Hello from Learning in South Florida

learning · Post by **learning** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:38 pm

Hey Everybody, I'm Learning.
I'm still adjusting psychologically to these life changes of starting to go FI/ERE. Does living simply and investing until my costs are covered from passive income really mean that I don't have to work all these decades? Is it really that simple and does it really work? Why didn't I do this from childhood? What do I do with all my time? Does this really mean that I can do all those things I always wanted to do but never seemed to have the time for? What makes me happy?
I've started looking for free fun things to do. I already read a lot, so now I'm doing more of that and loving it. Also, the beach, concerts at the beach, ping pong, having friends over. All fun and all free.
I recently moved to South Florida after calculating the lifetime cost of living in upstate NY where I was living before and comparing it to here. It takes so many fewer years of working to be able to go FI/ER here than there! Especially with the more affordable housing, health insurance and taxes. I now live in a 5 million person conurbation (Miami-Lauderdale-Palm) for less than I used to live in a 5 thousand person town that was 25 miles from the next town. Nice!
I also think that right now South Florida is more affordable than many comparable cities in less developed countries.
I think in terms of the final E in ERE, I'm still working out how extreme I am, for example, can I give up my precious? I guess that's a psychological process and I'll see over time how I turn out. I think it may also just change over time.
I've also started looking for other FI/ERE people to hang out with so we can share ideas and do fun cheap things together, so if you're in South Florida or visiting, get in touch with me!
Well, I hope to be communicating with you all as time goes on.
Learning

Shandi76 · Post by **Shandi76** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:36 pm

Welcome to the boards Learning.
What brought about your move to South Florida?

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:00 pm

Interesting poll on moving out of New York; 26 percent of adults plan to leave within 5 years, and almost a third of those under 30 say they plan to leave. Most of the reasons cited are economic. @Learning is just a bit ahead of the curve

http://gothamist.com/2011/05/13/a_third ... want_t.php

learning · Post by **learning** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:42 am

@Shandi76 - I wanted a place where I could grow psychologically as much as possible. To get out of the small town rural area I was living in during the past 10 years (and where I grew up) and back into a medium or large city. I feel I can grow more psychologically with the greater variety of people available in medium to large cities (another possibility might be college towns). I wanted an inexpensive lifetime cost of living with ER a near possibility, multiple languages spoken daily, intelligent people from all over the world, beautiful women, fun parties, an open sex scene, an international travel hub, big long-term business and investment possibilities, and an easy life. For now, I wanted to stay in the US because of access to the massive knowledge publishing in the form of books available through the nationwide library and bookstore systems (try learning about ERE or Computer Science or researching any subject thoroughly in Costa Rica, you'd have only the internet and shipping internationally all your books), and possibly the medical care. I'm going through a period of pretty continuous exploration of new things, so I usually have a stack of books from the library and Amazon. I also think South Florida is now cheaper or only slightly more expensive than comparable places in the developing world, especially if you factor in the lower cost of most manufactured goods in the US than elsewhere in the world. I wanted no more winters.
After moving here, I discovered that I like going to the beach and to concerts at the beach, so that's a cool plus. And I discovered how much Afro-Caribbean presence and influence there is here, and I like that, too. I like not needing heat, blankets (or even sheets), or winter clothes. I like wearing sandals, swimtrunks and t-shirts all the time and yet still being in a big American city where I can start a business or get my latest shipment of books delivered for free from Amazon.
I dislike feeling too hot, but I'm trying to adjust, and I'm worried about the hurricanes, but I learned since moving here that unlike earthquakes, with hurricanes you know they are coming and can prepare/evacuate.

learning · Post by **learning** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:45 am

@Hoplite - Thanks for the validation. What's a shield and spear warrior doing in NYC? Did you study classics?

chilly · Post by **chilly** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:29 am

Great sell, great intro post. I need to give you the phone numbers of all my family so you can talk them into moving out of New England so I can retire now and not have to leave them behind.
Welcome, and I look forward to your S. FL perspectives. The hurricane's themselves don't bother me as much as the insurance premiums. Still extremely high on the target relocation areas though.

Nagerusu · Post by **Nagerusu** » Sat May 14, 2011 9:01 am

@learning: Welcome. This community will definently help you with the psychological evolving, there seem to be a lot of interesting people here with different perspectives. If you have specific questions about something, we'll be glad to help you figure it out.

learning · Post by **learning** » Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 pm

@chilly Thanks for the supportive post. Yeah, the insurance bothered me for a while, too. Then I realized that I would just get an old beater car and only have liability. And for the home, they are so much cheaper than in the north. One thought is just to not insure it. You could replace it completely and still have money left over from the sale of a comparable house in the north. For fire risk, I see that as less here than in the north, because any place I would buy would be made out of concrete rather than wood (the construction quality is generally better here, I think because of the hurricane risk). For theft risk, you could insure for that, but I'm buying everything cheap or secondhand for its functional and aesthetic value rather than its price, so I have fewer things a thief would want and I could just replace my items. For hurricane risk, I imagine the premiums are too high to justify the policy, especially on a cheap ($20k-$30k) condo. Instead, buy inland, buy 1 or more floors up to avoid flooding and buy on higher ground.
I once read that most people pay more in insurance premiums over the lifetime of their home than the purchase price; they're just spreading out the replacement cost over time. If this is true, then I prefer not to pay the replacement cost because most likely I won't have a catastrophe and so won't need to replace the home. By paying the premiums, one is definitely paying the replacement cost of their home when they are most likely not going to have to replace it. It may be so they don't have to come up with the $ all at once, but if my small, inexpensive home experiences a catastrophe I will hopefully be able to. Having the large savings of FI/ERE also means self-insuring may be more efficient than paying insurance premiums, especially while condos are $20k-30k. The danger here would be a catastrophe that wipes out my home and my investments, leaving me unable to buy another home. In that case, having access to a separate investment fund, ie, my insurance claim on the insurance company's fund, could be critical. But then I noticed that after 9/11, Katrina, Wilma and every other disaster, the insurance and reinsurance companies are not so competently invested either, don't even necessarily have the funds available in a crisis to make their claim payments (or pretend not to), and in any event, do everything they can to get out of paying those claims. I think even if you have insurance, you should plan to depend only on your surviving assets after a crisis, at least for a long time until the inevitable lawsuit is hopefully settled in your favor and the insurance company has received its federal hand-(bail-)out. And I would much prefer that insurance were provided by non-profits.
For health insurance, it is so much cheaper here than in NY or MA, it's literally ridiculous. I still don't fully believe it.
What are your target areas here?

learning · Post by **learning** » Sat May 14, 2011 1:44 pm

@chilly maybe some sort of liability only on the house, too, so if guests fall down
@nagerusu thank you for your kind welcome. I do have questions and I've been asking them in different posts where they are (hopefully) relevant, and people have been responding, so, yay!

Andre900 · Post by **Andre900** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:35 pm

Yes, in the right spots (Hollywood Beach, Ft Lauderdale Beach, Miami beach) metro Miami can be pretty fun for the young single person. Apartments are small and expensive relative to size and amenities. Though, it's a bit cheaper than during the real estate boom. Off the beach, it's a very congested, crowded place. Not that attractive and plenty of crime.
I lived in the three aforementioned places throughout the 90s, but moved 200 miles north (still right on the beach) by age 40.

Andre900 · Post by **Andre900** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:51 pm

@Learning Novice. I don't think you'll find any decent condos in the desirable areas of S FL for less than $100K. You can find them much cheaper, but be very careful of the area, the quality, the neighbors, and the condo fees.
Last year, I bought a 48-year old, 2300sf house for $190K (spacious, but needs some work), all cash, 200 miles north of Miami, 2 blocks from the beach. The insurance cos. wanted $2400 per year for flood, homeowners (i.e. fire & liability), and hurricane (called windstorm) coverage. Compared to many others, this isn't a bad price, but the hurricane deductible is $25K! I decided to self insure. I put away $400 per month into an interest-bearing account. Over time, I'll build up a nice cushion. Nonetheless, if a hurricane wipes out the house, I'll still have a 0.30 acre house lot in a desirable location and can throw up one of those free trailers that FEMA will be giving away!
The only flaw in my plan is the fact that my butt is hanging out there w/o liability insurance. Anyone have advice on this risky little problem?

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Sun May 15, 2011 6:03 pm

@learning,

Thanks! I read classics in translation, never formally studied them though. I like the discipline and simplicity that comes through in the ancient writings.

One of the good things about NYC is that I could actually dress up with a spear and shield, etc. and no one would pay me the slightest attention, except perhaps for Homeland Security

@Andre900,

For liability, you could ask your car insurance company for a personal universal liability umbrella policy, often 1M available for a couple hundred dollars a year. The umbrella is built off of a homeowners or automobile liability policy, but usually not both. For cars, the insurer often has minimum limits on the auto liability to offer the umbrella, which might require raising the car insurance premium, but it could address the liability coverage issue for minimal added cost.

BeyondtheWrap · Post by **BeyondtheWrap** » Sun May 15, 2011 6:10 pm

I don't understand why liability insurance is necessary. Is that a Florida thing?

Andre900 · Post by **Andre900** » Sun May 15, 2011 7:11 pm

@BeyondtheWrap. In FL, liability insurance is a built-in part of Homeowners Insurance, along w/ Fire. A homeowner must carry Homeowners insurance if there is a bank mortgage on the home. The mortgages homeower must also carry Windstorm (i.e. hurricane) insurance and Flood insurance.

BeyondtheWrap · Post by **BeyondtheWrap** » Mon May 16, 2011 5:07 pm

Oh, OK. Is that only if you own instead of rent?

learning · Post by **learning** » Tue May 17, 2011 7:35 pm

@Hoplite would the universal liability umbrella provide the same liability coverage as the liability portion of a homeowner's policy? or, what all does it cover?

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:38 pm

@learning,
An umbrella policy usually covers any personal liability in excess of the underlying (base) policy limits (i.e., universal liability coverage), but as with any policy, you have to read the fine print for exclusions and limits, same as the homeowners policy.
On homeowners, the liability portion is usually the least expensive part because it only protects against property-based liability such as slipping and falling on the driveway. Most of the insurance premiums go for damage to the property itself. The umbrella protects against any personal liability subject to the conditions and exclusions in the policy.