We’ve been in Florida for a little more than a week so far, and so far so good. This is the 4th year we have had an extended snowbird trip and we are getting good at it. In particular, the packing went well. It’s amazing that we can live here for 2.5 months on just what you see on the luggage cart in the photo. … Continue reading Packed Tight for Snowbirding
We’re back in Florida for our fourth year snowbirding from cold Minnesota. We toured models at the giant Latitudes Margaritaville/ Daytona Beach development yesterday. A weird thing happened when they asked us where we were from. Being from Minnesota, we had to sign an “Out-Of-State Non-Solicitation Affidavit” to acknowledge that we arrived “voluntarily”. What? Yes, apparently it is against Minnesota law for a Florida developer … Continue reading Wait, Sign What?
We’re back in Florida this winter, snowbirding from the Minnesota cold. One bucket-list item I got to do today was drive down the sands of Daytona Beach in a bright red Jeep with the roof panels taken off. That was fun! Recently, I’ve been reading about people’s disappointments with some of their bucket list experiences. It started with THIS POST on EarlyRetirement.org, where people shared … Continue reading Bucket List or Garbage Can?
Everywhere you go in Florida, everyone is talking about real estate. It’s really engaging, even when you are just trying to enjoy your vacation. Yesterday we made a few stops on the Parade of Homes near red-hot Sarasota. Even the so-called custom builders are too busy to customize anything right now. They are just building spec homes and then auctioning them off to buyers in … Continue reading Scarce Inventory Boosts Real Estate
We met some fellow Minnesotans down here in Florida yesterday. Unlike us, they jumped into investing in a Florida vacation cottage a couple years ago when they first got the urge. They snapped one up when the Margaritaville Orlando resort was relatively new and said they have already seen a couple hundred thousand dollars of appreciation. The colorful cottages are bright, nicely designed, and well-furnished. … Continue reading Investing in Vacationland Paradise
Our Florida ‘Winter Summerland’ escape took a strange twist this weekend. I was at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona auto race and saw a random text from someone named ‘Andy’. I looked at it and realized it had something to do with our February month-long AirBNB rental outside of Orlando. Andy was the AirBNB ‘host’ and he said our reservation was immediately CANCELLED “due … Continue reading Homeless in Florida?
Living in Minnesota, I love the annual ‘Theater of Seasons’. We are really treated to some epic changes throughout the year, with the temperature hitting 100 degrees F in the summer and -25 degrees in the wintertime. We are home to 10,000 lakes & the headwaters of the Mississippi, but they are all frozen like a rock for at least 3 months of the year. … Continue reading Winter Is Over Already?
We are two weeks into our six week winter getaway to Florida and enjoying the summer-like weather. January had relatively mild winter weather in Minnesota, but now that we have escaped, the temperature there has absolutely plummeted. If you think of your vacation investment in winter as having a ‘return on temperature’, our 2021 outlay is looking like Bitcoin right now. As you can see … Continue reading Winter Summerland
It was unusually warm this past week in Minnesota with sunny weather in the 70s. That never happens in November and we’ve been ‘living outside’ every day. Tomorrow it looks like we get back-to-normal in a hurry with a cold front dropping the temperatures into the 30s with rain quickly turning to snow. In Minnesota, it’s not an exaggeration to say these might be the … Continue reading Minnesota Winter / Florida Sunshine
We’re about halfway through our Florida Snowbirding experiment and so far it has been wonderful. It is quite a bit different than any other trip that we have taken for a few reasons, but most all of them have been pleasant surprises …. STAYING PUT – Unlike most trips of a week or more, we aren’t packing up and moving at all. We moved into … Continue reading Snowbirding Surprises
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