Please share your snowbird budget with me!

[Eucerin]

We usually go during off-peak times Oct/Nov. We have stayed at Marina El CID and Ventus in Puerto Morelos. Water is not good there but everything else excellent. Cancún we stayed at Omni. We just booked Hard Rock Hotel in Cancún for 2 weeks for 2 people for $1,750. This was a limited time special (Costco) which by the next day was over $4k.

$1,750 for 2 weeks in Cancun all inclusive is an unbelievably good price, do you have Costco notify you or you go to the site often to check?

 

[Eucerin]

This past March we paid $950.USD for five AI nights at Riu Vallarta in Neuvo Vallarta. This was for an upgraded room...suite w/ ocean view. .

We paid $925 USD for five nights AI at the Riu Tequila in Playa del Carmen. Standard room. Early Feb this year.

Both were late booking offers while we were traveling in Mexico. Both booked through a third party booking site. No preference for Riu, just what came up for the right price/reasonable hotel, right location.

Both no airfare...we were traveling in Mexico. The AI's are fine but we are ready to go after 5-7 days. All the food starts to taste the same.

We have also stayed at Moon Palace and The Fives in Cancun on a full air/hotel/AI basis. Forget what we paid. Had our daughter's wedding at Moon Palace.

Booking through 3rd party, do you mean Expedia sort of?

 

[brett]

We actually booked through a UK firm, TUI. We paid in GBP. But we priced direct with Riu, with booking.com, hotels.com.,expedia, agoda,...there re many many sites

When we travel we check several sites for pricing including many out of country sites. And we have called or skyped vendors and suppliers in the UK, South Africa, Australia, UK, Turkey on occasion in order to obtain better pricing on identical products than were available on the typical North American vendor and third party websites.

 

[GravitySucks]

January 2018 stayed in a 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath house at Ocean Lakes Myrtle Beach think it was an extra $100 for the dog. Only limit on dogs from the resort is no Rottweiler or Pit Bull. Whole month was about $1,800.
Some rentals say only 20lb pups or under. My shepard is 90lbs. It does cut down the available units. I rented a different house in that resort for 2 weeks in March 2020 and the site I used (VRBO?) didn't mention dog weight. I did see the house on a different site that had a 20lb limit listed. Not sure how they would enforce that.

I have 2 Labrador retrievers, do the pet friendly condos have a weight limit for dogs?

 

[RetireAge50]

$1,750 for 2 weeks in Cancun all inclusive is an unbelievably good price, do you have Costco notify you or you go to the site often to check?

We periodically look around and just happened to see this deal. First time I noticed the Limited-Time Deals section so wonder if these pop up once in awhile.

 

[Fermion]

Buy some snowmobiles and embrace the winter!

 

[finnski1]

Buy some snowmobiles and embrace the winter!

Beautiful pic, where is that?
My wife and I still love the winter, do lots of snow shoeing,winter hiking etc.
In fact on days like yesterday(96, hazy, hot ,humid) I really miss it, or at least the fall"soup season" as we like to call it.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Buy some snowmobiles and embrace the winter!

Yeah, there is that.

I always say that I don't mind how cold it gets here. I just mind how long it gets cold! By March, I am annoyed, and by April I am stir crazy.

 

[Eucerin]

To brett and RetireAge50 -
Thanks to you both for your responses, its very helpful.

 

[LiveBelowMeans]

Just thought I would mention if you are wanting to stay 5 months, maybe you should stay 6 months and become residents of Florida. (You actually don’t have to be in Florida 6 months, you just have to be in Florida more than Wisconsin if you travel elsewhere) Depending on your income, buying a house/condo in Florida and becoming residents could pay for itself in tax savings. JMHO

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Just thought I would mention if you are wanting to stay 5 months, maybe you should stay 6 months and become residents of Florida. (You actually don’t have to be in Florida 6 months, you just have to be in Florida more than Wisconsin if you travel elsewhere) Depending on your income, buying a house/condo in Florida and becoming residents could pay for itself in tax savings. JMHO

Thanks for the thought. That was originally our plan. As a retired Wisc. state employee, I will get my healthcare through the state plan. I realized that my healthcare will be a lot cheaper if I stay a Wisconsin resident. They do have an out-of-state plan, but the difference is more than the income taxes I will pay to WI, even while doing large amounts of Roth conversions! Surprised the heck out of me!

 

[Hdhead]

We are from WI. Bought a home in the Palm Beaches area in 2011 (luck, bottom of Market). Became FL residents, spend 6 months. Huge savings on real estate tax and of course no state income tax. Like south FL for winter, gets cold farther north. Also gated community which I feel important when not there. Keep a car in both homes, hate the drive. Once you own our expenses for FL are about:
HOA - $4800
Real estate tax - $3500
Pool maintenance - $2000
Power, Internet - $2000
Airfare - $1000

Total expenses less than $15,000

House has appreciated 80% since purchase. I feel this as worked out financially better than anticipated. Highly recommend cash purchase if you can swing it.

 

[Fermion]

Beautiful pic, where is that?
My wife and I still love the winter, do lots of snow shoeing,winter hiking etc.
In fact on days like yesterday(96, hazy, hot ,humid) I really miss it, or at least the fall"soup season" as we like to call it.

It is on the ridge of a mountain we ride on, in eastern Washington. Pretty close to Calispell peak.

 

[ychuck46]

Count us in this crowd

We have some friends who winter at Myrtle Beach because it is very affordable at that time of year. Weather can vary from close to winter weather when they get a cold spell to "sweater" weather to shorts and t-shirt weather from what I understand.

We do exactly this, spending 3 months every winter in North Myrtle Beach. We don't have any rent expense per se since we are heavily into the Wyndham timeshare system, and stay at one of their resorts (our maintenance fees wouldn't help you with estimating your rent expenses). As for other expenses, we shop for groceries at Kroger's just like at home, so that is a wash. We also eat out about the same frequency as you, which is about the same as at home, so that is a wash. So while I am not giving you any cost specifics, zero in on your rent expense in a place like SC since your other costs will be about the same as at home.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Curious how you get these rentals? via travel agent or Airbnb?

Can you offer a couple of resort/gated community names? we are interested for the future.

Playa Royale in Puerto Vallarta. However there are many other complexes in the immediate area, on the beach. VRBO is a starting point. Once you have rented once in a complex, bypassing VRBO and dealing with owners directly, who post their unit availability, is the main method of securing next year units.

 

[LakeRat1]

When we retired we decided to rent a place in SWF for 3 months..... We found a very nice Park Model homes from 400 sqft to 800 sqft readily available. After searching, our decision was a 55+ RV park that is mostly park model homes. Rent ranged from $1500 to $2500 Per Month, Dec - April. Lots of activities that you can do as much or as little as you wish..... Pools, Outdoor Maintenance, Water, Trash all included...... Activities include quilting, potluck meet and greet dinners, bingo, cards, shuffle board, pickleball, etc...... We are 4 miles from Ft. Myers Beach, 3 miles from Sanibel, 1 mile from Bunch Beach...... Lots of bike riding, trolly bus on the beach...... We dine out one to three times per week, food costs are roughly the same as in the midwest...... After one season of renting, we purchased a unit in the same community, two years later we purchased a new larger unit...... We became full time residents spending, 7 months in FL, and 4 months at a condo we have in Missouri on Lake of the Ozarks ....... We chose Ft Myers because of the weather, water activities (joined a boat club), and beaches. We save several thousand dollars being a FL resident --- no state income tax, no personal property tax on vehicles / boats etc, and then no tax on fresh food, homestead saves on our real estate property tax...... Living in FL is cheaper than the midwest

 

[Kroeran]

Fort Myers starting at Daniels Corridor is south enough for great weather and full quality range of lifestyles without drifting down to higher costs of Bonita and beyond.

We are near a busy hospital up north and have sectioned off part of the house for Airbnb, which has a big impact on our numbers.

Consider moving to something that you can rent out in winter.

Our condo in Florida has enough rental demand in the summer to mitigate carrying costs. Invest in up to date simple and clean uncluttered 4 star decor, superior photos with attention to brightness, and be cheapest in the neighbourhood, to attract summer rentals.

Rule of thumb, try to pick up real estate at bottom of crises.

The drive to Florida is very hard work if you push past 6 hours of driving. We like Hilton Garden/Hampton Inn. I look 5-6 hours out and stay at cheapest of the two in a wide area. The H Garden Inn in house restaurant can be convenient if you want to crash and dine and drink. Hampton Inn has free breakfast.

We are third generation snowbirds, with each generation settling a further hour south. I think 30 minutes from a beach is close enough. South of Orlando is rule of thumb.

I recommend dialing up weighting on developing social connections by learning pickleball, tennis, golf etc. Sticking with one location in a gated recreationally oriented community connects you to owners and other repeat renters.

 

[Ebendana]

Flagler Beach

I am biased...grew up in Michigan, but have been in Florida since 1991...have lived in many parts, and as a Pharma rep have traveled the entire state inside and out...we moved to Flagler Beach 4 years ago, and LOVE IT...even though it is about 1 hour northeast of Orlando, the winter is still sunny and gets into the 70's during the day. (I swim year round) Flagler Beach has a small town feel to it, lots of great live music venues and places to eat. We purchased a new manufactured home in a 55+ community where we own the land, so no big time lot rent. About 30% of the folks are snowbirds...with this thread, I might just rent out my place next winter and go live in my RV...LOL! If anyone is looking for a super friendly community, walking distance to the beach and river, with a pool, fitness center and lots of activities where you can buy a place for about $150K, Check out Surfside Estates in Beverly Beach FL (and no, I'm not a realtor, just a very happy homeowner)

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Wow, a lot of good info in recent posts. Thank you!

 

[Global Wizzo]

FL Snowbirding

I’m not a snowbird, but live on the east coast of FL full time. Rental rules require the landlord to charge hotel taxes and fees for short term rentals. My dad rented his condo on the beach for a six month block in the winter. The rental rate for the Nov-Apr block was kept lower than the short term costs and the same couple rented it each year for several years.

Make a few trips to areas you might like and if you can find a similar opportunity, it may work better than trying to do shorter rentals.

Other things to consider would be buying a place and renting it during the summer months to vacationers. Some of the condo associations bar short term rentals.

If you buy, check out tax benefits of changing your residence.

We eat out a lot and travel extensively internationally and domestically as well. Eating in FL can be very inexpensive depending on your dining preferences or well over $100 for two. Just your desires.

Good luck and enjoy the next chapter

 

[cj1717]

I would suggest you double your expected budget to face reality.

 

[Markola]

I would suggest you double your expected budget to face reality.

What’s the point of making a budget that doesn’t fit reality?

 

[Diver]

Not recommending any particular chain or resort, as we all have different preferences. Just wanted to share specifics on wintering at AI resorts as a few folks requested. We spent 6 wks this year at a beachfront AI in Cozumel, Mexico end of Jan to beg of March (before we escaped to Portugal to ride out covid) for an average of $1,077/week for 2 adults all-in, which translates to about $4,300/mo. No flights included. Resort is Barcelo's Allegro Cozumel. It is not fancy, but the beach is beautiful, several pools, nice grounds & dive shop on site (extra, not incl in my figures). We loved the winter temps & lack of humidity (unlike summer). We booked 1 week at a time, as you can cancel like at a hotel in case we needed to cut it short for any reason, but you have free cancel option ONLY if you book directly with Barcelo. So we had six 1-week bookings ahead of time & just paid each week as we went (prices varied a bit each week Jan/Feb/March).

If you join mybarcelo on their booking website (free, just like joining Hilton or Hyatt hotel loyalty program) you can get a small discount, plus 5% discount for seniors (over 50, I think), plus often stackable 5% promo code if you search for one online. Also free wifi for mybarcelo bookings. They charge for wifi otherwise.(!) We are not timeshare owners & simply refuse to attend any presentation for such & they do not bother us again. It is a terrible "investment". Timeshare owners we met said they had to pay $40pp for AI part (unllmited food/bev) with no option to opt out, plus the annual "maintenance" fee which sounded to be ~$600/yr for 1 week, plus whatever buy-in payment they were talked into. We paid an average of $153/day all-in. Do the math, but I said nothing to the timeshare owners we met unless they asked what we paid. Just fyi, Barcelo has plenty of other properties you can see on their site. They have a price calendar for all (just don't enter dates) & they frequently have sales, at least precovid, lol.

This is just our experience with Barcelo & I suspect very similar options, sales & booking direct to save $ for lots of other large AI resort chains. BTW, we found that we got treated like gold by staff staying so long, lol. We had our choice of the days & times for the (free) premium restaurants the following week before the weekly turnovers every Saturday/Sunday. I am sure that is the same at any AI, as they are so used to all new ppl every week. We plan to do it again when we get to place where we need a long & carefree break after some intense nomadic travel, but that might take awhile, cause we are all on a LONG travel break right now!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I would suggest you double your expected budget to face reality.

What’s the point of making a budget that doesn’t fit reality?

I believe cj1717 was suggesting that my budget of ~$19k in additional expenses is woefully small. Well, that is the kind of information I was looking for when I asked for people to share their budgets. I would indeed like to have a realistic figure in my budget.

Please, go ahead and enlighten me, what am I missing? Others have said my housing budget of $2400/mo looked low. I will definitely take a harder look at that. What else?

Thanks.

 

[ivinsfan]

I believe cj1717 was suggesting that my budget of ~$19k in additional expenses is woefully small. Well, that is the kind of information I was looking for when I asked for people to share their budgets. I would indeed like to have a realistic figure in my budget.

Please, go ahead and enlighten me, what am I missing? Others have said my housing budget of $2400/mo looked low. I will definitely take a harder look at that. What else?

Thanks.

I don't know anything about the cost of a 5 month rental in Florida or the type of rental that would make you happy...but I will repeat my first comment, there is no doubt in my mind that 19K could give a very nice snowbird experience somewhere. Set your budget and maybe start to live with the idea that Florida costs become onerous you can snowbird in another location, or do an over budget Florida trip one year and a "cheaper" option next year.