15 Things They Don’t Tell You About LIVING in ALASKA

[Music] alaska in the modern world it truly is the last frontier a place so amazing it's riddled with myths and misconceptions but one thing is for sure you are either gonna love it or hate it here we are ben and rebecca of outliers overland coming to you today from our home base in seward alaska welcome to 15 things you need to know before you move to alaska the purpose of this video is to share things that you might want to consider before making any big commitments such as moving your whole household up here or accepting a job offer kovid has us stuck between the adventures right now and we thought what better time to create a video series about life in alaska it's probably safe to say that we're qualified because we've lived here since 2008. there is so much to address we're making this a three-part series the things we love about living in alaska the things we hate about living in alaska and this one covering the things you need to know before moving to alaska before we get started make sure you subscribe to our channel so you can check out all three videos the objective is to share with you real life insight about living in our amazing state so let's have some fun and jump into the list number one alaska is the largest state in the us of a why is this so important you might ask well because you need to comprehend exactly how big alaska is and how long it takes to get to places for example if you are going to move to fairbanks and have a cousin who lives in homer you're not going to be exactly neighbors in reality you're looking at about a 600 mile drive yeah if you laid alaska over a map of the lower 48 it would stretch from north dakota to texas and california to florida and i'm sorry texas alaska is twice the size of your cute little state despite being so large it's actually a really small state in terms of community and that's one of the most endearing qualities about it all right moving on to number two and i think most everybody has heard this line alaska pays you to live here that's a rather simplified way of saying it but pretty much true what they're actually referring to is the pfd or permanent fund dividend commonly perceived as oil money in reality it's dividends from the investments made with oil taxation money now the annual pfd is direct deposited every october and in our tenure it can actually range from 1 000 to over twenty four hundred dollars keep in mind that's per person in your household including children now you do have to pay taxes on it so expect to receive a 10.99 each year you do need to live here one full calendar year before qualifying and then spend at least six months and one day of each year thereafter in state in order to re-qualify and you have to be honest with our extended travels we do not always qualify for the pfd but when we do it is a very welcomed chunk of change now moving on to number three another misconception alaska does not have any taxes okay now this one is both true and false the true part is that there is no state income tax in alaska and no state sales tax in alaska the false part comes into play with sales taxes put into effect by boroughs and municipalities our hometown of seward is a perfect example we have a seven percent sales tax three percent goes to the kenai peninsula borough and four percent goes to the city of stuart there's also an additional four percent bed tax for lodging businesses so a lodging accommodation totals up to 11 sales tax another good case would be the municipality of anchorage they do not have sales tax which is very helpful when you make those supply runs to town and you also never leave anchorage without a full tank of fuel that brings us up to number four alaska pays off your school loans if you move here now this one is very true and some of those jobs will even offer relocation fees the kicker is that you usually have to work in underserved areas and a lot of times that involves helping the alaska native population the most common jobs that qualify are in health care and teaching we actually did this when we moved to alaska i'm a pa by trade had just finished graduate school and carried a big honking chunk of school debt to go with it so we moved to alaska you get either an ihs or a hersa grant to pay off your school loans to your commitment to whichever organization you work with and they do tax you on the money so think about that when you look at dollar amounts they're different with each organization but it has been an amazing experience for you totally was a fantastic experience and led to all sorts of avenues opening up in my career and also put us ahead financially because it paid off almost half of my school debt in those two years now this segues in perfectly to number five that there are amazing job experiences in alaska and it's also an excellent time to share a little bit more of our story yes we had a dream and this was not a spur of the moment decision it took time to prepare i as i mentioned earlier i'm a physician assistant right out of grad school got a job up here with the native corporation practicing medicine here in seward that also included flying out to remote villages ben had spent 10 years working for ford dealerships but had always wanted to be a professional fisherman so he became a u.s coast guard merchant marine boat captain and fishing guide we also have friends in alaska who are expedition leaders for wilderness lodges some work with the animals at the alaska sea life center others work for the oil industry up on the north slope then we have neighbors that have commercial fishing boats they'll work for the utility companies and a handful of them are also in healthcare like rebecca was bottom line if you're looking to do something out of the ordinary or really make a difference this might be the right place for you to be and number six you may not be making a difference but there's the myth that you can make a fortune working for the oil companies now maybe in the 70s or 80s the word fortune might have been accurate but in present day i would call it true because you can earn a good living working for the oil companies since the discovery of the prude bay oil patch it's been big business here in alaska the alaska pipeline runs about 900 miles from dead horse alaska to valdez and it's not just alaskans that work for the oil companies people come from all across the country to work variations of a two weeks on two weeks off rotating schedule this issue tends to be a bit of a double-edged sword because let's be honest the oil companies don't always have alaska's best interest at heart they tend to care the most about their bottom line hold loyalty to their shareholders and unfortunately they're pretty embedded in our government and political system here so let's jump into number seven and talk a little bit more about lifestyle instead of jobs but alaska is a great place to live in a cabin it is pretty easy and relatively affordable to buy or rent a cabin in alaska but despite what reality tv shows share not everyone lives this way yeah cabins come in a wide variety of styles and modern options you can have a system for capturing rainwater or drill a well if you're near the power grid you can run electricity but solar wind and generators may also be used composting toilets offer a sustainable and warmer alternative to the long drop so if you're not too worried about having cell phone service or electricity and you like the idea of hauling your own wood and water pooping in an outhouse and living off the land you've probably found the right place and that segways nicely into number eight because it is realistic to live off of the land in alaska some things like produce in the middle of winter may be problematic but other than that it's very manageable in a way alaska is a homesteaders paradise you've got hunting for big game to provide red meat spruce grouse and ducks cover poultry the ocean almost always has fish to be caught and when the salmon are in the rivers it's game on you can also grow an amazing garden in the summer months what you can grow is actually highly dependent on your location but if you learn the craft of preserving you can make that harvest last all winter the forest is also a very bountiful place you've got foraging for mushrooms berry picking satisfies the sweet tooth we have spruce tips with enough vitamin c to prevent scurvy and things like chaga and devil's club treat a wide range of ailments and the list goes on and on so i think you get the point but if all else fails you can rely on the alaskan staple called pilot bread and that carries this into number nine everybody in alaska is packing heat per capita basis this is definitely true alaskans own more guns than people in the lower 48. now i wouldn't necessarily say that everyone is armed especially when it comes to the highly populated urban areas of alaska such as anchorage but overall a shockingly high number of people possess firearms most ownership routes to the living off of the land mindset and you have to assume that everyone here is armed because a permit is not necessary to carry a concealed weapon this may be an extreme example but in alaska you could be pulled over for speeding have a loaded pistol and a bag of weed on the dash and only get a speeding ticket essentially what you need to realize is that alaskans highly value their civil liberties and freedoms so this takes us into number 10 which i hinted at just a moment ago weed is legal in alaska now for decades at some level it has been legal and loosely tolerated by law enforcement but times they are a changing and like all of the western states and canadian provinces it is now considered recreational just do not go crossing international borders because things are different on a federal level and everyone wants their share of the tax revenue number 11 is a little nugget of truth you are not guaranteed to see the aurora appear and having said that there's a few things to understand about the aurora borealis yeah firstly it is present year around there's just so much sunlight in the summer months that you cannot see it and then in the winter months if you're in the urban areas there's light pollution so keep that in mind if you're going on an aurora hunt the aurora is caused by solar flares and those solar flares actually happen in a five-year high to low cycle because of this auroras can actually be predicted a few days in advance because it takes those solar flares that long to reach our atmosphere if you're interested in this just google it it's a pretty cool topic to read about and lastly the aurora will never look as good to your naked eye as it does when you're looking at somebody's photograph that's because of exposure times they just make the colors pop next up number 12 it's light all summer and dark all winter which is kind of true but kind of not true and most of it depends on where you're located in the state now to thoroughly comprehend this you need to know that summer solstice the longest day of the year is on june 21st and winter solstice the shortest day of the year is on december 21st being at such high latitudes like alaska is you're always going to have a high rate of change the days are noticeably getting longer or shorter sometimes by as much as seven minutes per day a few examples to demonstrate this effect if we look all the way up north at a town like barrow the sun doesn't set for an entire month during the summer but if we head a thousand miles south to our hometown of seward at the same time we experienced darkness for a few hours between 1 a.m and 4 a.m those are a couple great examples of the summer but when it comes to winter it's pretty much the exact same thing except with darkness that means we can move on to talking about number 13 where 70 degrees feels like 90 degrees this interesting little bit of information once again has to do with alaska's latitude and its position in relation to the sun now to help you comprehend this one in the lower 48 during the peak hours of the day the sun is very high in the sky which means its rays and intensity is hitting you straight down which is a smaller profile but in alaska the sun is lower on the horizon for extended periods of the day so it's hitting you broadside and that literally makes 70 degrees feel like 90 degrees and we can move on to number 14. things are always moving and shaken up here alaska's pacific coast sits on the famous ring of fire which in turn creates a lot of seismic activity and that essentially means we have numerous active volcanoes and over a thousand earthquakes per month we routinely feel small shakers but on a pretty regular basis there are magnitudes six seven and even eight quakes some of these quakes also trigger tsunami warnings or evacuations most are small create hardly noticeable changes in sea level but there's always the possibility of a serious event like 1964. last but not least number 15 and it involves humans we like labeling each other well in alaska there are a couple unique labels sourdough and chichako a chichako is somebody who has not experienced an alaskan winter and a sourdough is a veteran alaskan pretty much this means you haven't earned your stripes until you have experienced the long winter it's easy to see that glimmer in a chichaku's eyes they're so excited about winter and they have all these grand visions of all the things they want to do on the flip side you can see the hardened look in a sourdough's eyes now in the modern world survival may be a bit of an exaggeration but there is no denying the winters are long cold and hard well we hope you've enjoyed this video and learned a little bit about life in alaska be sure to check out our the things you'll love and the things you'll hate videos thanks for joining us today and don't forget to hit that subscribe button

Channel: Outliers Overland

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Keywords: moving to alaska, relocating to alaska, alaska life, living in alaska, alaska, alaska taxes, facts about living in alaska, is alaska dangerous, living in anchorage alaska, where to live in alaska, is alaska right for you, is alaska expensive, people in alaska, getting paid to live in alaska, what is alaska like, life in alaska, alaska facts, alaska lifestyle, alaska living, alaska residency, getting a job in alaska, anchorage alaska, alaska state, alaska cost of living

Id: H0n11XQgm7I

Length: 16min 39sec (999 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020