Florida is a beautiful place. Unlike any other I've been to.

Living in Florida is culturally different.
Florida has it's own way of doing things. One of the first bumper stickers I saw said "We don't care how you did it up north". That's a true statement, they really don't care. You'll also learn the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee.

Troutly is correct brush up on the Spanish. Where I live english speaking is in the minority. And I don't live in Miami. Most of my neighbors are from Puerto Rico. I'll bet there's no more than a handful of english speaking families on my street. Most of them are really nice people, then there's some that don't speak a word of english.

My dad always said that life is at a slower pace in Florida. Not true. I work harder and hustle more here than back in Jersey.

The heat? No problem. The only thing I hate about it is that it's monotonous. In the summer it's 95 deg. with a 40+% chance of rain.....every day from May till September and the fiercest lightening storms I've ever seen. Toss in Hurricane season from June to December along with the occasional tornado just for fun.

Would I live anyplace else? Not sure.
I like it here, in Florida. I just don't like where I'm living. Maybe I need to get away from the heavy tourist areas. The running joke is that Orlando and Kissimmee are a suburb of Disney (Mickey Rat, Mouse House, etc).


The best thing to do is come on down, see things for yourself. Talk to the locals. Check prices on housing, food, insurance, clothes, utilites, etc. If you have kids look at the schools.

That picture is of the Sands restaurant/hotel. Florida is great for all year around boat. I hate Manatee zones though!

Florida is GREAT for Boating, EXCEPT for the MANATEE ZONES!
Merritt Island IDLE King!!

There are two types of people on this site.
Those who live in Florida and those who want to live in Florida

Yes It IS!!!!!!

That's for my side of the state

hit's the nail on the head

Rudy,

If you have the job lined up or will get a job that will be able to financially provide you with the ability to sustain your current lifestyle, then do it. I moved down to Boca Raton, working in Ft Lauderdale for a little over a year, but my new occupation down there did not allow me to sustain the same lifestyle that I had/have here in Chicago, so I moved back. Once I have that sorted out, I will be going back to S.E. Florida

There are alot of deadbeats down there though, and sharks that come at you with all kinds of get rich quick scenarios / schemes / investment possibilities. Decline them all.

After living in So Cal (Woodland Hills-Norts territory) for 40 years I came here for a management consulting contract for a year.

After the year was up and job completed I reorganized my thoughts and came up with the following;

-All up the weather is better here
-Generally the cost of living is about half that of So Cal
-There is an abundance of waterways where one can boat-lakes-rivers-the Gulf and Atlantic
-There is some traffic problems but nothing like that of the 101 , 5, 118 and 405 I experienced in So Cal.

Today was 82 degrees, dry but unlike Baja, there were 17.6 puffy clouds in the entire sky. A cold wave is on the way.. Highs will remain about 80 and lows will drastically dip to the mid sixties...

Once you live in Florida you want to keep it all to yourself