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Originally Posted by GoRedSox!
Yes, we would save a LOT of money by having one house in The Villages. It's not insignificant....no more state income tax....no more high property tax on our home AND our cars...no double utilities, home owner's insurance, and the interest that could be made on the proceeds from the sale of the property....it adds up to a sizeable number.
When we are down there, I have to make sure our home in CT is visited, plowed if it snows, the pipes don't freeze, even dealing with the post office and mail order pharmacy is a challenge...and any number of other things. Driving 20 hours in one shot with dogs in the back seat is not fun, when we came back in early May I drove 21 hours straight. I don't know how long we will do this for, but we are talking about moving full-time to The Villages more often and more seriously than ever before.
I have successfully subscribed to the "happy wife, happy life" theory and it worked for me for 24 years and hopefully many more to come and I think my beloved wife is pretty much on the same page with me now that we should reduce to one home and that home should be in The Villages. Good luck to all.
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We have been snowflakes for 9 years and spend a little under half the year in the Villages. When we first bought, we were the youngsters on the block, didn’t mind taking care of two homes, and the long drive back and forth never bothered us. Like you, we are dog people, so flying isn’t an option unless one of us flies down for a couple weeks while the other stays up north with the dog (which we each do at least once per year). Now, we aren’t as young as we used to be and taking care of two homes (especially the northern home) and frequently traveling back and forth is growing both old and expensive. At three times per year we are approaching 30 round trip drives of about 2,700 miles each time, while staying in flea bag pet friendly lodging.
I would absolutely like to simplify life and sell the northern home, but as you stated “happy wife, happy life”. As much as I try, dragging her away from the kids, grandkids, and longtime friends is not going to happen without her being totally miserable. Don’t underestimate how lucky you are to have your wife on board with a single Villages home.
The only reason I can justify keeping a northern residence, besides keeping the wife happy, is to continue to have access to world class health care. That being said, I’m getting real close to selling our beautiful log home up north, on several acres of land surrounded by a state forest. It’s just becoming too much work to maintain at our high standards. A condominium with central air conditioning, where everything is taken care of by a management company, is definitely in the future up north. That way, much more time can be spent at the Villages without the burden of what will await me when returning north.