Find Your Best Place to Live

Some people can live wherever they want. But all of us can dream. Perhaps you want to move somewhere else and make a change. Maybe you just want to shake things up a little.  Some jobs let us live almost anywhere. Today many positions require only an Internet connection. If you want to find the perfect place to live, you might spend weeks doing research on cities around the world. Or you could use the Teleport website. It is set up to help you discover the best place for you. The website’s developers once worked for Skype. Teleport helps you search for places to live based on personal preferences – your own likings and dislikes. Teleport may help you decide where to go or dream about where to move some day. It can also make you better appreciate – and value -- the area where you are living now. Using Teleport To get started, go to the Teleport website and create an account. Users can choose from among different preferences to find the best city for them to live in. The search for ideal cities is based on you telling Teleport what is important to you. The site gives 20 categories to choose from. The groupings include: Cost of living Job market Climate Language Pollution Safety Traffic and Internet speed No city will likely be a perfect match for you. One issue or another might influence the website’s results. But Teleport can show you which cities are the best, based on your preferences. Teleport lists over 150 places. If an area is not listed, you can vote to add it to the site. Start by completing the Personal Data information. You tell Teleport where you are living now, the kind of job you have, your monthly earnings and budget requirements. You will be asked to list the earnings and budget requirements in United States dollars or other currencies, such as euros, British pounds, and Chinese yuan. This might seem like a lot of personal information to share with strangers. But Teleport says it does not share the information with others unless the account holder agrees, the website is sold, or when required to by law. The site also says it may contact the account holder for marketing purposes, but the person can stop its emails at any time. With Teleport’s help, you can decide whether you want to live in an area that has a higher or lower cost of living than where you live now. Or choose a place with costs similar to your current location. Within each preference are choices for you to identify. For example, under Traffic you can let Teleport know how much you hate traffic and how you like to travel: by car, public transportation, riding a bicycle and/or walking. The housing choices are limited. You will have a choice of either a one- or three-bedroom rental home. But the results will give you a general idea of housing costs in cities. If a category is not important to you, do not mark any of the choices within that preference. Results Teleport uses the information to create a bar graph showing you a list of your ideal cities. The picture has colors showing you how closely matched each preference is for that city. If the results do not show areas where you would like to live, you may want to change the preferences. You can also remove whole continents where you do not want to live. If you have chosen Living Costs as one of your preferences, you will see a column to the right of the bar graph. The column shows how much more or less each city will cost you to live in, compared to where you live now. You can see the relative cost of living in each city in your chosen currency. If cost of living is your most important consideration, use the Best Budget tab at the top of the page to see cities rated in order of their costs. Search If you are interested in living in a city that did not make the list based on your preferences, you can search for it on Teleport. Enter the name of the city and the site will show you information about living there. Compare Cities Use the Compare Cities tool to see two cities side-by-side and compare places to live. You can see which of the two cities will best meet your needs. Teleport will show you how both cities compare to your preferences and cost of living. You can also compare issues such as weather and the average pay for your job. Under the Score Data section, you can see how each city compares to where you live now. Teleport App Teleport is also available as a free app for: Teleport for iPhone and iPad Teleport for Android I’m Marsha James.   Carolyn Mohr wrote this report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.   Your Thoughts Have you ever wondered where your ideal city is? Which preferences are most important to you? What do you think your ideal city is? Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   preference - n.  something that is liked or wanted more than another thing appreciate - v. to be grateful for (something) account - n. an arrangement in which a person uses the Internet or e-mail services of a particular company match - n. two people or things that are suited to each other currency - n. the money that a country uses location - n. a place or position rental - n. something that can be rented category - n. a group of people or things that are similar in some way column - n. a group of printed or written items (such as numbers or words) shown one under the other down a page budget - n. an amount of money available for spending that is based on a plan for how it will be spent  

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