Income
 

To cybrgeezer:

I apoligize if you took offense to my statements. I must have read the thread wrong.

I wasn't trying to offend you.

Regards,

2bntv

My cell phone bill with Verizon for two phones is way over $100 monthly and I have no texting, but instead full data/internet access. My house telephone bill runs additionally.

Also, don't forget, I tried not to be realistic and ignored the real reason I went to TV in the first place....to have fun.........other residents invite us to dinner out,to a move or a show, etc. that's an additional $50 - $70 per outing. Once weekly = $200 - $280. Add this annually !!!

I was going to try not to work........I've given up on that. We were far, far from rich or plush. My husband's nice retirement isn't even enough. And by the way, we "only" have a CYV. And I won a golf cart.

Affordability
 

2B: No offense.

I still wonder how those folks are doing it.

Forsyth.

Your estimate for dining out in TV seems high to me. The three of us can go to Cane Garden for dinner for less than 40 dollars. But...only Sweetie has a couple of cocktails.

Our phone charges are the same in TV as they are in Ohio. And we have Direct TV...one bill. We carry the boxes back and forth and have the services switched.

We don't have house phone because we are snowbirds. Does anyone else just have cell service when they live there full time?

We find it costs us just about the same to live in TV, except the heat air is lower.

Kindest wishes,

Gracie.

We are getting by on a lot less this year. We are not getting stock dividends this and maybe next year, I am retired on a small pension but can't get SS for another year and the wife does not work.
We are fortunate enough to have our house,car and both golf carts paid for.
Dining out has slowed down and we tend to order more specials and hit happy hours....Mccalls,Katie Belles and Urban flats being our top choices.
I play the executive courses and stay as busy as I want.
We have had our condo up north for sale for 2-1/2 years but have been fortunate to have our former Pastor and his wife rent it for the past year. The rent just covered our monthly payments we have on the place.
We just accepted an offer to purchase ...............over 20 percent less then our original asking price.
It will be good to have our other place sold and will take away a lot of stress.
So I would have to say that yes you can live in TV on a small income, but a larger income would be beneficial.
It depends on your lifestyle and how many things you are making payments on.

OBD, that is great about your home. I know that has been a drain on you. We are looking to sell our house also way below market just to move it.

Army Guy

I have tracked all our expenses on our vinyl CYV (as a rental) for 4 years. If I take out the mortgage (which we will be paying off), and the bond (which we just paid off), and the cleaning fees and caretaker expenses, I come up with about $14,500 in home expenses only, not including food, entertainment, medical, transportation (golf cart & auto), clothes, haircuts. It does include landline, internet and cable. Lots of our entertainment/activities will be free in TV.

This does include about $3200 in landscaping and improvements and furniture we did last year. I'm leaving that in the budget as I figure there will still be stuff we might want to do, if we can afford it (for instance upgrade appliances, do granite countertops, redecorating, and I'm always buying plants and garden stuff). If not, I figure this will cover inflation for a few years anyway.

We've already done gutters (not everyone has/wants these), attic stairs, cabinets in the laundry room, custom closets, tinting some windows, some extra landscaping in the front and back. I sew and made custom window treatments for some windows. For now, I do the interior painting. We're going to try doing our own mowing (with a push mower) and fertilizing of shrubs and grass, at least for a while, to save there.

We've had it occupied about 8-9 mos of the year, including our visits.

I don't think utilities will go up that much, except for inflation, as I don't think tenants bother to regulate the heat and a/c as much as I will. Probably we'll spend a little more on the water bill.

I think the real key is to not have ANY debt, and some savings available. We are going to try and live on pension money our first couple of years, adding social security in 2 years when we turn 62, and to leave all the IRA stuff alone until we see what it actually costs us to live. This is more for my peace of mind, as I'm a real financial worrywart.

Originally we were going to work until age 62, but my company closed it's office end of 2009 and we did the numbers and figured what the heck, you don't live forever. Just check out how many classmates and friends you know who didn't even make it to age 60.

We have a couple of big trips this winter planned and partly paid for already, will pay the rest from our cushion as we go. We will do small trips, mostly to visit friends, next summer. We will do more big trips, assuming health stays good, only if we can afford it. Our largest pension has a COLA, which will help a little with inflation.

Don't forget that your auto costs, if you downsize to 1 car and barely use it, except for traveling, will go down significantly.

So, my point is that I think it's quite possible to live on a fairly small income if you have no debt. Will find out shortly if my projections are adequate. We can do a lot better if we start withdrawing from our IRAs. My financial advisor, and all the retirement projection forecasts I've done, says we would be fine withdrawing about 4%/yr, but I can't bring myself to start that until I have a more concrete history on expenses after we move down.

Only thing that really scares me is medical costs, which now are very low, but who knows about the future - another reason, as far as I'm concerned, to retire early, while we still have our health.

It sounds as if TV is just as affordable as anywhere else
 

While I don't live there,(yet) it sounds as if normal living costs are the same, and that $36,000 a year would be sufficient. Of course, a lot has to do with what you want to spend you money on. If you want to eat out every meal, or take a lot of trips, it would cost more, but just as before you were retired, you can pick and choose.

It also seems that there is so much to do in TV that is free due to your amenities payment, that you could conceivably live the "Life of Reilly" with very little money outside of normal expenses.

Ohiogirl, I agree with your post. You are right on the money with your assumptions.

Army Guy

We moved here in October of 2008, during the elections. We decided to wait on acquiring a home phone, because we thought we would be inundated with calls from politicians.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting. We're full-timers and have only our cell phones, and it works out just fine -- as long as I can find my phone and I remember to charge it. :loco:

We have the friends and family plan, so everybody 'back home' can call us whenever they like. It's only Villagers who need to call us long distance, but most of them have cell phones, too, so there really isn't any long distance calling. I find that we do more emailing and IMing instead of actual talking with the folks back home, but with the time difference it's really more convenient for everybody this way. :024:

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Would somebody please call me so I can find my phone?

We did not get a land line in TV, where we are snowflakes, and we cut it out a couple of years ago in Atlanta, where we still live.

I agree with Ohiogirl's numbers, as well.

sigh of relief here
 

Army Guy and PT,

you're making me feel a lot better about living within our means, and probably living quite well by our standards. Both of you, from your many posts, seem to be very practical, sensible people who are more analytical than I am.

Like OBD, if the money's not there, we won't spend it. Or, if I find we really need more income, will try to supplement with a part-time job. I keep wondering anyway if I might want to work some anyway, although I keep meeting Villagers who said they thought the same thing, but now don't see how they could fit work into their busy schedules.

Having said that, it's a good thing Ohioboy is not as frugal or we would never have any fun!

I write this during a packing break. We are loading up the Budget truck tomorrow with I can't believe how much more stuff. Just a few pieces of furniture, mind, since we already did this 4 years ago to furnish our place for renting. Dropping off some pieces at my kids' houses along the way, but most of it is clothes, more kitchen stuff, and just misc. STUFF. I hope it fits, but if not, I'll likely be weeding out further once we're in. And I've moved 22 times in my adult life! One thing for sure, shouldn't need clothes, furniture or kitchen stuff for years to come.

Ohiogirl, I have had some of the same thoughts about working that you mentioned. Although we have saved and cheap to live in TV I am one of those types who never thinks we have saved enough. With that said, over the past year and a half with going down every weekend since we bought, I also don't know how I could fit working into our schedule! It would take all the fun out of living in TV! So I guess if I think we need to cut back to save, I will just get one less drink at Happy Hour! :pepper2:

Army Guy

Th advice I get ...
 

From my retired friends, the advice I get is to learn and "spend" the money we have so diligently saved for so many years. This is the time we have saved for and when it's gone, we'll move in with the kids ... ..or the friends :loco: ... Seriously, they told me this was a very hard transition and mindset.

During my quest to determine affordability in TV, I didn't do anything different than I have done my entire working lifetime. I looked at what would be "reliably" coming in and what I could afford. I consider pension and social security [in a few years] as reliable. Investments in 401K, stocks, etc., I considered as unreliable.

From my experience, the house issue is the biggest issue with the Villages. Your retired income will determine what type of home you will buy and whether you have a mortgage or not. Other than the amenity fees & bond, you would probably have the remaining expenses no matter where you live [retire] ...water, cable, internet, food, medical, etc., etc., etc... This is where a good spreadsheet comes in handy to balance everything.

As others have indicated, you can live in TV on $25K or $2.0m Regardless your income, you'll be playing the same golf courses; eating in the same restaurants and dancing to the same music in the squares.

Cheers....

What a great thread for some of us "worriers". It certainly has helped put my mind at ease a little bit. In a few months I will be eligible (at age 62) to collect social security of $1800/month. The year after that my wife will collect $900/month for a total of $2700/month or $32400/year. We have group of investments that pay dividends that cover our CYV mortgage, amenity fee and bond. From what everyone is writing it appears that if we lived without eating out a lot, we could do it without ever touching our savings and other investments. Here is a typical day I spent in the villages when I was there last month. 6am-2mile walk (free). 7am-swim laps at seabrook (free); 930am-civil discussion group (free); 11am-line dance lessons for 2 hours (free); 2pm-two happy hour beers and free peanuts on the porch at Cody's watching the world go by ($6); 4pm-pennecamp pool talking with great neighbors (free); 530pm-happy hour double and dancing at LSL ($5); 8pm-a delicious linghuini and white clam sauce at pizza bravo in LSL ($14). There is no where else in the world that I could have that great of a day for $25!!!! Living in the villages...priceless!