Why Florida? The Details Behind the Move

I’m baaack! After a week and a half off, I’m definitely ready to blog again. My apartment may still look like a mess, but at the moment, writing is what brings back my sanity!

Whenever Florida is brought up in conversation, it’s almost inevitable that someone will chime in about the horrendous humidity, extremely large bugs, and gator invested waters.

Have you ever been there in August? 

Don’t you know there are lots of snakes and bugs?

Watch out for the alligators! 

Yes, I know all these things, and have visited Florida many times, from my small childhood to adult life. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, and yes, I understand what I’m “getting myself into”. But before this turns into a Florida defense court session, I do want to share with you the major reasons we moved, and how it fits into this whole financial journey of ours. 

1. The weather

If you think that’s a shallow reason, I urge to consider those of us who suffer from major depression. And I’m not just talking about the “blues”. No, it’s more like you are physically incapable of getting up and accomplishing anything, because there is truly no point. (At least in your mind.)

I haven’t approached this topic before, because I prefer to be more private about certain areas of my life, but let me just say that living in a cold climate without seeing the sun come out for days, sometimes weeks, can be devastating.

For the few days that we’ve been here, the sun has shined every day, and I wake up in the morning actually smiling. It’s pretty infectious.

2. The housing market

Both Joseph and I see our future in owning rental properties, and we just can’t profitably do that in New York. The taxes are outrageous, and the economy is still taking a dive.

Because no one really wants to move up there, it’s a moot point to providing housing for them.

Instead, we researched out the places where we could get housing steals, with low property and school taxes, and turn them into income-producing properties. Thus, Florida. And if we want to dabble in vacation rentals (which I’d love to do!) we have miles of coastline from which to choose.

Now, I know the market is supposedly rebounding, but Upstate New York is always years behind that percentage. We really don’t have the desire to wait for it.

3. Greater job opportunities

Because my husband works in the news division, his job “promotions” are a little different than most others. Rather than go into the entire explanation, I’ll give you a short synopsis – Each city is a “market” and you run the risk of leveling out if you stay in one market too long. 

By jumping into a higher market (like Ft. Myers), Joseph starts at the same level of income he topped out at in Binghamton, but the difference is, he now has room to grow.

Make sense? If not, maybe I’ll have him write a post about it. {grin}

For me, I don’t have to work outside the home…yet. I’m waiting at least a few months to get settled in and find my routine, but I’m also using that time to fast forward my blog. I’d love to start making a little more than pennies from it, and going from two incomes to only one, will give me lots of great content to write about!

I also run a lot of the behind-the-scenes work for the one rental property we do have. Multiply that by how many we look at buying, and I’ll have a lot more paperwork to keep me busy.

Plus, I’m a DIY girl, so there’s always projects for me to find and tackle at home. I never get bored!

In a way, we are starting our lives completely over – we’ve uprooted our safe haven of work schedules, friendships, and family life. But we are also opening the doors to wider opportunities in the future.

I hope you’ll stick with me – I would love having you along for the journey.

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