move out of New York City

I was born and raised in New York City. It really is the greatest city in the world. It’s funny, so many of my friends are people who moved here from other places around the country, and around the world. People wanted to move to come here, someplace I was lucky enough to be born in. The one downside is, because there is so much culture and beauty and so many things going on right here, I never traveled much. I have always wanted to travel. I want to live in NYC because I choose to, not because I happened to be born here and never decided to look elsewhere. So I think I might want to move somewhere else, a new city, a fresh start, etc. Not to mention the middle class is virtually disappearing here. I make what most people would consider to be a very respectable income, and it would keep me very comfortable in pretty much any other place (with a few exceptions, of course) but here, it is barely enough to live on. I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and unfortunately, I’m in a government job where the salary is fixed, and I can’t go asking my boss for a raise or anything. So I might have to move to find somewhere with a somewhat lower cost of living. I do want to move somewhere anyway, like I said, to see what other places are like, to get a fresh start. But I have no idea how to even go about starting to look into the process. It seems so daunting.