Is your job what's keeping you there? I have long been retired, so leaving the environs of NYC was easy for me. I packed up and left during the covid nonsense. City dwellers went certifiably insane during that, and seem to have remained that way ever since. Present company excepted!

If you can, move to a very small town in a conservative area, which most US small towns are. Real estate is cheap and the livin' is easy. Nature and peace are on the front porches. People are friendly and generous. There is less to spend money on, and prices are lower for entertainment types of things, if not downright free. Taxes are much lower on real estate. While you're not spending money, you'll have lots of time for hobbies, because you won't be spending nearly as much time in transit. Where I live, in a small village upstate NY, I can walk most everywhere I need to go. Save on gas. Grow your own food, which saves a ton of money. That said, I just acquired a second home in Nashville. I may be singing a different tune in a year, but Tennessee will be my bug out state if NYS goes nuts.