I got paid $5,000 to move to a place I'd never heard of

When Brianna Beyrouti looks back on her former life in the city of Portland, Oregon, she says she had been financially "drowning".

"I was absolutely living paycheque to paycheque. Every time the smallest thing came up, it was like 'Oh, gosh, the kids need shoes, how am I going to afford that?' As a single parent, everything falls on my shoulders."

Last year, Brianna left Portland and its metropolitan population of 2.5 million people.

She and her two children moved 2,000 miles east to Muncie, Indiana, a small city with 65,000 people, a university and lots of open space, taking advantage of a scheme that contributed $5,000 towards the cost of the move to boost population growth.

The relocation has been a revelation for her finances. She continues to work remotely for the same bank, so her annual salary of $107,000 (£79,000) is unchanged, but she has been able to buy a home for the first time. And her mortgage is less than she used to have to pay in rent.

In Portland she was paying rent of $1,290 a month for an apartment, while the combined cost of her mortgage, home insurance and property tax for her detached home in Muncie is $1,100.

Add the fact that state income tax is lower in Indiana, and that her car insurance and energy bills have also fallen, and Brianna says she is $600 a month better off.

"I'm able to live my life more than I was before," she says. "When my kids want something, I'm much more inclined to say yes. My quality of life has increased dramatically."