Should I move to Florida?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is so fascinating to read all the responses, and what seems to be 95% hatred at the mere mention of florida.
perhaps i have different perspective because i grew up in south florida. and much of south florida, especially miami and fll really doesn't consider itself part of floriduh.
i left dc 2 years ago and feel like i can finally breathe!
i appreciate my time in dc and the many benefits to having lived there, but i'm so glad to be raising my family back in south florida.
and yes, i and many others cannot stand desantis.
but i love living 10 minutes from the beach and going to the beach 2x a week vs 1-2x a year, year round beach (warm enough to swim in, not freezing and rough) and pool weather, NO WINTER ICE OR SNOW!!!, no state income tax, incredible diversity, my kids are already conversant in spanish and portuguese, fantastic food, less cutthroat emphasis on who you know/what you do/what can you do for me, not worrying about signing up for good quality daycare or preschool spots at 6 weeks pregnant, being 2-3 hour plane rides from much of central and south america, having kids in person learning, all the watersports you can imagine, the lush tropical plants and trees, having fruit trees in my backyard like mango papaya and lychee, how greeen and alive everything is in winter instead of brown and dead, blue sunny skies, etc

the thought of being back in dc makes me feel suffocated and anxious.
my 2 cents!

Ok no. This is funny. I also grew up in Miami. Yes your kids do grow to speak Spanish. But what are you talking about. There is a HUGE striver culture. There are private preschool schools with wait lists. Gulliver and that private all girls school JLO sends her daughter too. It’s super cutthroat in certain areas, unless you aren’t in it. There are some that don’t, but obviously not as highly sought after. Everyone drives a Bentley and they can’t even afford it and make $35,000 a year. Superficial and normal to see an AD for butt implants as you drive by with your kids. This literally happened to me.

Yeah the beach is cool. If you like that I get that. I agree that the big cities are liberal. I saw nothing redneck growing up in S Florida and especially not now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow this thread actually brought out a very specific brand of DMV crazy, and have brought out the worst of the DMV’s judgemental “we are the center of the world” mentality. I’m both impressed and horrified. Assuming I don’t want to pay taxes is incorrect, I just think they are too high in Maryland and are being used VERY inefficiently. I’m happy to pay taxes but I’m not an evil person for wanting to pay a less rate. And guess what, Florida has the same infrastructure as MD, and where do they get the money from- taxes!

On another note, the Florida bashing on this thread is insane. Same with the constant assumption that any state with a Republican Governor is evil. What a crazy thing to do to equate an entire state with a short-lived political moment.

Normal people welcome to comment with reasonable opinions!

"Assuming I don’t want to pay taxes is incorrect, . . . I’m happy to pay taxes but I’m not an evil person for wanting to pay a less rate."

No one is assuming anything, you dimwit - you're moving to a state with no state income tax.

"Same with the constant assumption that any state with a Republican Governor is evil."

No one said this. FFS, Maryland has a Republican Governor. But Desantis is . . . well, a peculiar blend of stupid and crazy that Florida appears to revel in.

Not that this is going to matter to you, but Florida is a taker state - it receives more in federal aid than its citizens pay in federal income tax. That's in large part because they can't pay for themselves, because . . . they have no state income tax. A PP is right that it's a big electoral prize, so the spigot is unlikely to turn off. But as I previously noted, at some point in the not too distant future, the rest of the country is going to lose its appetite for the constant rebuilding Florida requires.

DeSantis barely won in 2018. He beat Gillum by 0.4%. The last three Republican governors elected in FL won by less than 2%. That means that very close to half the voters did not vote Republican, meaning only about half of FL revels in that peculair blend of stupid and crazy you refer to. I personally believe that the next election will go the other way and I also do not believe DeSantis will ever be President. Not that any of this is going to matter to you, dimwit, seeing as how you clearly think you are smarter than everybody. You're not.

I'm not the PP and I know that Florida is nearly half blue, but DeSantis would make me pause moving to Florida NOW. His policies are reckless.

[Anonymous]

Florida is the sunny place where shady people like to live.

[Anonymous]

If you are asking this question - please move to Florida immediately. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow this thread actually brought out a very specific brand of DMV crazy, and have brought out the worst of the DMV’s judgemental “we are the center of the world” mentality. I’m both impressed and horrified. Assuming I don’t want to pay taxes is incorrect, I just think they are too high in Maryland and are being used VERY inefficiently. I’m happy to pay taxes but I’m not an evil person for wanting to pay a less rate. And guess what, Florida has the same infrastructure as MD, and where do they get the money from- taxes!

On another note, the Florida bashing on this thread is insane. Same with the constant assumption that any state with a Republican Governor is evil. What a crazy thing to do to equate an entire state with a short-lived political moment.

Normal people welcome to comment with reasonable opinions!

I live in Florida, came from an NE state, and I love it. Florida is a BIG state, I've never even been to Miami/south Fl. North Fl is a whole different animal, then you have central Fl and the East and West coasts. I'm in the Tampa Bay area, and happy with my kids' schools. I chose not to buy a home in a flood zone and my insurance is the same as it was up north.

OP, you would need to look around and narrow down what area you are interested in. I do think they use taxpayers dollars more efficiently here.

As far as DeSantis, the Dem he ran against was a meth user with ethic issues ...and his crazy didn't come out so much till the pandemic. He actually did some good things in regards to education and the environment before this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t there any other states without income tax?

AL
TX
NH
TN
SD
WA
NV
WY
PA- Pensions and SS not taxed

Do these states have higher property and sales tax to offset the lack of income tax? I'm in NYC so I'm hit with state and city taxes but my property taxes are only $2100 a year for our house. And there's a break in sales tax for clothing sales under a certain amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow this thread actually brought out a very specific brand of DMV crazy, and have brought out the worst of the DMV’s judgemental “we are the center of the world” mentality. I’m both impressed and horrified. Assuming I don’t want to pay taxes is incorrect, I just think they are too high in Maryland and are being used VERY inefficiently. I’m happy to pay taxes but I’m not an evil person for wanting to pay a less rate. And guess what, Florida has the same infrastructure as MD, and where do they get the money from- taxes!

On another note, the Florida bashing on this thread is insane. Same with the constant assumption that any state with a Republican Governor is evil. What a crazy thing to do to equate an entire state with a short-lived political moment.

Normal people welcome to comment with reasonable opinions!

How about addressing your proposed additional 40+ flights a year to NY? Do you think that’s totally fine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Insurance costs more in Florida as well. Some people go without. Think about that if you buy near the coast. Consider what may happen to your property if other properties are not rebuilt after a storm. Just saying.

We have a house in FL and to add it to our umbrella policy was negligible. Don't buy a house in a flood zone. Simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Insurance costs more in Florida as well. Some people go without. Think about that if you buy near the coast. Consider what may happen to your property if other properties are not rebuilt after a storm. Just saying.

We have a house in FL and to add it to our umbrella policy was negligible. Don't buy a house in a flood zone. Simple.

How does this work? It’s not a true home owners policy or a flood insurance policy. My guess is that there’s a ton of exclusions in that umbrella policy.

[Anonymous]

My parents have a house in florida and a condo in MD. They're considering selling their FL house cause the environment down there is disgusting right now, and they're in SoFL! Do a lot of research before making this decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live here, I love it. We were choking in northern Virginia/ DC and it is just easier here. Even with one stay at home parent, we can afford things like horseback riding, piano, ballet, vacations, good camps. At the same time it is way less pressure to perform on the kids, which can be freeing. Agree with the above poster that it depends on where - most Northerners (esp on DCUM) have a monolithic, negative view of the place but there are a lot of different places. Some good, some not so good depending on your politics and passions. Some people would absolutely hate it and I can see that. However I must add, ignore the judgey condescending Florida haters on here- not all of us have biglaw salaries or secure fed jobs and we need to do what is best for our kids. I have concluded that life is WAY easier here - but at the same time it is essential to go somewhere else once or twice a year. We try to go to the mountains for 2-3 weeka in the summer and back to Virginia to Grandma’s for a week at Christmas. We are working on saving for a second house / summer house somewhere up “North” like Asheville .

Yeah it's easier on the kids because the schools are crap there.

Yeah, like absolutely horrible. Plan on putting that money you're saving on taxes into private school

[Anonymous]

Delaware is the cheapest place to retire to if low income in retirement.

[Anonymous]

I love how there are 12 pages of posts arguing about whether FL sucks or not, and there are only a couple posts pointing out that the whole premise of OP's question- that she could avoid MD income taxes by moving to FL while continuing to work in MD- is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how there are 12 pages of posts arguing about whether FL sucks or not, and there are only a couple posts pointing out that the whole premise of OP's question- that she could avoid MD income taxes by moving to FL while continuing to work in MD- is wrong.

It would actually be disastrous for OP's budget - costs to fly between FL & MD, still paying MD taxes on their income, paying for private school in FL, probably facing a property tax hike when they move to FL, costs of moving, etc.

From their exercise, I've come to two conclusions:
-People can be easily distracted by shiny, simple concepts ("No income tax!")
-People are really bad at calculating their NET costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents have a house in florida and a condo in MD. They're considering selling their FL house cause the environment down there is disgusting right now, and they're in SoFL! Do a lot of research before making this decision.

Good time to sell a house in Florida. Real estate is booming all over the state with hordes of new residents moving in.