This guide is from Qogito, an AI personal advisor — not a chatbot and not a therapist, but a board of four advisors (Devon, Mara, Sam, and Kai) who think a question through with you from different angles instead of just agreeing, through a real-time group conversation with you.
Where you live shapes almost everything: who you see, how you spend your hours, how much you have left at the end of the month, and how much of your day is spent doing things you actually like. Yet most people decide it on one or two factors — usually the job and the cost — and quietly leave the rest to chance.
The trouble is that the loudest factors aren’t always the most important ones. A salary is a number you can compare on a spreadsheet; the slow erosion of seeing your closest people is not. This framework asks you to weigh all five factors honestly, so the easy-to-measure ones don’t drown out the ones that actually carry your wellbeing.
1. Who are the people you'd be near — or far from?
Start here, because this is the factor that gets quietly underweighted against salary every single time. Close relationships are one of the strongest predictors of long-term wellbeing — stronger than income past a certain point — and yet proximity to them is the thing people treat as negotiable when a job offer lands.
Map it honestly. Who would you see more of, and who would you see less of? Be specific about the difference between a friendship that survives a video call and one that quietly fades without a shared kitchen table. The pull of a new place is real, but so is the slow cost of being two hours from the people who'd show up for you on a bad week.
2. What does it do for your work and opportunity?
Career and income are real and they matter. A place that opens doors, pays you properly, or sits at the centre of your field can change the shape of your decade, and pretending money doesn't count is its own kind of dishonesty.
The discipline is to weigh this factor against the others, not above them. A higher salary that costs you your support network or two hours a day on a train isn't straightforwardly a win. Ask what the work genuinely buys you — and what you'd be spending to get it.
3. Can you actually afford to live there, day to day?
This is the practical floor. Rent or a mortgage, bills, the cost of getting around, and the commute that eats your mornings whether you notice it or not. A place can be wonderful on paper and quietly grinding in practice if the daily logistics never quite add up.
Run the real numbers, not the brochure ones. What's left at the end of the month, how long is the commute on a normal Tuesday, and how much friction is built into simply living there? Affordability isn't only about the headline price — it's about whether ordinary life feels possible or permanently tight.
4. Does the place fit how you want to spend your days?
Climate, pace, space, and character. Some people come alive in a dense, fast city and some are slowly worn down by it; some need a garden and quiet, and some find that the loneliest thing in the world. There's no right answer, only a right answer for you.
Picture an ordinary, unremarkable week — not a holiday. Where do you walk, what's within reach, what does a free Saturday look like? A place that fits who you are and how you like to spend your time makes the good days more frequent and the dull ones more bearable.
5. What are the roots you'd be leaving behind?
Belonging is the quietest factor and often the most underestimated. The community that knows you, the streets you can navigate without thinking, the GP and the corner shop and the neighbour who waves — these add up to a sense of being held somewhere, and you rarely notice their weight until they're gone.
Weigh the real cost of leaving them against the genuine pull of somewhere new. Both can be true at once: roots can feel like a cage and like a home in the same breath. The point isn't to never leave — it's to leave with your eyes open about what you're trading.
No place scores perfectly on all five, and chasing one that does will keep you stuck. The aim is an honest weighting, made with your eyes open, so that whatever you choose, you chose it for reasons you can stand behind.
Weighing a move and not sure which factors you’re quietly underrating? Talk it through on your Life Logistics board.