Should I move to Florida?

[Anonymous]

HHI is $415 for the first time this year. Maryland taxes are killing me. COLA in DMV is a PITA. I could fly up every other week and do my job fine from south Florida. In laws are down here. Income tax alone would save me $24k!

[Anonymous]

Do you actually like Florida?? The people, the weather, the politics, etc. If so, go for it.

[Anonymous]

No, because then you'd .... have to live in Florida.

[Anonymous]

Where in Florida? It's a huge state

[Anonymous]

I'd rent for a year before selling in Maryland, regardless of where you go in Florida.

[Anonymous]

I would pay an additional 24k (and more!) not to have to live in Florida.

[Anonymous]

There is literally no amount of money you could pay me to live in Florida, especially under their current leadership, and paying taxes is a basic civic duty and part of the social contract, so my answer would be no on that.

[Anonymous]

I think you'd still have to pay MD income tax (plus the non-resident tax) if you are worked for an MD employer and come to MD frequently to go to the office. States can assess income tax is based on where you earn income even if you live in another state (the rules are different within the DMV only because MD, DC and VA have an agreement to tax based on residence).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is literally no amount of money you could pay me to live in Florida, especially under their current leadership, and paying taxes is a basic civic duty and part of the social contract, so my answer would be no on that.

+1 to all of this. Taxes are not killing you. Please.

FWIW, my ILs moved to FL and had to move back because it was impossible to make non-racist friends. They are really great at making friends and shifting topics and keeping things surface level nice with awkward conversation partners, but FL was beyond even their skills.

[Anonymous]

I don't mind paying taxes for a better society. I would really mind paying taxes that contribute to Desantis salary and any of his followers. Florida is a gross place.

[Anonymous]

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 .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is literally no amount of money you could pay me to live in Florida, especially under their current leadership, and paying taxes is a basic civic duty and part of the social contract, so my answer would be no on that.

First of all, there is no state income tax, so whatever.
Also, FYI just under half of usFloridians also hate DeSantis. But he will probably be out next president so what will you do then? Finally move to Canada?

[Anonymous]

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 .

Of course there's no pressure on your kids to perform... have you seen who they're competing with? 🤪

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is literally no amount of money you could pay me to live in Florida, especially under their current leadership, and paying taxes is a basic civic duty and part of the social contract, so my answer would be no on that.

First of all, there is no state income tax, so whatever.
Also, FYI just under half of usFloridians also hate DeSantis. But he will probably be out next president so what will you do then? Finally move to Canada?

We get it, we get it, you love Florida.

[Anonymous]

You're not going to get a balanced perspective on DCUM where Florida is now an evil state due to the current governor (while praising Cuomo to the sky, but that's another story).

Despite the comments on this thread, hordes of wealthy people do move to Florida for tax purposes. It's not just anecdotal, but it's a real and proper fiscal drain and it's been noted by many state officials. What they do is establish Florida residency and as long as they spend six months minus one day in Maryland, Florida is their legal residency and there's not much Maryland can do about it. The kicker is that you don't have to spend six months plus one day to claim Florida residency. So you can spend the winters in Florida, summers somewhere cool, travel a lot, and still keep your old house in Maryland, and you're still a bona fide Florida resident.

Florida can offer a high quality of life, especially for those who can escape to cooler climates in the peak summer months. It's a huge state with the whole range of demographics from deep blue to deep red and everything in between. Just find your niche in Florida. If you live and breathe and die by politics, maybe you can't cope with Republican governors. But without those Republican governors, you wouldn't have the generous tax breaks. And summers in Florida aren't that bad. It's not hotter than the DMV, it's just more humid and for a longer period. Plenty of people don't mind humidity. Miami is both an international jet set playground and very interesting and dynamic Latin-American community that makes things interesting. The Gulf side has plenty of upscale communities. Florida is VERY diverse. Commenting about running away from Florida because of the racist people is a weird thing to say. Running away from Florida because you're racist would be more logical.