[verobeach]

I'm ashamed to be a Floridian based on what I'm reading on this board. You're all whiners... Bugs, insurance, taxes! Look at the other states! They're actually using the boards as they're meant to be used. They're intelligently inquiring for information and they're getting invaluable answers. If all you want to do is let off steam and complain about your lot in life then go down to the local bar and belly up.

[summergal]

I guess in those other states people aren't losing their homes to foreclosure or being forced to leave because of this insurance/tax crisis. Isn't just the fact that this is what is foremost on Floridian's minds valueable information? It's not whining, it's the reality of our experience living here. A great many of us are not making it...

So when people inquiring to move here ask "Can I find an afforable home, good job, better life for my family", I think our posts speak for themselves pretty honestly: Unless you're rich, it's gonna be tough. Not whining... truth.

[verobeach]

What is rich? I'm not rich. We're retired. We worked all our lives and saved for a nice house in Florida. Please tell me what rich is.

[pslOldTimer]

I'm certainly not rich. Our combined family income has never been in 6 figures, and it's a lot less than that, now that I'm retired. There were times, not all that long ago, when I had a better relationship with the credit dunners than I did my neighbors. When our last kid graduated from college, the next year we used what had previsously been tuition money to put on a new roof -- breathing a sigh of relief that the missing shingles had never leaked.

But somehow, we managed to put two kids through private colleges, buy a mountain vabin in North Carolina, start a business, buy property for the store and shop, pay off all of our mortgages and debt, and buy acreage for our retirement home. We leave in 3 weeks for a 26 day cruise from Miami, 1,000 miles up the Amazon River and back to Miami again. It's our second cruise this year and we're booked on a trans-Atlantic cruise for next year. We also travel in a diesel RV we bought nearly new last year, and I have a diesel tractor and a mini-excavator I use on our acreage.

How did we mange to do so much with so little? We don't waste a penny. Our kids call us misers; we prefer "thrifty". We have never bought new furniture in our lives. We have never been "house poor". We have basic satellite TV; have never had premium channels. All of our brand-name food is purchased with money-off coupons; sometimes our savings amount to almost 50% of the grocery amount. My wife picks up pennies (I draw the line, here, I won't lean over for less than a nickel).

We look for, and find, bargains. I've learned to propagate many plants because I can buy one and grow 30. We have always worked hard. We make things, and do our own maintenance. We've learned to remodel and repair things.

So, I too wonder about the whiners. We have the same taxes and insurance and fuel costs as everyone else, maybe even a little more than some. I think it comes down to the fact that people make choices in life, and then perhaps are not happy with the choices they made. Since they don't want to admit they are angry with themselves, they try to make everyone else as miserable as they are.

I don't know what can be done about it except to vent every once in a while, as you did!

[MrTudo]

Personally I hope the whiners LEAVE.

Wait till the other states hear them whining about the state income tax those people have to give up.

LOL!

[summergal]

Originally Posted by pslOldTimer

So, I too wonder about the whiners. We have the same taxes and insurance and fuel costs as everyone else, maybe even a little more than some.

But you have no mortgage...

Obviously you've done all that over a lifetime and you have done extremely well for yourself, way better than most for sure. You have to admit that. You bought your home and the place in NC many years ago with time on your side to be able to pay everything off. But do you really think you could have moved here as a young couple 2 or 3 years ago and bought a $200K house, put your kids in private school and still handle all the increases without any trouble?

Somehow I don't think everyone that is struggling now simply made poor choices and wasted all their money away. We're not far from the breaking point ourselves and we are also mega misers, no car payments, super bargain hunters, work our tails off and all that, like yourself... except we do have a mortgage. That makes all the difference. If our house was paid off, there would be no problem. Don't you think you would have a tougher time of it with a mortgage?

[summergal]

Originally Posted by ponytail

What is rich? I'm not rich. We're retired. We worked all our lives and saved for a nice house in Florida. Please tell me what rich is.

I guess being able to afford a $500,000 house... lol

[verobeach]

[quote=summergal;153983]
But do you really think you could have moved here as a young couple 2 or 3 years ago and bought a $200K house, put your kids in private school and still handle all the increases without any trouble?
QUOTE]

What does Florida have to do with anything you write about? My son is under 30, has 3 kids, and just bought a house for $475,000 in a northern state. His wishes he had our property taxes! He has bills up the yingyang which he pays. Quietly, without whining.

Suck it up, Floridians. You're in 'paradise'. If you don't like it then leave but do so quietly. If I were from out-of-state, and l was reading all this bellyaching, I'd wonder not what was wrong with Florida, but what was wrong with Floridians. Florida, whether it be insurance costs, taxes, the cost of housing, etc. is no different than what is happening in the rest of the country. They just roll up their sleeves and meet their challenges instead of crying into their keyboard expecting sympathy.

[SunnyDog]

[quote=verobeach;154118]

Originally Posted by summergal

But do you really think you could have moved here as a young couple 2 or 3 years ago and bought a $200K house, put your kids in private school and still handle all the increases without any trouble?
QUOTE]

What does Florida have to do with anything you write about? My son is under 30, has 3 kids, and just bought a house for $475,000 in a northern state. His wishes he had our property taxes! He has bills up the yingyang which he pays. Quietly, without whining.

Suck it up, Floridians. You're in 'paradise'. If you don't like it then leave but do so quietly. If I were from out-of-state, and l was reading all this bellyaching, I'd wonder not what was wrong with Florida, but what was wrong with Floridians. Florida, whether it be insurance costs, taxes, the cost of housing, etc. is no different than what is happening in the rest of the country. They just roll up their sleeves and meet their challenges instead of crying into their keyboard expecting sympathy.

Couldn't say it better myself. There are doers and there are whiners. Isn't it funny how the whiners jump in with negative rants on posts where even the OP specifically says no negative rants?

Other than windstorm insurance, what out of control rising housing costs do you have? Be honest--taxes are capped at 3% max, the FPL bill increases aren't enought to cause foreclosure, phone bill about the same, if you got creative financing well than you can't be helped. And windstorm is a couple thousand a year increase, your mortgage payments stay the same (if you got a traditional fixed load) and incomes generally rise a few thousdand a year, so what's the deal?

I've brought up South Florida's lack of high-paying jobs in this forum several times, and then I see lots of posters here saying they're moving to eastern Tennessee or Western North Carolina. Are you guys for real? Ft. Lauderdale is a high-paying corporate mecca compared to those sticks. I could see moving to Dallas or D.C. for a better paying job, but moving to poor+rural TN or the Carolinas to escape windstorm insurance?

[summergal]

Wow you guys are really harsh! Obviously y'all have(or had) the benefit of high-paying jobs that raised you thousands a year... the regular working folk are not seeing those increases to cover all this. When the insurance alone jumps up by thousands, where is that income going to come from? You can only work so many hours in a day. I think working two jobs to keep afloat would be considered "rolling up their sleeves and meeting their challenges". No?