A little about Florida

[robivi3]

Thanks to tin, min and others who made kind comments about my wife and I's support of my oldest son for College. For those who have children in this forum you may want to consider life in Florida for certain reasons.

It is very expensive to live here yes. Car insurance in the south is horribly expensive. We own a 2001 GMC, 94' Buick Century, 96' Chevy Corsica. Only the GMC has Comp. and Collision. The others have Liability only
(100,000/300,000). For that we pay 6800.00 per year with Mom, Dad and oldest boy. No claims, no accidents. Single family homes in a good area of Miami are around 350,000 to 400,000.00. Thats three/two. In Broward in a normal neighborhood, same thing. ALL neighborhoods with the exception of Davie are mixed, so if you have problems with that, stay away. In davie just south of here a buildable acre starts at 450,000.00 vacant. A three/two 1500 sq.ft. in Davie with say 3.5 acres starts at 1.5 million. I cannot afford to move. as long as I stay here my property taxes will not go up more than three pct. per year. If I buy a single family home they will go from 1600.00 to around 7000.00.

However North Florida is much cheaper. In every way. Florida offers "Bright Futures" or "Pre-Paid College". If you go with Bright Futures your child must graduate with a 3.0 or better. If so the Florida lottery funds 75% of ALL education cost in ANY State of Florida Institution 2 or 4 year. If you graduate with a 3.5 or above Florida Lottery funds 100% of the cost. You have to maintain your GPA to continue benefits.

My oldest boy fooled around in 9th grade. He did horrible and had to repeat it but as he pulled the repeat grade year up to a 3.04 it was then considered tenth grade. By the middle of the 11th year he was doing very well. In tweflth grde he was in AP classes with 9 or 10 students making straight A's. He came out of twefth grade with a 3.73 for the year. However this was not enough to pull him above 3.0 (2.97) because of the games he played in the 9th grade. He would have been better to take extra credit Toenail Picking rather than AP Classes.

My decision to help him was not easy. I went through alot anger and he felt great dissappointment as he realized what he had shown contempt for in 9th grade. For the last three years has talked of becoming a CPA. Now we have to buckle down for the long haul and work together to pay what was FREELY GIVEN by the State of Florida.

My middle son has never waivered, he wants to be a Naval Officer. He does excellent no matter 7,8,9,10, no problem. The younger has been told, the grades come up or we take a ride to the ARMY recruiter, not Navy, Not Air Force but the Infantry and ONLY the Infantry unless a 3.0 which is not hard, achieved for this year. He did not waiver quite so bad in 9th grade. The first few weeks of school have shown that he has little desire towards the blessed Infantry but he knows my view, I will do it. You live in America, people who don't have children pay for your FREE School. I paid for private school for each for the first four years, until it broke us financially. Florida gives you a GOLDEN opportunity, FREELY given in abundance without prejiduce and put on a silver platter. If you show contempt for what is freely given I have run out of patience. I help son 1 because i saw earnest effort and repentance on his part but I will not go through it again.

So folks, I ain't no saint. But I also wrote this because many of you may be worried about the future because of your financial situation. South Florida is to expensive and i will by the Grace of God leave forever in a couple of years. I never want to come back. North Florida is still America and still low crime and a good place to live. Some of you may wish to consider the opportunities Florida offers those who live here. Sorry for the long post

[accentone]

robivi3, I grew up in South Florida. And I attended the University of Florida in Gainesville. I TOTALLY agree--south Florida is the absolute pits and I will not even go there for a visit anymore. North Florida, on the other hand, is beautiful. I've always said I think that they should split the state in two, north and south, because they are so different. We want to retire in N. Florida. We keep going down there to check it out. Land is still relatively cheap. Just waiting for the kids to grow up and leave the next. I also have a teen that screwed up in the 9th grade. He's now in 11th and is having to take an extra class to make up for his shinanigans. Although I am angry about it, I try not to be too hard on him. It's all a part of growing up and learning what is important, and what isn't. He learned some hard lessons, and is now having to pay the piper for them. All in all, I think he will do really well. He got accepted into a teacher cadet program and really loves it. He will get college credit for these classes. Here in CO, we don't have the programs you have in FL, but we do have the CO Opportunity Fund which pays for part of college tuition to any student who merely graduates from a CO high school.

Anyway, stay cool in FL. Someday ... we will return!

[robivi3]

Once my kids are grown I am bugging out forever. I will miss it in some ways. I will be shuttling between my home in Crossville Tennessee and a cabin I want to build outside of Fort Garland Colorado.

[accentone]

Bugging out. I like that. It's the one thing I don't miss here in Colorado--no bugs.

Sorry I don't know where Ft. Garland is. But I'm sure it is beautiful. Most of Colorado is, despite all of the building going on. Lots of people just keep cramming in here. But who can blame them.

[robivi3]

Acetone- Fort Garland is in Costilla County. We are about four miles northwest of the town of San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado. 1266 sqaure miles, 3600 residents, many of them original descendants of the first Mexicans to settle here nearly 200 years ago. A culture unto itself. My wife is an old fashioned Colombian girl from Barranquilla. She has "ruffed it" alot while traveling with uncles and aunts in Colombia but hales from an old family in her City. Even though my family is old Tennessee our upbringings are identical. Upper middle class, well educated parents who did well but were not "elitists". Morals identical, well traveled, extended family is about the same, middle class, private schools. We like the old ways, wife COOKS Colombian and was taught some Tennessee cooking by my grandmother (cornbread) and thank God Colombins use alot of Cornmeal. We find the old fashioned Culture of San Luis appealing, and while I "retire" to Tennessee we shall "winter" in Costilla County, so to speak. Sounds uppity anyway.

There are some environmental concerns in our area, namely those damned cyanide gold mines but the one near us closed nearly ten years ago and is down stream. The locals have some concerns with large ranches that have recently fenced their tracts. While I am big on private property i guess I also like to see things addressed with the concerns of all. I like the collective mentality of the local farmers. I am sure that these giant interlopers are seen as an affront and i can understand that. I suspect that one or two of the gints want to open hunting preserves, no problem, but people grazing their sheep on dormant private land seems like free maintenance and a good deal to me. Animals coexist real well some times!

LOW CRIME, unbelievably low in this County. Same in Cumberland County TN. You can look at the breakdowns of population in the areas and draw your own conclusions. I live in South Florida so i've drawn mine based on experience.

[StaciMM]

This is off topic but I am SO NOT READY for teenagers! My oldest is 7 now, but in 10 years I'll be the mother of a 13 year old, 15 year old, and 17 year old. Yikes!

Anyhow-I thought my insurance was bad-$220/mo for 2 vehicles (2003 each) w/ full coverage. I have 2 things (Dec. 02 & Jan. 03) that will be gone soon, as most insurance companies look at a 36 month spread. I'm doubtful, though, that my current will lower the rates mid-policy, but I'll shop around if they won't.

It is very expensive to live here yes. Car insurance in the south is horribly expensive. We own a 2001 GMC, 94' Buick Century, 96' Chevy Corsica. Only the GMC has Comp. and Collision. The others have Liability only
(100,000/300,000). For that we pay 6800.00 per year with Mom, Dad and oldest boy. No claims, no accidents.

[robivi3]

Stac, if you are in Florida your rates will increase after discharge unless your score stays very high. At least you can prepare. They hit you hard for first time drivers, always have. Florida has its problems, but darn, looking at New Orleans I no longer see South Florida in such a disfavorable light. We have much to be thankful for here. We have a little elevation and to be honest the local population in my town is pretty nice. Sunrise has very low crime but we've always had a large Police force. If they want a take home car they have to reside in City Limits. We have alot of Miami Dade Cops, Miami Beach, Davie and even afew Cuty of Miami Cops living up here. Literally there is a cop on nearly every street. In our TH Complex we have Miami Beach, Davie, an FBI agent and a State Trooper. Somehow alot of cops live in Sunrise. Oddly, we are known for political corruption (Mayor Lomelo). He was corrupt but his office was open and things got done. You could call him at home. When Plantation closed Flamingo Road Mayor Lomelo called on Sunrisers to show up the next morning at 5 am and he opened the road with a Bulldozer. Those small town days are gone now and the Mayor is dead for about 15 years. Our Police do an excellent job though and we don't have a rep for Police corruption, we actually love them.

New Orleans had a corrupt and abusive Police Force and they paid the price for it when the time came.

[StaciMM]

I'm in GA. Not bad location, weather wise. Far enough from the water that its not too far to visit but any type of storm has cooled its jets before it gets to us!


[QUOTE=robivi3]Stac, if you are in Florida your rates will increase after discharge unless your score stays very high. At least you can prepare. They hit you hard for first time drivers, always have. [QUOTE]