Stay or Go?

Leave! Get out while you can! Before shuffleboard and canasta rule your life!

Ok, hyperbole aside. If your heart isn't here(I live in Florida as well - in the Panhandle), start job and housing hunting there while working here. If you can line something up, then you move back. As for boring - eh... Get a place with a decent sized living room and host dinner parties or movie night. Contests where the food item that is the best combination of healthy and tasty wins a prize. If your friends are there, would it really be more boring than here?

I'm partial to FL since I live here too. Make new friends and be happy to live where the only shoes you need are flip flops :-)

Are Florida and Connecticut your only options? Maybe this is the opportunity to strike out on one of those grand adventures somewhere totally new and exciting. California? New York? Paris?

New York and California? Don't even think about these if you think CT is too expensive. NY & CA and #1 & #2 for highest taxes and cost of living. I live in CA, and have for most of my life. Love the lifestyle, hate the expense.

I moved to Baltimore MD in the early 2000s (2002 or 2003). And it was fine. I made good money there, and had a job that I liked. But the friends that I made were, generally, from work. Since everyone was so spread out, hanging out with them outside of work was really not a good option more than once in a while. So we had no everyday friends... and our families were in WV. I already owned a house there that I was renting.

So we decided to move back to be with friends and family. It was a great decision. i don't regret doing it. But there are things I would suggest:

1) Have a job to go to. I called every contact I had in WV to find a job and finally landed one. The last thing I wanted to do was move without anything because we couldn't afford to do that (turns out we stretched ourselves thin anyway).

2) can i afford it? In Baltimore the cost of living was, surprisingly enough, not that different than Morgantown. But when we moved back I had to take almost a 50% pay cut. I didn't crunch the numbers correctly. And we did okay. Then we had a child, and have used up a lot of our investments (not retirement), and are just about to operate in the black again in the next couple of months, but it's been a struggle.

I'd definitely move, not a fan of Florida

I really, really don't like Florida and I miss the Northeast terribly. If I had the choice, I'd go. But you like Florida and hate CT, so you should probably stay in Florida. Maybe try getting out more and making some friends. It might mean a move to a different part of the state for a job, though.

I'm currently debating if I want to move to Cali from Texas when I graduate college, which I most likely will. I say move back. Nothing is permanent, and since your job is currently stagnant, I think it's perfect timing.

FWIW - I've lived in Calif, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Great Britain. Everytime I moved I had no friends when I got to the new place. I made new friends and enjoyed every one of those places. Abe Lincoln said a man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be. You can decide to stay or go, but I suspect if you aren't happy in one place you might not be happy in the other either. Perhaps you should examine why you aren't happy and see if you can fix that. Sounds like the job might be one of the things weighing on you. Figure out why you aren't liking the current job and see if any of those things can be changed, if not move on. Life's too short to wait on someone or something else to make you happy.

Are Florida and Connecticut your only options? Maybe this is the opportunity to strike out on one of those grand adventures somewhere totally new and exciting. California? New York? Paris?

New York and California? Don't even think about these if you think CT is too expensive. NY & CA and #1 & #2 for highest taxes and cost of living. I live in CA, and have for most of my life. Love the lifestyle, hate the expense.

Did you know that there is more to New York than New York City??? I know -- blows one's mind, doesn't it?

Why do people always feel the need to point out there is more to New York than just NYC? Yes I know that there is a difference between the two, and I was referring to the state as a whole and not just the city...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-us-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-taxes/

I lived in the state for 28 years and it is NOT a high COL outside of NYC and surrounding counties. It's quite inexpensive, actually, and far cheaper than where the OP currently lives.

FYI -- states with lower taxes, I've found from living in a couple of them, make up for those low taxes by doing things like charging $300 to register your car every year. Rent, food, etc., are super low in many parts of New York.

Also, people from NY feel the need to point this out because every time we mention being from NY, people assume we mean the City. And most people who never lived there actually don't realize there is more to the state than that. I have actually met several people who think the entire state is New York City and Buffalo. And they only know about Buffalo because of the Bills and wings.

I'm in a similar boat...and would move back home in a heartbeat if I could...so I vote for moving.

Not counting the military days, I moved away from my hometown of New Orleans for a job in Phoenix. After about 18 months, I was in your boat...missing home, missing friends and family, so we moved back 6 months later. It didn't take me long to remember why we left in the first time. Friends and family were fine, but there was just something about my hometown that made me unhappy. We moved to Buffalo, NY (I know, I know) about 10 years ago, and anytime I get homesick, I just remind myself of the time we moved back to New Orleans. YMMV

Funny. I am from Buffalo NY and live in Phoenix. I love both, but the only other place I would ever consider moving to is Portland OR area.

- My grandparents are getting pretty old -- I'd hate to not be able to hang with them because I don't want to be cold

Ah. I just lost both my grandparents (one on each side and my last two living) within a month of each other and I hadn't made it up to visit in two years before that. So I'm biased here, but I'm going to say this is a really compelling reason to move back.

As for pizza, there's a place in Estero (if it's still there) that's AMAZING. Or if you want to drive a couple hours, there's a local chain in Port St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce that is AMAZING. I'm pretty sure the owners are New Yorkers originally, based on how amazing it is. :-)

Some parts of Florida have great pizza. You just have to find it. And you can't trust the locals on this because native Floridians are clueless about pizza.

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I get it. The grass is always greener. Just like it was 4 years ago. Like it will be 4 years after you move back and get bored again because the friends your dying to hang out with never hang out anymore because they settled down to have families.

This may be true for some... But not everyone plays the same life script. I know people that have had relationships for over 30 years... I'm going on 15 years with some of mine.

I understand that there's a high probability that they will fade away eventually... And when there's nothing left to hold me back, then I'll go somewhere else.

I've had the same best friend for 36 years (I'm 37). I also have stayed very close friends with people I've known since elementary and middle school across decades and even long miles. I dated a guy briefly in high school and I'm still vaguely in touch with him AND the guy he's been best friends with since before I met them and I knew them 20 years ago. Some people will fade out, but some friendships do last. And not everyone gives up their entire lives because they have kids. I sure as heck didn't.