Colorado, which is the kind of like Mecca for FI, and I have community, and it is so awesome to be in a place where there are so many people just like you or similar to you. And you don’t have to explain anything, you can get together and you don’t have to worry about like small talk. You can, you just if you have this in common, you have other things in common too. And it kind of gets over the hump of awkwardness when you meet somebody new within the community. So I’m so happy that you found your community uh within Tulsa and that’s that’s really awesome. Uh, can you paint us a picture of your financial situation around the time that you decided to move to Tulsa?
Allison: Yeah, I was, I don’t know, I was earning a little under six figures, uh, which didn’t feel like anything in DC. My rent had just increased and was going up again. Um, all to not move and really do anything. Um, and I was really grateful that I had some time in the pandemic to pause childcare because childcare in DC is like $2,000 a month. Um, on top of a, you know, rent that’s at least $2,000 a month. Um, so that’s kind of where I was. Um, just kind of managing that. Um, and living pretty paycheck to paycheck. Um, getting, you know, having things paid off just meant, especially like becoming a mom and then not working five jobs to try to make the extra money, just um, being more grounded and and being at home, um, meant that I had one job. And so pretty month to month, you know, um, just kind of keeping up, um, with trying to keep up. I I’ll say that. Just trying to kind of keep up with everything going on around me and not feeling like there was much progress to be made. and that I, um, moved to the suburbs of Maryland, um, DC suburbs, two weeks before my son was born and moved to this community that was super nice community, and I moved within that community to try to save money. Like I just kind of kept rotating through different um, housing options within the community. They’d have like a deal, um, and so I’d move to a new building that they built, but I never felt like, I felt like, oh, I can keep moving to slightly larger units within this apartment community, but I can’t buy a house here.
Mindy: Yeah, that is one of the trade-offs with these big cities, uh, typically coastal cities, is that it is, they’ve got the nightlife, they’ve got the, you know, population, they’ve got all of these amazing things, but it comes with a trade-off and that is very expensive housing, expensive food, expensive transportation, expensive everything. Getting back to the Tulsa remote program specifically, what were the qualifications for uh, being accepted into this program?
Allison: That’s a great question. Um, you have to have a remote job that uh can can kind of cover your expenses. So I’m not sure what the uh the income requirement is, but there is one um for you to to get into the program. You have to have an interview, you go through an interview process to share a bit about yourself and how you’ll benefit the community and what your, you know, what your interests are. I’m not sure what all of their, all of the specifics are, but I knew that I had the income uh requirements met and met with folks and interviewed and they took me.
Mindy: Yay. And what is your housing situation? Did you get a place to rent? Is everybody in this program in kind of the same area or did you buy a house? Are you all spread out?
Allison: So you’re required, so this is one of the requirements, is that you must live in within the Tulsa limits. Um so you can’t move here and then say, oh, I actually want to buy a farm that’s an hour away from Tulsa. Um so there is an expectation of participation in community. Um, and so there are lots of ways to do it. There are folks who live in apartments downtown, there are people who live in single family homes out in more of a suburbia kind of suburban feel. Um, I when I first moved here, I rented a house and that’s something that was really important to me. Uh, I loved the apartment community we were in, but with the pandemic, I knew that I needed to be able to get outside easily and quickly and have room to run uh for both of us. And so, um, I was able to find a cute home to rent with a ginormous backyard. I thought, well, we’ll see how the first year goes and then I can make some decisions about buying a home. And six months in, I bought a home.
Mindy: That’s awesome.
Allison: So, yeah, so now we live just about a 10 to 12 minute walk to downtown, bordering a historic neighborhood here and a brand new single family home.
Mindy: Were there any stipends for moving or housing or anything like that?
Allison: So, they provide, um, a reimbursement for visiting. Um, there is when I joined the program, the $10,000, you, they give you the $10,000 over the course of the year that you live here, um, unless you purchase a home. So if you purchase a home and you can share the deed that you have in fact purchased it, they will give you the remaining amount of the $10,000. Um, because then it shows that you are in fact sticking around. So that is an incentive and they also, um, we use slack to connect, um, and they share lots of resources and things like that with the community. Um, but other than that, there’s no, um, I mean, it’s a huge incentive to know that if you make it here and it feels right that you could get that money a lot sooner. Um, so that’s really helpful than waiting that entire year to, you know, just get a small chunk every month. Either way is actually great because now I experienced both. I experienced the the monthly allocation of the funds as well as the larger sum and it was really helpful for me that, uh, once I bought the house that all the extra stuff, you know, wanting to buy new furniture for, you know, the patio or wanting to get the kitchen just right, you know, I had extra money to to navigate that.
Mindy: How much would you estimate your entire move cost you from Washington, D.C. to Tulsa?
Allison: I want to say about 6,000, um, and that’s, you know, paying for pods, um, or those types of things to to be to ship.
Mindy: What factors did you take into consideration before the move?
Allison: January 1st of 2021, um, my son and I got in my car and we drove uh, from the DC area to Tulsa because I wanted to feel what it was like to be here, not just um, read things. Um, for me it was important to see what the political climate felt like, the warmth of people or the lack thereof. Um, very importantly, I wanted to know that there was a Trader Joe’s. And I know that sounds really silly, but it actually was something that was on my list. I wanted to know that there were museums and cultural things to to explore and that even if the diversity didn’t look like the diversity where I’m from, which I knew it couldn’t, that it would have that it would feel uh, welcoming and and open enough place for us to to share our diversity and to explore others and other cultures.
Mindy: I don’t think that it’s fair to compare Washington D.C. diversity to uh
Allison: It is not, it is not fair and I wouldn’t dare because I’ve traveled this country pretty extensively and there’s nowhere that I’ve ever been that is the same level of diverse, um, socioeconomically diverse, culturally, ethnically, like we’ve we’ve got it all in the DC area. So I I had zero expectation of that, but there is a great deal of uh of diversity here in, there’s a huge uh native population here. There are just people from different backgrounds that live here and I wanted to make sure that we could at least uh experience that. Cowboy culture, I’d never spent any time indulging in. So just something different that we could continue learning about other people and learning about ourselves through the experience.
Mindy: So what’s your favorite part about Tulsa?
Allison: The life that I want to give my son where he has friends he can run around with, uh, in the neighborhood and we don’t have to, everything doesn’t have to be a scheduled play date. You know, he gets to have a little bit of the freedoms that I had being, you know, an ’80s/’90s kid, uh, kind of free range roaming around. Um, it’s really important for me and I know that we’re able to travel the state and the world in a way that we couldn’t do as freely if we stayed where we were. You know, my son is super active in sports. Sports are expensive. These kids, why are these kids so expensive? Um, but sports, sports are, you know, it costs a lot and to keep up with all of that. I think the pace here, it’s so much slower that I can get everywhere and anywhere within 15 minutes is huge. It it just gives me time back to be present to my son in a way that living in the DC area, you just don’t get. My time is worth so much, um, and time together is so important to me. So having that is worth everything.
Mindy: Time back to be present with your son. That is, I cannot highlight that enough. I cannot underline that and circle it and point arrows to it because that is so, so important. What is the point of having a kid if you’re not going to spend any time with them? If you can’t spend any time with them because you’re always in the car commuting to your job and not able to be present with them. I mean, I, when I worked in Chicago, I lived in several cities around the Chicago area and the commute is just awful. And I didn’t have kids at the time, but you wake up at 5:00 in the morning to get to work by 8:00. You are back home at the, you know, crack of 7:00 and then you go to bed and do it all over again.
Allison: 100%. and I, you know, I shared earlier that my mom provided so much for me and so much stability and financial safety and all of that, but she also worked in Washington D.C. and we lived in the D.C. suburbs, and she had to leave before I was even out the door for school. She didn’t come home until it was time for her to make dinner, you know, and I knew that I wanted something different. I get to drop my son off at school every morning. I pick him up from school every day. You know, we get to go on nature walks around our neighborhood after dinner. You know, there’s there’s time for play. Um, there’s just, you know, even to be able to participate as a homeroom parent and leave work after a call, jump off a call and run to his class, help out and then come back and, you know, jump back in and have that still take, you know, under an hour or two. That’s the amount of time it would take just to get to work. You know, so they’re just is so much flexibility in that. And there’s just also room to create what’s next, right? Um, and I think that’s a big draw for a lot of folks in Tulsa remote. There are a lot of creatives here. There are a lot of people who are just looking to launch into their next thing who aren’t fixed on, you know, it being, they’re being one narrative. Like this is my job. I’ve chosen this one thing. It’s these are the various things I’m exploring and there’s room here to think about it and to actually build and there’s a lot of um, reception. Um, there’s a a lot of really receptive people and businesses here. Um, if you have an idea and you want to start something, there, you know, only 20 different incubators you can engage in, um, and be a part in and growing whatever that next thing is for you.
We’re going on a quick break. You’ve heard Allison talk all about the positives that came from her move from DC to Tulsa. When we’re back, Allison will discuss some of the drawbacks.
If you’ve been putting off life insurance, I get it. The old process was miserable. Phone calls with an agent, a nurse coming to your house for a blood draw, then waiting weeks to find out what you’d pay for. That friction is exactly why so many people who should have coverage don’t. Here’s what I believe: most BP Money listeners need term life, and the right move is to build a ladder – a few term policies of different lengths stacked together, so your coverage steps down as your mortgage shrinks and your kids get closer to being financially independent or you get closer to hitting your financial independence number. The thing that makes that practical now is Ethos, a platform that helps you find life insurance all 100% online. Same-day coverage, no medical exam, you just answer a few health questions online. Up to $3 million in coverage, some policies as low as $30 a month. So building a two or three-layer ladder that used to take a month of appointments is something you can knock out before your coffee gets cold. Get your free quote at ethos.com/bpmoney. That is ETHOS.com/bpmoney. Application times may vary and rates may vary.
When I was CEO of BiggerPockets, Upwork was the number one place that we went to hire freelancers to power our business. One of the biggest growth hacks is realizing that you don’t have to do it all yourself. Upwork made it easy to bring in the right freelancer when we needed them, so that we could stay focused on what we do best. Upwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations, and more. It’s free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire flexible, high-quality freelance talent for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That’s upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That’s upwork.com, upwork.com.
In spring hits, some people suddenly just want to declutter the garage, clean out the closets, and get everything all organized. Whether or not that hits you, Monarch will do your financial spring cleaning for you. One dashboard gets your entire financial life organized. No more clutter, no more mess, no more scattered logins, just accounts, investments, property, and more, all in one place. One of my favorite parts is the Sankey diagram. Every month, I open it up and literally watch the flow of money. It shows exactly where every dollar is going from income to all of my spending categories. It makes it so much easier to spot what’s working and what needs tweaking. Get your first year of Monarch for half off, just $50 with the promo code POCKETS. Use the code POCKETS at monarch.com to get your first year half off at just 50 bucks. That’s 50% off your first year at monarch.com with the code p-o-c-k-e-t-s.
You guys heard our recent episode with David Jackson, and I’ll be honest, even as somebody who lives and breathes this stuff, having a pro like David pressure test my plan was a game changer. Domain Money is different because they don’t try to take over your accounts. They provide a flat-fee service where a dedicated CFP analyzes your entire financial life with no stone left unturned. No hidden fees, no commissions, just clear, actionable strategy. Go to biggerpocketsmoney.com/cfp and book a free strategy session to see how they can help you reach fire faster. This is a promotion for Domain Money, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. BiggerPockets Money may receive compensation if you choose to work with Domain Money as a client. I, Scott Trench, am a current client of Domain Money and received non-cash compensation related to this promotional activity. This is not personalized investment advice. For the full disclosures, visit biggerpocketsmoney.com/cfp.
When you’re ready to start your business, Northwest registered agent helps you do more than just file paperwork. You get all the tools to build a real business identity from day one. A business address, website, phone number, operating agreement, free guides and more at no extra cost. Northwest registered agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They are the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US with over 1500 corporate guides. These are real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. With Northwest, your business is set up to stand on its own from day one. That means your home address, personal email and phone number stay private. Don’t pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/moneyfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/moneyfree.
Welcome back to the show. Well, now that we’ve established that Tulsa is literally heaven on earth, are there any drawbacks to Tulsa? Anything you miss about Washington, D.C.?
Allison: Oh, 100%. Again, like the diversity piece is really important to me and that’s a big struggle, um, for me personally because I grew up with, you know, walking down the street in DC, you hear five different languages, um, you know, in a 10-minute time, uh, time frame. And I miss the diversity of food. Every time I go back, I have to go get Thai food, I have to get Ethiopian food or like dig into really specific things. Um, crabs. I’ve talked about um, getting crabs flown in from Maryland because it’s it’s a real, it’s a real thing when you’re from the area, you need your crab fix. And I love my family and my friends at home and I miss them, but I, it’s there. You know, I go back and visit often. Still the same old stuff, you know. Um, and so I can pick back up. I miss it because I live there my whole life and it so so much a part of it is, you know, will always be home. And there’s and an identity piece that connects me there, right? Like when people ask, oh, so you’re from Oklahoma? I’m definitely not an Oklahoman. Um, I’m definitely still a native Washingtonian. I am a Maryland girl. I am not. My son, however, is like full on Tulsan. He embraces it. Um, but there is that part of me that’s that, you know, will always be a DC girl.
Mindy: And that’s valid. I lived, I’ve lived everywhere. And being in Chicago is the place that I’ve lived the most of my life, but I don’t necessarily consider myself from anywhere in particular because I’ve been every, I’ve lived everywhere. I’m from everywhere. But the hustle and bustle is not at all something I miss about Chicago. Yeah, they’ve got great food. And Longmont, Colorado does not have the diversity of food options that a larger city in Chicago would have. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t find something to eat here. I’m sure that’s the same with Tulsa.
Allison: Oh yeah. We, I mean, we have found so many hidden gems, not just in Tulsa, but we’ve explored this region a ton. Um, there are, I mean, my son, I think is now been to over 30 states, um, and I only have three left to go before I’ve hit all 50. And so much of it has happened because we’ve lived here. I didn’t know if we’d live here for just a year. Um, and so, you know, we’ve explored every corner of Oklahoma, um, and really tried to make it count. So, yeah, there are lots of little special, unique things about Tulsa. I don’t know that if this program had been anywhere else in Oklahoma, that I would have considered it, but Tulsa specifically has, um, an energy that that drew me in and keeps us here.
Mindy: Yeah. That’s awesome. I’m so glad that you went there and it’s discovered that it is something that you would like to do. Do you think you’re going to live there forever?
Allison: Ooh, forever is a really long time, Mindy.
Mindy: For the foreseeable future.
Allison: Don’t think I can say that. Um, I think remain invested in Tulsa for the foreseeable future. And I don’t mean invested, financially invested. I mean emotionally invested and financially invested. I think, um, just like deep community investment. I think we’ve established roots here that are not likely to be broken. I’m not the kind of person that likes to lock myself into things. Um, I I keep an open, uh, open heart and open mind to to whatever’s out there. But for now, this, um, this is a place that is meeting our current needs.
Mindy: That’s awesome. Yeah. I have moved a lot, like I said, but I finally found the place that I’m never going to leave from. And finding a place that you can connect with is so, so important. So is this program still going on? Can people still apply and and get the $10,000 housing or $10,000 stipend and all of that?
Allison: Yes. Um, the community continues to grow. To my understanding, it’s the most successful program out there, um, of its of its kind. Uh, and I I can totally understand why. Um, even now that I’m three years in, you know, I’m an alum at this point, OG, uh, Tulsa Remoter, I still benefit greatly from the community. Like when I’m exploring new options for, um, for camps for my son or just want to know what new restaurants have popped up, like everyone is really, really welcoming and really helpful and sharing all the resources. It’s such a great tool to have, um, when you are when you’re new to a place, having a a built-in community. I think past college, unless you work at some really big company that’s like some really cool company, you’re just destined to be kind of around the same people all the time. Um, so Tulsa Remote has been a really great way to keep evolving friendships, to keep learning about new things and keep digging in deeper to community and parts of community that you might not otherwise explore. They create, um, weekly opportunities for members to connect and, uh, to connect with each other and learn more about the city itself. So, yeah, I mean, I encourage people all the time to apply. I’ve gotten folks to move here and, yeah, even one of my best friends, when I said we were moving here, uh, she bought a house in Tulsa, um, because she said, well, if you’re moving there, I know it’s somewhere to be because you wouldn’t just be moving to Oklahoma for no reason. So, you know, community, I want to grow community with the people that are already here, but also continue to to bring in those who are looking for a similar feeling.
Mindy: Yeah, I love it. Alison, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for your time today. Is there any place that people can connect with you online?
Allison: Yes, um, my website is alisonirbyvoo.com and my Insta handle is the same.
Mindy: Awesome. This was so much fun to listen to. Thank you so much for your time today. And that wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. She is Alison Irby-Voo and we will link to her website and Instagram in our show notes. And I am Mindy Jensen saying, gotta go, Buffalo.
BiggerPockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench. Produced by Hajar El-Zarif. Edited by Exodus Media. Copywriting by Nate Weintraub. And lastly, a big thank you to the BiggerPockets team for making this show possible.
