Moving to Florida

[flyrr100]

I have to agree with Martin. To have a good quality of life here, assuming you have a mortgage, $100k is the minimum you'll need as an income. Health care, Insurance, taxes will all eat away at your stash. Two cars, with insurance, will take a large lump.
I earn $120k and my Amy makes around $50k. We save around $1000 a month for retirement. (Remember, no state pension here). Three kids means three college funds. (Want a scare, look into college fees in Florida) And still end up with little disposal income.
Chrizzy is correct though about looking further afield than Florida. The Carolinas are lovely. Even Texas has some cool seaside towns. And of course there's 'Out West!' Look into Northern California. Or even Oregon or Washington State.

[Osceola]

Oh, please do give this a great deal of thought. Life in the US is no where near the "holiday experience". Just some things to think about:

1. The US is a crazy work environment. Americans live to work. It is simply not a healthy approach to life. One US attorney I know has not had a vacation since 2005. Taking more than a week off at a time is frowned upon. It is not surprising that tens of millions of Americans are on various medications for anxiety/stress/depression.

2. In many parts of the US and in Florida there is little sense of community.

3. There are huge cultural issues that are not apparent on the surface and may actually be masked by common language. For example, you may be stunned by the extent to which religion and faith permeate life in the US. The country is far more conservative than appears from a holiday.

4. Despite the work ethic, finding good employees in Florida is a fool's errand. They may also resent the "rich Brits".

5. Health insurance issue is obscene. A simple broken leg and trip to hospital could set you back tens of thousands of dollars.

And many more.....Please give it the closest consideration.

[anorak]

Osceola, I agree with you, what you have posted tallies with my experience.
If you don't belong to a Church then you won't get on socially or meet people.
Most American workers work many more hours than we do in UK and often have a long drive as well, and think its normal but they get very tired. On their odd day off they just recover from the week.
I have found many Americans (with notable exceptions, as some are totally brilliant) are pretty dumb and most don't even have a passport and have never travelled like Brits do all over the world. They are remarkably uninformed about anything outside the US.How much foreign news do you ever see on regular US TV compared to the amount of foreign news on British TV?
Big business is often very efficient in the US, small businesses are often old fashioned and inefficient but they don't realise it.
Yes I think many Americans do resent Brits who appear to be well off. They always mention that it must be cheap for us here as we get 2 dollars to a pound. Bit of a simplistic attitude. This ignores the fact that previously and during WW2 there were 4 dollars to the pound for example.



I dread getting ill in the US for the reason you mention, its a nightmare.

Being a tourist is one thing, being resident is quite another.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Let's not go there please... generalisations like this are not nice and will be offensive to many of our readers [msnsad]. Apart from which it's totally untrue.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
Most Americans (with notable exceptions) are pretty dumb[/quote]

[anorak]

I have edited my post a bit, but have to stand by it, its my experience and opinion. I won't say any more though as I don't want to offend anyone further, regardless of free speech.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Many thanks - as I'm sure you are aware there is a very fine line between free speech and offending a lot of people. The forums are here to build a community and provide a valuable resource and as such we will not allow comments that offend people as it goes against everything we are trying to achieve with the forums.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
I have edited my post a bit, but have to stand by it, its my experience and opinion. I won't say any more though as I don't want to offend anyone further, regardless of free speech.
[/quote]

[esprit]

Everone who emigrates anywhere has to be aware that there are good and bad in all places. A lot of what Osceola says is true. Yes the Americans do work hard and if you move there you will need to too but i dont see anything wrong with having a work ethic.

As to little sense of community, I would agree it can be hard to make real friends with Americans though we did have some good acquaintances and my son, starting at a younger age, is well integrated and only has American friends. There is however a very good expat network you can tap into in certain parts of America which acts as a safety net.

Cultutal issues, yes those too, yet we ourselves represent a different culture. The church is stronger than in the UK, I wont disagree there.

Health issues, yes everyone knows about them. You have to factor in the cost of insurance.

But there are other things too. The ability to buy a nice house at a price you can afford, low income taxes compared to the UK, and the ability to earn a really good living if you are willing to work hard and keep a good proportion of it and not hand it over to the tax man. Good service is another plus. And a vaste country to explore, I will agree with Flyrr, the Carolinas are wonderful. Some say the Americans dont travel abroad because they dont need to.

[flyrr100]

Osceola, you are correct about there being little or no community in American neighborhoods. Most folks here rely on the church, or to a smaller extent, school activities to meet people. Most of my friends are through work, or through soccer coaching that I do. But to say Americans live to work is not really fair. Americans are rewarded for the work they do. The vast majority are hourly paid. So the more they work, the more they earn. I'm an airline pilot and am paid by the hour.

Religion plays a huge part in our society. From what's written on the penny, to the traffic cops that have to direct traffic when church is done. Most americans belong to a church of some kind.

As to finding employees here in Florida. There is a strong work ethic here. But Florida is a whats called a transient society. People move in, stay for a year or two, and move on. And the 'rich Brit' comment is ridiculous. The boss is always seen as rich. Be him/her a Brit or not.

Anorak, I showed your post to my wife. Born in Montana, raised in Ohio, now in Florida. She has a normal US education. Graduated with a four year college degree. She said "for us to travel to Paris, or London, isn't like getting in a car and being there in four hours. And we have a vast country of our own to explore." My take is that America is an isolationist society. Just look at our history, (I say our because I became a US citizen in 1994). The majority of Americans would like to close the borders, and withdraw all US troops and other interests back to home. Unfortunately Mr Bush is still in power!
British news, I agree, tells more international news than ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX......... but remember that Britain is part of Europe. And has interests all over the globe. What happens directly effects Britain more than America.

I see many Brits in Florida and don't see how they can appear 'well off'. They look the same as most Americans. (except for the plastic bags and soccer shirts!) If a person owns a business, his/her employees naturally see him as well off. Be him a Brit or an American.

American life is different. Some say it's better, some say it's worse. Thinking that after a vacation in Florida you are ready to enter the American Dream is misguided. I truly hope our immigration laws are changed so Brits can get here without having to invest every cent of their savings on a crazy business. But I also hope anyone looking to relocate here looks at the big picture. Remember, living here doesnt mean you'll be at Disney every day. So look out there. Florida is really what I call a Third World State. After living in Ohio, and even Texas, I wonder how Florida survives!

But we do have the Fox Soccer Channel!

[florida4sun]

Very different from our experience, we wre not church going but made many friends in our community. We always had people round, every other day day various home made food parcels were delivered and we are made very welcome. The americans are fascinated by us brits and gievn half a chance will show a great interest in you. You just have to be approachable. We lived in short term rental area which are by there nature very transient locations, yet still we had many nieghbours whom we would spend time with. If I remember correctly we had 9 different nationalities in our street alone, its was great. To say 'If you don't belong to a Church then you won't get on socially or meet people' is simply not true. We avoided the expat brigade as best we could.....
Americans do like to work and they do like to play too, I never met an american who did not have quality time.
As for the resentment comment, I saw no evidence of this at, we often had a Bentley and top end Mustang park outside the home and this just created interest and chat.
If you realy feel this way, it must not be much fun for you if you live there, that is a shame.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
Osceola, I agree with you, what you have posted tallies with my experience.
If you don't belong to a Church then you won't get on socially or meet people.
Most American workers work many more hours than we do in UK and often have a long drive as well, and think its normal but they get very tired. On their odd day off they just recover from the week.
I have found many Americans (with notable exceptions, as some are totally brilliant) are pretty dumb and most don't even have a passport and have never travelled like Brits do all over the world. They are remarkably uninformed about anything outside the US.How much foreign news do you ever see on regular US TV compared to the amount of foreign news on British TV?
Big business is often very efficient in the US, small businesses are often old fashioned and inefficient but they don't realise it.
Yes I think many Americans do resent Brits who appear to be well off. They always mention that it must be cheap for us here as we get 2 dollars to a pound. Bit of a simplistic attitude. This ignores the fact that previously and during WW2 there were 4 dollars to the pound for example.



I dread getting ill in the US for the reason you mention, its a nightmare.

Being a tourist is one thing, being resident is quite another.
[/quote]

[Robert5988]

I do think it is somewhat ironic – not to say insulting - to portray the British as world travelled sophisticates when measured against their ‘dumb’ American cousins - on a website devoted to people who visit Orlando primarily for the cultural delights of Disney.

I have to say I cringe at the dress and antics of a lot of Brits – particularly on the aircraft to and from Orlando – Little Britain clones or ‘wotever’ come to mind.