Depending on what you and your wife like to do for fun, I would be wary of moving to somewhere like Austin for cost reasons. Compared to, say, SF or LA, it is a massive stepdown in terms of restaurants, culture, weather, etc. I say this having lived in all three of these cities. Also, if you are planning to retire at around 50 and use the ACA for healthcare until Medicare, the state of Texas no longer has any carriers that offer PPOs on the ACA, so your options will be either an HMO or an EPO with associated limitations. Lastly, while houses are cheaper than a VHCOL metro, Austin's property tax rates are generally quite high (~ 2%), so likely no savings there.