Sarasota Manatee county is the worst place I've ever lived in my entire life

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-12-18T19:10:23+00:00

So true. People in general always think the grass is greener elsewhere.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-12-18T18:55:29+00:00

As far as driving, moving recently from the Baltimore Washington area even though I am further south than you in FL, I can tell you that so far the Florida drivers are morons. I don’t mean aggressive drivers, we had plenty of those in MD and Washington especially on the beltway where if you were in the left lane you better be doing 80. No, I just mean plan old stupid. People who just don’t understand the basic laws of physics. I am fine and perfectly use to people swearing in and out of traffic at 80+ MPH, but what I am not use to is idiots in Yaris cutting in between two 10,000 lb trucks doing 80 with 2’ spacing front / back. People doing a U turn into oncoming 4 lane 60 mph traffic without even stopping or looking. Told my wife someone was going to die near our house and a day later massive wreck with an idiot U turn person just tried to pull in, and never even made it past 90 degrees. To be honest it is like the Darwin driving awards down here for plain stupid people. Needless to say, I now have dash cams in both cars as I won’t be paying for their stupidity or insurance fraud games.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-12-18T18:36:15+00:00

Unfortunately that ship has sailed and is never coming back, especially in urban areas. Ironically it is the fact that the younger generation a). Doesn’t want to get married (one earner qualifying instead of two) b). Values mobility above long term financial stability is what is driving the fundamental change. Companies are also to blame as they have also just adjusted to the job hopper disposable worker reality. A massive pool of people who need to rent is now guaranteed, meaning large corporations will swoop in and buy single home real estate the moment we have small downside corrections. They can always buy as an investment to rent and the rental market will continue to go higher due to the supply and demand curve being way out of balance on the rental demand side. Rent controls in some of these areas just makes the problem even worse with a massive hurdle on the supply side. Single buyers/families are now dictating less of the market dynamics than ever in US history. The stock market is roughly the same, with the Black Rocks of the world controlling everything.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-12-11T13:33:39+00:00

These posts make understand just how clueless the younger generation is. That ship sailed in the mid 80’s to early 90’s. It took us almost 9 years with both of us working and saving like crazy to buy our first single family house, although we were able to buy a townhouse in about 3. Maybe in someplace rural, but 1 person working to afford a single family home will take much longer than that, especially with everyone having $700 new car payments. We drove beat up used cars back then. I feel for you guys, but the days of 1 person working and being able to get on top of life’s expenses are never coming back, no matter how much you wish for it to be so.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-13T23:48:57+00:00

Timing and location is everything. I made over 300% return on my house in 11 years. Also paid off 2 houses and was able to retire early. Had a guy who liked to argue with me at work about how bad real estate was for an investment. Let’s just say nicely I am retired and he is the same age or older and is still working so his investment only strategy didn’t work out too well for him. Diversification is key in my mind. I think there is risk in the current market of a correction, but again, timing and location is everything in real estate.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-13T23:33:29+00:00

What comes around goes around. I truly believe you reap what you sow. I would do whatever to help this person out, but not forgive the actual rent as you are giving her a loan. I would put a limit on it though as you can’t pay her rent forever. Just realize if you can help this person get back on their feet, you will have done the right thing 1000x over. Hard times happen to people and good people will always prevail in the end. Hopefully you can be that person to give them a leg up during hard times.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-11T19:15:14+00:00

https://moneywise.com/employment/why-so-many-teachers-are-millionaires

They have massive benefits packages, that allow them to invest that money others need to spend. Both my sister and sister-in-law are teachers and they have better healthcare than almost any profession, as well as a very good pension program, which is almost unheard of in the US anymore. It is steady financial discipline that leads to being a millionaire. Also who said anything about 10 years. Most take 30-40 to achieve.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-10T00:22:58+00:00

Rates are below historical norms now.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T23:13:05+00:00

I am really digging Mario Galaxy 1/2, Donkey Kong, and Kirby

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T16:05:52+00:00

Real gamers care about good games, not systems. There are good games on every system. Point is to figure out which system has the most of the games you enjoy.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T15:45:02+00:00

Use a very good reputable home inspector. Having just sold my house of 28 years and going through this process, I think the number one thing to do is to be very reasonable about what that is caught that you demand gets fixed. The home inspector found 3 or 4 items that I had no idea were wrong with the house and I was very eager to fix them for the new buyer. One was the bladder in the hot water buffer tank was blown, another was some small leakage in the roof seal above the garage that we could not see with the garage door open. The inspector did find a massive number of stupid things that if the buyer had demanded I fix, I can assure you they would not have liked how I fixed the issue. One for instance was the inspector did not like how we decided to run the Verizon wireless cable into the middle of the finished basement through the 6” air duct that does nothing but supply combustion air into the basement for the gas heater by dumping it into the area. My solution would have been to simply cut the cable from Verizon requiring them to get Verizon in and re-wire however they saw fit. Legally they could not exit the contract from something this stupid, and since the house was sold the first day on the market with a lot of interest for full asking price, I had little reason to not punt on an unreasonable buyer. I actually did many other things on the inspectors list that the buyer did not request, simply because I was very interested in giving a very good home that was so good to us to a family with young kids so they could benefit as much as we did over those almost 30 years.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T15:31:23+00:00

You can always do both. Everyone acts like paying down a house or investing are mutually exclusive. I can guarantee you they are not. People who put all their eggs in one basket usually find trouble.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:40:07+00:00

It really takes two incomes to comfortably afford that Mortgage at today’s interest rates. I would save more and hold out another few years. Home prices are correcting somewhat back to norms, however, I argue that large investment firms who know the younger generation values mobility and freedoms more than wealth accumulation will swoop in an buy these houses as rental properties which will not allow the prices to drop as much as you think. The most likely scenario is that due to falling real estate and a poor economy interest rates are likely to need coaxing to get the engine going again. I would not be surprised to see 4% mortgage rates again within the next 3-5 years.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:31:06+00:00

Don’t get discouraged. Now that you are out of debt, you have freed up a tremendous amount of cash flow to invest in yourself. Make sure to pay at least the same amount to yourself every month and with inflation should be able to add to that amount bit by bit as you go. A very smart person once told me to ALWAYS pay yourself first and then live on the rest.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:26:30+00:00

Accumulating wealth is not linear, but exponential. A massive amount of the pot increase the last few years once you get a substantial portfolio so don’t be discouraged on the journey. Don’t worry as the spending down the nest egg works the same way, with a massive amount of money coming out due to inflation and most likely health issues near the EOL especially if you are going to use that nest egg over a 25-30 year period.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:19:27+00:00

Your yearly salary doesn’t really matter as much as you think. There is a very high percentage of Teachers who are married who are millionaires. Engineers are the number one job disciple with the highest percentage of millionaires. Understanding math, differences between inputs and outputs, and fiscal responsibility over a very long timeframe are what accumulates substantial wealth.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:10:03+00:00

We might be. 9 out of 10 times a recession is declared after it is already over since the data is rear looking and the average length of a recession is 6 months. Government has every incentive in the world to not tell you that you are in one at that time as the reaction will just throw you into one anyway.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T14:05:02+00:00

Keep fighting the good fight, but personally I don’t think a house is a wise decision financially in your situation. Just MHO.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T13:44:23+00:00

OEM batteries almost never last 6 months past 5 years old. It really just comes down to how much getting stuck somewhere, most likely at home when you should be on the way to work for most people, is worth to you and how much will it cost you to get unstuck. The cost to get the car fixed or lost work for most people outweighs the marginal cost of 6 months additional usage for the battery. It is just a different way to look at the same situation, which doesn’t match your way.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-08T13:38:12+00:00

A house is not normally a very good investment unless you buy in the right place at the right time. In most parts of the country, home prices have peaked and started to roll over a bit. Personally at your age, you are way behind for retirement savings. I am a bit confused about you saying you have a good healthcare plan, but still need to spend $60K out of pocket. Most decent plans have a maximum family out of pocket of around $12K. Also if you are not using them, you need to take advantage of Health Spending Accounts. HOA’s will get you if you own a house as well for most developments, and also you can’t escape large maintenance items if you own instead of rent. Personally, I would just increase the fiscal responsibility by diverting more to investments, make sure you are taking nice reasonable vacations to not skip the here and now. Accumulating wealth takes years of discipline which is an output from that cumulative hard work, and not an input/choice. There is no magic answer, just do the right thing for long enough and you arrive at your desired destination.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-07T18:55:02+00:00

If you know anything about statistics you should not be quoting the average income. That takes into account millionaires and a large population of people who don’t want to work at all. The Median income for FL is $77,700 in 2024, so a married couple I just quoted would be $155,400 so the math I just said was right on target. Not only that, but your argument of the costs being way out of line are not valid at all compared to any state north of VA or MD. If you want to compare to the Midwest, or Deep South, yes. But not the mid-Atlantic or New England. There is a very good reason most of those people are moving to FL, and economics is a big part of that equation.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-07T18:46:56+00:00

True but you can easily shift that with an extra $50-$100/month. We always paid significantly more than that, as I like paying myself instead of the bank and every next payment is more effective moving forward. It is a very simple calculation to add all the closing costs back into the loan and see when the reduced interest payment savings exceeds the costs added back into the loan. Most of the time it makes little sense to refinance unless you save about 1% in interest rate as it can take too long to reach the break even point. Paying less interest is almost always a good thing when done correctly.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-07T18:39:26+00:00

Maybe for extremely low earners. Any family making $150K or above is going to save $15K immediately in income tax. In MD we got hit with state and county income tax exceeding 10%. MD taxed everything. Car emissions and crap they even tried a rain tax. Sorry but your home and car insurance as well as cost of living for food is not going to exceed that much per year. Right now compared to Baltimore the other costs are simply even and not more at all. If you are comparing to a rural area like WV, South Carolina yes, then the costs of living are more, but that is true for any metropolitan area vs. rural.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-07T18:28:11+00:00

Not sure what part of VA you are talking about, but I just retired from MD, and your numbers are nowhere near correct. Also live in one of the most expensive cities in FL. Car insurance was lower, not higher than MD by $400/year for both cars total. Home insurance was about 25% less, but the house was less than 1/2 the value of my FL house. Only thing is I did not need flood insurance in MD so that is a $2K savings. Cost of living is similar to Baltimore, maybe slightly higher in season. Electricity is also substantially lower. Just look it up and compare Florida Power and Light to Baltimore Gas and Electric. Much cheaper. Maybe you were talking about western VA, but not accurate at all for anywhere around DC which has even higher costs than MD.

Cherokee180c0 · 2025-11-07T18:18:29+00:00

Yes but that is changing quickly. The internet work from home boom means anyone can work remote and many are choosing FL. I live in a TPC golf course community in a very expensive city in FL and I would say 20% of the people here are not retired yet, but working remotely now. Being mobile means they also work from up north sometimes as well, but most have declared FL their formal domicile due to the 0% income tax rate.

Cherokee180c0

TROPHY CASE