[Sunshine2016]

We are thinking of moving from Los Angeles to Florida. Cities we were thinking is Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach or Orlando.

We have a tight income of $1350 a month. If we buy a condo 2 or 3 Bedrooms with 2 baths and pay cash without a mortgage:

1) Are we able to manage with $1350 a month for food, gas, auto insurance, hurricane insurance and medical insurance and clothes? We are three people, oldest is 77 years old female.

2) Are there any part time jobs available in these cities?

3) How bad is the hurricanes?



Any feed back would be appreciated very much.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Sunshine2016

We are thinking of moving from Los Angeles to Florida. Cities we were thinking is Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach or Orlando.

We have a tight income of $1350 a month. If we buy a condo 2 or 3 Bedrooms with 2 baths and pay cash without a mortgage:

1) Are we able to manage with $1350 a month for food, gas, auto insurance, hurricane insurance and medical insurance and clothes? We are three people, oldest is 77 years old female.

2) Are there any part time jobs available in these cities?

3) How bad is the hurricanes?



Any feed back would be appreciated very much.

Those are three entirely different options in terms of cities with Orlando smack in the middle of the state an hour drive minimum from the coast, Cocoa Beach is a relatively quiet coastal town and Daytona Beach is a touristy coastal city with a heavy biker and NASCAR vibe. None of those cities would support that budget either. On that budget cities like Jacksonville, Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, Ocala or Gainesville would be your best options along with part-time job options. Lastly hurricanes aren't especially part of the normal conversation here since we haven't had an occurrence in the past 10+ years. Of course they can be bad but historically not that frequent and usually not widespread in terms of impact.

[1insider]

Originally Posted by Sunshine2016

We are thinking of moving from Los Angeles to Florida. Cities we were thinking is Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach or Orlando.

We have a tight income of $1350 a month. If we buy a condo 2 or 3 Bedrooms with 2 baths and pay cash without a mortgage:

1) Are we able to manage with $1350 a month for food, gas, auto insurance, hurricane insurance and medical insurance and clothes? We are three people, oldest is 77 years old female.

2) Are there any part time jobs available in these cities?

3) How bad is the hurricanes?



Any feed back would be appreciated very much.

My medical insurance alone for 2 people exceeds your budget.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by 1insider

My medical insurance alone for 2 people exceeds your budget.

I was thinking that too but with the oldest at 77, perhaps they're all Medicare eligible.

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

I was thinking that too but with the oldest at 77, perhaps they're all Medicare eligible.

But even on medicare they have to pay part B and D possibly and then another $200-$400 on supplemental. It actually costs us more for medicare than when we were working and our employers paid part of our insurance in a group plan. There are no family plans for supplements so everyone pays the whole cost.

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by Sunshine2016

We are thinking of moving from Los Angeles to Florida. Cities we were thinking is Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach or Orlando.

We have a tight income of $1350 a month. If we buy a condo 2 or 3 Bedrooms with 2 baths and pay cash without a mortgage:

1) Are we able to manage with $1350 a month for food, gas, auto insurance, hurricane insurance and medical insurance and clothes? We are three people, oldest is 77 years old female.

2) Are there any part time jobs available in these cities?

3) How bad is the hurricanes?



Any feed back would be appreciated very much.

Paying cash is good, but don't rely on pictures and assume you can get a move in condition on a condo that is listed for $50,000 or less if you can find one that low now. Don't buy into a place with a lot of condos for sale at low prices. Probably needs lots of work and will be assessed a lot to make up for the empties and condos not paying their HOA fees to get common areas repaired. Figure in the HOAS to your budget. Could eat $500+ depending on the amenities and location. What price range are you looking at when buying a place? Might find a house in samr price range and hire someone for the yard work cheaper than paying an HOA. Many of the less expensive places were once old hotels so want to look carefully in person.

Will you have a car? Putting that on the road will cost $500 for registration etc. and at least $1000 a year for insurance.

Deposits on utilities may cost around $150 each depending on credit history. FPL is pretty reasonable on the coast but I hear Orlando Utilities are higher. Our largest bill in 2015 was $250 and we are in a 1560 sq ft house.

Food? We are 2 people but have 1 adult son who drops in at meal times a lot so it costs us about $700-$800 a month for groceries. We tend to eat lots of fruits and veggies, buy lots of water, milk, juices and cook from scratch(not a lot of processed and snacks).

Home Owners Insurance ......ours is about $2000 a year for the house. In a condo some may be covered with your HOA fees but you will probably still pay about $1000-$1500 a year depending on how much you buy.

You usually can find part time jobs in Florida but realize that even for part time job there can be over 100 applicants vying for the same job.

When you purchase home owners insurance it will include the hurricane insurance. There will be a charge for it and a different deductible than say for fire or theft. It is a percentage. We have not had one in a long time, but you never know. This is a crazy year for weather everywhere. In Brevard county we were tarp city in 2004. Lots of damage. Lots of repairs and many tear downs. Not all condos on the coast were rebuilt because of battles with insurance and people living or renting out condos and not keeping up their insurance and paying HOAs.

Instead of living right in a beach town you might want to look at smaller towns because sometimes things will be less expensive. Even though I would never do it, you might want to look at retirement living in a doublewide community. You can often get used homes for a descent price. HOAS may not be too high and the amenities like pools, shuffleboard, cllub house can be a good way to meet people here.

No matter what $1350 a month will go fast. We are still adjusting to our fixed income since we retired( I still work part time) andour income is substantially more than what you are looking at. We have had to hit the savings when things break down( just had to put in new air unit and septic needs replaced this year and dreading when the roof will need to be replaced Ugh) Home ownership can be a pain in the butt and sometimes wish we were living in a retirement apartment :-(

One thing that kills us are emergency trips out of state for illnesses, deaths, etc. We usually have to hit the savings to pay the $2000 or so it takes to get there, rent car, stay somewhere, and eat out so much.