Downward angle icon Downward angle icon. Jasmine Bell moved from Los Angeles to Tulsa, Oklahoma and received $10,000. Courtesy of Jasmine Ball Jasmine Ball didn't want to spend half her life behind the wheel of a car in Los Angeles. When Ball, 32, found a program that would pay her $10,000 to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, she packed up and moved. Ball said she may never leave Oklahoma, where the cost of living is lower and she has a better work-life balance.
This essay is based on a conversation with Jasmine Ball, a 32-year-old financial planner who relocated from Los Angeles to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2020 to get paid through the Tulsa Remote Program. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I had never heard of Tulsa before. Of course, I had heard of Oklahoma, but never heard of Tulsa.
I found out about Tulsa through a YouTube video posted by a pastor there, and I was intrigued.
I found the cost of living to be low and then I found out about Tulsa Remote.
I was looking for a place with a low cost of living and while comparing the cost of living in different states, Tulsa came up, then after some more research, Tulsa Remote came up.
I thought, “That's enough,” and decided to move.
I had already decided to move there and was researching house prices when I told my dad I was going to buy a house, and he said, “You haven't even been there yet.”
I had never been there before going to see the house, and while I was in Tulsa for a week I found the house and made an offer.
What makes Tulsa even more interesting to me is the history of Black Wall Street.
Courtesy of Jasmine Ball
I thought, “How great would it be if financial companies could also get into Black Wall Street?”
Of course, it was great to have that program and incentives, but that was only part of the decision to relocate there.
I knew I couldn't stay in California forever.
I'm originally from Orlando, California, which is a rural area. I went to college in Minnesota, moved back to Northern California for a while, and then moved to Los Angeles.
If I had stayed in California, I don't know if I would have been able to start my own business. I certainly wouldn't have started as soon as I did.
I launched my own company in December 2021, so it's been about a year since I came to Tulsa, and I worked remotely for another company for a year before that.
If I had stayed, I probably would have continued working for somebody else, but after I went to Tulsa and got some distance, I thought, “Maybe I should just do it myself.” So I did.
Financial issues were a big factor, but the real reason I knew I couldn't continue living in LA was because I was waking up at 4:30am every day, leaving the house, and not getting home until 10:30pm.
Half the time I was driving in traffic, I thought to myself, “I can't live like this.”
I literally did the math. I would be spending years of my life in a car. I didn't want to live that life. I can't imagine being 60 when I could have spent 20 years driving a car and lived my life instead.
That was the trigger.
Of course finances were a big factor. Finances are very tight in California and we've always had to struggle.
I decided I didn't want to settle. I wanted to have as much money as I wanted, but I also didn't want to put in that much effort.
Finding that place of balance has been truly life-changing.
I can buy a house for about the same amount I was paying for a room in LA.
In Los Angeles in 2020, I was living with three roommates: one was my sister and the other two were friends.
The four of us lived in a five-bedroom townhouse and the rent was $3,800 a month, which was actually pretty cheap.
Because I occupied the master bedroom, my share of the rent was $1,100.
I purchased a home in Tulsa in November 2020 and it sat vacant until I moved in December.
The mortgage on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a two-car garage is $1,185.
Ball's mortgage payment on her Tulsa home is just a little more than what she would pay in rent in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Jasmine Ball
It was a great time to move because interest rates were so low at the time, about 2.25%, so it was a no-brainer.
Our utility bills have gone down a lot. I joke that I still have PTSD from the utility bills I paid, especially as a kid. I remember one summer our electric bill was $600. That's ridiculous. In Tulsa, you can run your air conditioner all day and it's only $100 or $200.
Water, gas, everything is cheaper.
Gas in California is about $5 a gallon, and in Tulsa it's about $3. When I moved here it was like $1.70, and I was like, “What the heck?” I've never seen gas that cheap in my life.
Not only does it cost gas, it also takes time.
In Tulsa, I can make much more use of my time than I did in LA. I'm more productive because I'm spending less time on unproductive things, which actually helps me make more money.
Tulsa has simple things like parking. You can find free parking anywhere. Always free after 5pm, free on weekends. Parking in LA is awful. You're lucky if you can find a $10 spot.
I don't think I'll ever leave Tulsa.
Tulsa often has free events, like concerts in the park, so if you want to do something, there's bound to be something to do – and it's probably free.
Tulsa has a lot of suburban areas that have parades, and I can’t remember coming across so many in LA.
I spend most of my free time in Tulsa either playing volleyball or volunteering.
California has beaches, but I've rarely played beach volleyball there because it takes too long to get there. On a bad day it takes an hour and a half to get to Santa Monica. On a good day it's about 45 minutes. But if I'd be driving all week, it just isn't worth it.
There are several volleyball leagues in Tulsa.
Courtesy of Jasmine Ball
Finding a place to volunteer in Los Angeles was hard, sometimes requiring a full 10-step application process, and sometimes I just thought “I'll just give it a go and see what happens.”
But in Tulsa, it's very accessible.
I volunteer a lot at the Tulsa Dream Center. During the pandemic, they were handing out free groceries every Saturday, rain, snow or shine. So I just came every Saturday, no training required. At least in Tulsa, it's so easy to get involved, instead of looking for barriers or reasons why you can't get involved.
I didn't move there with the intention of necessarily leaving, but I always told myself, “I can always come back.” If this doesn't work out, if I don't like it, I can always come back to California.
But surprisingly, I actually love it.
I can't imagine myself moving anywhere else.
I love to travel, so I may buy properties in other places. At first I thought of Tulsa as a base and an experimental place. But it turned out to be a really fun place.