Hoping to retire in 5 years & thinking TV may be the place to be!
 

Hi! I still have about 5 years to go until retirement but thought it's not too early to start looking at my options as to where to settle down after retirement! TV sure looks like a definite possibility! Florida sure looks more retirement friendly than New Jersey! Plus, you have palm trees!!! Maybe if I start getting to know TV through the forums, by the time we arrive, it will already feel like home! We hope to come for a Lifestyle visit sometime next year. Anyway..... hello to all you lucky people who have already made it to retirement! Cheers!

We love it here more now than when we first came down and we loved it then. Stay on this TOTV site and you will learn about The Villages with pointers that will save you money and help you pick the perfect home and location for you. We have been here 2 years and without TOTV I have no doubt we would not be in the same house, but we are. Things we learned to keep in mind by talking on this site were, Direction of the sun in relation to the house, What different lots allow you to do now or later, best distance from town squares, location of noises/smells etc. When we first came down for a visit, we wanted to live on top of Spanish Springs Square in a Court Yard Villa. After TOTV for a few years, we decided on the middle of Lake Sumter County in a designer home.

craftysandy, welcome to TV and TOTV!!! Lots to learn about regarding TV........and TOTV is a good place to find out about many of those things.

And it's NEVER too early to start planning for your retirement location!

Bill :)

We are in a similar situation and I've been lurking around these boards for almost a year. We are renting a home for the month of October to get a real feel for life in TV and are very much looking forward to that. Go for visits as often as possible and test the waters! Good luck to you.

Welcome we came to look in 2004 came back in 2008 and bought in 2010, we have 3 years till retirement, and are looking for our next home for that big step

After you make the big decision that this is the place for you to enjoy your retirement I'm sure you'll find the right home. We were never "townies" our entire married lives (37 years!) and had reservations about being able to find a house here in the villages with an open back yard. There are homes available that are on golf courses (not our style) preserves (also not our style) and pastures (happily, just our style!). That was our big concern and now we're so happy and settled here. Best of luck to you where ever you decide retire. I hope it's here.

I feel sorry for you that you discovered TV five years before retirement (as we did). The problem is that now that you have discovered it, this will be the longest five years of your life!! Do as we did and try renting a different style house for a month each winter (if you can swing the time off) in different areas and try to really learn all about the community to help you decide where you want to be and what style house you would want in retirement. We are lucky- our long wait is nearly over- we're moving to TV in December! Good Luck!

Me too!
 

I have about 5 more years to go (hopefully sooner) and I've been checking out TV since 2008!

With that said, the past few years have really flown by. Where did this summer go? Does time fly faster in TV?

Thanks for all the input! It will be a long five years, especially being that I've been with the same company for 32 years already! It's been a fun ride but I'm getting the itch to start a new ride! Hopefully I'll retire by 60, but no later than 62! I'm glad to see that TV is such an active community. I definitely want to stay active and healthy. I do get 6 weeks vacation each year, so maybe I can swing staying at TV for at least 2 weeks to get a feel for it. I'm hoping I'll be able to sell my NJ home and purchase a 2 bedroom, 2 bath home after I retire. Let's hope the housing market turns around a bit in the next 5 years!

TOTV Post Very Helpful
 

Ideal is to have several friends already living in TV like we did but if not, TOTV is the best advice column one can get. Even now, I found a gem or two every time I open which I can share with my friends who are not on TOTV. It took us 5 years before we made the final plunge or rather it took my wife 5 years to make up her mind. We finally did it in 2011 and we haven't regretted the choice we made including my wife. As other postings have indicated, it is wise to visit TV once a year at least preferably in different seasons. We did two turns with Life Style Package plus staying with our friends in other occasions. Although we didn't do it but we have met quite a few people who rented villas, cottages and designer homes in various Villages to see what they like. Staying with friends are great but to really sense what TV is like, you need to be on your own making sure you rent a golf cart. It's a whole different world out there from the golf cart. Good luck. Make sure you say hi! or good morning and smile when you are making your rounds. Who knows, you may make many friends even before you move here.

Buy in TV while prices are down;
rent it out in the high season to cover running costs;
move in full time when you retire

Hi Sandy,
We started 5 years before I retired. We did the LSV and then rented for about 10 days or so 6 times more. We THOUGHT we had a handle on living here. Not so! There are so many things that change. We are only here for 3 weeks now and boy oh boy do we wish we had done things different. We wish that we had bought sooner so we could have stayed more than those few times that we did. I suppose that part of it is that I am a LOT more relaxed after retiring, but throw in this whole community and what a change. It was the very best thing that we could have done.
Don & Kaz

Ps Visit at different times of the year like we did. There are pluses and a few minuses for each season. Visitors (like we WERE) make things a bit crowded in the cooler months, and it does get hot in the warmer months. We lived in S Alabama before here, so heat isn't too tough on us.

Another South Jersey TV'er to Be
 

Craftysandy, I live in South Jersey also (Winslow Twp.) and can't wait until I can retire in about the same amount of time so that we can move to The Villages. We've have been down three times, two LSV and rented a CYV in May. Just love it there. Problem is I think about it just about everyday and it's making me crazy! We're looking at possibly a CYV or a smaller designer on a corner so we can add a pool. My advice? Go down as much as you can to experience the lifestyle, see the types of homes available (rent different models so you have a good idea of what you'll eventually want). Here's hoping we're both out of New Jersey BEFORE 5 years is up!

No truer words were spoken:

:welcome: to TOTV. Read the "nuts and bolts" by Zcaveman at the bottom of the "home" page. It's full of information.

One visit down and you'll never be the same. :smiley:

renting different house and village each time really helps

I would plan on taking a few vacations to TV. During the off season you can rent very reasonable. Try The Villages 4 Rent, Rentals in The Villages for a rental as well as asking here. Also look at a few of the communities in the area. The more you see the better you will be able to identify differences that will be important to you. Also try the vacation packages as you learn a lot talking to current residences.

I had never heard of The Villages, I came for 2 weeks in June and bought a place in August!!!! Happily ever after!

Welcome to you Craftysandy. I am also a wannabee, and luckily I have been able to visit TV 4 times since 2010. Each visit I have rented in a different village. I will be back renting in October in yet another village, this one just north of 466. I haven't done the official lifestyle visit yet, but I will probably do that hopefully in 2013. I agree with lanabanana -- if you can visit TV once or twice a year to test the waters, that may be very helpful for you. Reading and posting questions on TOTV will give you a lot of information about moving to and living in TV. :welcome:

5 yrs ?
 

You need to consider that they will have no more new homes in 5 years (running out of lots to build on).

If you wait 5 years there will be no new homes available.

TV is great, we love it here

Thanks for the great advice! I am really looking forward to retirement even if it;s not for another five years! In the meantime, I will check on the forums and try to educate myself on TV! It sure looks like a fun place!

I drove through out of curiosity in Oct 2011 on my way somewhere else. Came in May 2012 for a Lifestyle Visit and stayed one week. Bought a lot and my build starts in Sept! Lucky me, I retired a bit early, but I agree that you should visit as often as you can until you are able to purchase, whether it be a lot, spec home or pre-owned! They are all lovely and so is TV!
Luck to you!

We have 2 to 5 years till retirement and we just bought a house in Buttonwood. It will be a vacation home until we retire. We have met some great people in such a short time.

even though we only come down 8 weeks a year its still worth buying soon as you know

One week from today we will be down for our 4th visit. Retirement 7 months away, house for sale now. We are ready!!!

Even though Golfingnut sounds like an Iowa farmboy with his direction of the sun, best distance from attractions, and locations of noises and smells - he is absolutely right.

I have friends who fell in love with their new home at first sight but did not realize it was only about 2 blocks from the railroad track - until after they moved in. There were also two large oak trees on their lot whose roots had been disturbed in the building and died within 18 months. They were responsible for removing the dead trees - and insurance does not pay for tree removal if the trees were still standing.

The direction of the sun to the house is very important when deciding because you do not want the setting sun on your lanai as you will bake in the afternoon sun.

haven't looked back!
 

You are definitely making a wise choice in considering t.v.! We came for a lifestyle visit in May 2011 and to visit friends. Loved t.v. from the first moment! Went back home and two weeks later I announced to my husband that we needed to retire here. After his initial shock, he agreed but thought we should spend 6 weeks in Aug. and Sept. to see how we could "handle the heat" (we're still laughing about that one since our hometown and state had record heat waves while we were here!). We rented a house for the 6 weeks but knew within a few days, this lifestyle was for us. We moved here in Oct. 2011 and haven't looked back. If you want to make a ton of friends, have every activity known to mankind available to you, live in a community surrounded by beautiful golf courses and pools, have fantastic weather most of the year, and feel blessed every single day, get on down here! Jim and I will be waiting on you, ready to tee it up, go out to eat, or just lounge around the pool. It simply doesn't get any better than this! All the best to you!

:agree:

And I've heard that most people spend more time planning their next vacation than they do planning their retirement. :wave: