How old were you when you first visited TV?
 

I am 53 and my wife is 50. We are considering a visit soon. I was wondering how old you all were on your first visit?

Mainah, Welcome to TOTV! Ask questions and read TOTV if you are considering buying in TV (The Villagess). You will learn a lot. July of last year I visited TV for the first time with friends, (one of whom bought in TV a few months later). I was 49. I just came back from renting in TV for the first time in the Village of Chatham, now I'm 50. I'm planning on returning to rent in TV again in October, this time probably in the Village of Sabal Chase. The October visit is my birthday gift to me as I will be 51 by that time. :welcome:

Welcome to Talk of the Villages. I just turned 50. My husband is 53. We have owned in TV for 18 months. We bought a home on our first Lifestyle Preview Visit.

I'm curious why you asked this Mainah. Are you wondering if you are both too young for a retirement community? If that is the reason; believe me when I say that the community is very active. You have to see it to believe how active these poor old retired folks really are.

Come on! You'll love it.

You are right bk! Mainah, If you visit TV, check out the people who dance at Spanish Springs and Lake Sumter Landing every night. They put 20 year olds to shame.

Welcome. I was 62, bought property within a week of first coming here.

So then....folks under age 55 are allowed to purchase a home in TV?
Originally I had thought that one spouse had to be at least 55.

The only reason I am asking is that I know that once our adult children, 40 and over, do see it in person one of these days........they might like it enough to buy a second home.

A few years back someone did explain to me that 80% of the population of a retirement community has to adhere to the 55+ and yet the other 20% can be other ages?

Also, children are allowed to live near the charter schools??? I guess if their parents are employed at TV? I can't find the posting now, but one family was moving in with children? I'm sure there are exceptions to everything.

We were 54 & 50 and bought 6 month later. Once you are under the spell of TV there is only one cure. When you see something that you wanted but did not know existed you have to have it. Have fun!

I was 51 when I first visited and purchased. I am now "of age"; Mr 07 a bit older. I had some concerns about being younger than most everyone here but that was alleviated within the first few days of a monthly "try it out" rental. Age truly is a state of mind.

To Sr ... at least 80% of the homes must have at least one owner/occupant who is 55+. TV is nowhere near having 20% being under 55.

Charter schools are for employees of TV, its contractors, and TV-based businesses. The students may live in adjacent all age communities or far away. It is employment based enrollment not geography. There are many surrounding all age communities but they have no access to TV amenities. Children under 19 cannot permanently live in a Villages residence.

It all works pretty well.....

You are correct about the federal law concerning age of residents in TV. Also, the Villages Charter School is a "charter school in the workplace" which, under Florida law, is allowed to only accept applications from a targeted number of a specific student population. Which means children of direct employees of TV, children of a direct sub-contractor of TV and children of employees of a business on TV's property. The employees have an option of living in a special area of TV. There are currently 2,110 students enrolled in the schools according to their website.

We were both 54 when we visited as part of the Lifestyle tour. I think folks who run the Lifestyle program spiked our water because we knew this place was for us within an hour.

I was 47, hubby 50 when we first visited . We bought at 48 and 51. We will live there full-time in two more years. It has been a long wait (3 years now) but it will be well worth it!

How old were you when you first visited TV?
 

My husband and I were 49 when we first visited. We returned the next year and purchased a home in Pennecamp. We have just a couple more years until retirement but we have our dream home on the golf course ready and waiting. Renting it in the winter season until we move down full-time.

I was 62 and wished I could have bought then, (long boring story).

One visit is all it takes to see if it is right for you.

There aren't enough words to descibe how wonderful it is.

You are not too young if that is what your asking.

Thanks for the information. Appreciate it.

Once again, very good to know....thank you for clarifying it.

p.s. Off the top of his head, my husband thinks that amount of 2,110 children attending the school is about what our town of Bennington, population 16,000 people, have in all our schools from K to 12. Several elementary schools, one middle school (Jr. High) and one high school.

Our town divides the property tax into : School tax & Highway Tax which includes the snowplowing, maintenance of roads, etc.

Would a charter school get funding from the county ...or from state funds?

Up here, the majority of the property taxes, paid once a year in November, goes for our schools system.

According to their website (which I have linked below), "...We exist through a contract with the Sumter County School Board (our charter) and receive the same funding as other charter schools in the state..."

I know my tax bill included funding for the school and I live in Lake County. It is accessed through a developmental impact fee.

Also, from this report:

http://www.educationsector.org/usr_d...ool_Report.pdf

Finance
The state of Florida funds each charter school based on
the number of students that it serves. The state money
first goes to the district, which is permitted to withhold a
five percent administrative fee. In theory, this fee should be
the only funding difference between charter schools and
other schools within the district. But in practice charter
schools receive significantly less than district schools.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that districts often withhold
other sources of local funding from charter schools.8


http://www.tvcs.org/centralOffice/ch...eWorkplace.asp

15 years ago the search started
 

My wife and I spent 8 years looking around Florida at all of the retirement villages plus non-retirement cities. She said let's stop in and look at the Villages. We fell in love the first hour and spent the next 3 days drinking the kool-aid. We refuesd to come back the next 7 years because neither of us had the discipline not to buy. We went back 3 weeks ago. We picked out our lot in Sanibel on the golf course. We are coming back in December to finish picking out the amenities we want in the Begonia we have picked out. We truly think we are living our dream and moving to Disneyworld ok TV to spend the rest of our lives. It truly is the happiest city I have ever seen. You get lost in your cart and people smile and point you in the right direction. Here it would be a select finger a horn and road rage. There it's a smile and you can see the thought they had that they used to get lost in paradise too.

Oren:

Congrats. May all your dreams come true.

The Villages has NO AGE
 

I have been with 90 year old's on the golf course that play like they were 50.....But to answer your question, ole boy was 64, I was 62..

If you are ancient when you arrive, you will find a wonderful "fountain of youth" after your first year....

Thanks
 

Thanks can't wait to join you down there.

I just want to find the fountain of middle age. :D Rodney Dangerfield

My first visit was at just under 61.....I hope my second visit will be at under 62 and will be a permanent one. :D
Suzanne

We moved here from Massachusetts when I was 53 and My wife was 49. We both transferred in our jobs to jobs down here and continued working. We have been here over 7 years. Love it

We do appreciate your looking it up for us....thanks for the links.

We were 52 (me) and 54 the first visit. We were 57 and 59 when we purchased.

First visit 58 and 54 in 2008, getting acquainted with the area.
Second visit next week, 61 and 57, kicking tires.
Permanent (hopefully) next year, 62 and 58, plan to purchase then.

We were 47 & 57 - waited 7 years and here we are! It was the right time to make the move.

Oh my Gawd!

You're all such children! :D

My first contact with TV was when I was 66. I actually bought when I was 68. I'm now a "decrepit" 75.

Of course, if I'd known about TV before that first visit, I'd have been younger!

My older daughter is coming up on being 50. Some of you aren't even that old.

Suddenly I feel really, really ancient! :cryin2:

I'll just have to remember that my brothers are both in their
mid-80s! :bowdown:

SWR
:beer3:

Sandy and I have known of TV since waaaaaay back in the '80s. We'd drive through on 27/441 now and then, going down to visit my parents who wintered in Haines City, and we'd marvel at how interesting TV looked. But we didn't really get interested until our first stop to casually look around about 3 years ago. We were 54 and 55.

Bill :)

I too remember driving through TV many times in the mid-1980s, although I never envisioned living there as I was in my 20s at the time. My first actual "visit" was a couple of years ago (age 47) when we settled my mother-in-law there. We recently sold our business in Panama and we are now closing on a home in TV the end of next month (I am 49, my wife is 53). Looking forward to being there soon!

I was 63 when we bought here, but the doctor told me that I had the body of a 90 year old.
I asked him for a second opinion, so he told me that I was ugly too! http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...YS/rimshot.gif

:22yikes:

Families moving in with children under 18? :22yikes:

47 at first visit - Linda was 44. Wow that was 7 years ago!

Yeah, something happens - nobody actually gets younger until they actually MOVE to TV. We were 54 when we first looked, never thought it was something that would appeal to us (after all, we were not "old.")

We bought at 55, retired at 60 and moved down for our first winter - somehow we are almost 61 - how does that happen? Anyhow, I think it is true that TV makes you younger, at least for awhile.

We are in Ohio for the summer, and because it's summer, are staying pretty active, but i have to say it's much easier to do that year-round in TV. We are truly enjoying being in Ohio for summertime, and being retired, but are also looking forward to being back in TV in September. We feel truly blessed to have found this place.

We were 62 & 61 at that time!:(

I was 46 and my husband was 50. We moved here 2 years later when he was 52 and I was 48. In hindsight, I was too young to move here. Everyone on my street by the Lopez was way older than me and we didn't have much in common. I was very lonely. 7 years later, people have moved away, passed on, etc. New people have moved in and I've made new friends at work. So not so bad now.

We first visited two years ago; I was 47. We fell in love with the place and bought.

We were 49 yrs old and that was 14 years ago... now 63 yrs old... still have not bought as we were waiting to retire. Retired now and there for a month in April 2011. We just had 2 realtors at our home yesterday and today and hoping to put home on market soon. Husband is dying to get to TV.