For years after Rob Morris bought a condominium in West Palm Beach, Florida, so his wife could play golf year-round, he was what he calls a snowflake. \u201cA snowflake is someone who just drops in,\u201d he says.\u00a0\ufeff<\/p>\n
The 75-year-old tax attorney and partner at Pullman and Comley in Bridgeport, Connecticut, could rarely get away from work to make the trip to their second home in the Sunshine State. Even after the couple upgraded to a three-bedroom house in 2018 to have more room to accommodate their three grandchildren when they visited, Morris still didn\u2019t fully commit to life as a snowbird.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the early 2020s that he started going to Florida for longer and longer stretches to escape the cold. \ufeff<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was the first year I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not going back to Connecticut in the winter,\u2019\u2009\u2009\u201d Morris says. \u201cNow, I really am in Florida for six months of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many communities in Florida and other Southern states have no shortage of snowbirds like Morris and his wife. But it\u2019s easy to make financial missteps along the way \u2014 from underestimating costs to overlooking car insurance coverage<\/a> when buying a second home in a different state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Planning to become a snowbird? Here are nine steps to help ensure a smooth migration.<\/p>\n 1. Make sure buying a second home makes financial sense<\/p>\n Not everyone is in a position to purchase a second home. Eric Croak, a certified financial planner and president of Croak Capital in Toledo, Ohio, says monthly housing expenses for your primary residence and second home combined should not exceed 35 percent of your monthly income.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s more, you\u2019re grasping at a lifestyle that\u2019s not sustainable,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n If having a place in a warm locale is a priority but you aren\u2019t sure whether it fits into your budget<\/a>, consider making some trade-offs, says Jeff Levine, chief planning officer at Focus Partners Wealth in St. Louis. \ufeff<\/p>\n For example, consider committing to selling the second home after a decade or so to help fund your retirement in your later years, when traveling may become more challenging. Or downsize your primary residence to free up cash that you can put toward a second home.<\/p>\n 2. Weigh payment options carefully<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have enough cash on hand to cover the purchase of a second home, think carefully before selling assets or tapping your retirement accounts.<\/p>\n Selling investments or making a large withdrawal from a retirement account could trigger a big tax bill<\/a>. You could be better off taking out a mortgage to buy a second home and deducting the mortgage interest on your tax return, Levine says.<\/p>\n Consider working with a financial adviser who can help you compare options and determine the right homebuying payment strategy for you.<\/p>\n 3. Factor lifestyle into your decision<\/p>\n When you become a snowbird, you\u2019re not just buying a second home \u2014 you\u2019re buying a lifestyle, says Jeff Lichtenstein, owner of Echo Fine Properties, a real estate brokerage in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. It\u2019s essential to determine how you want to spend your days, because that will determine where you want to buy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Is access to water for fishing or boating a requirement, or do you prefer the dry heat of the desert? Are you looking for a 55-plus community<\/a> with lots of amenities and opportunities for socializing? Is a golf course a must<\/a>? Do you want to be close to the grandkids, or do you want your place in the sun to be an incentive for them to visit you? These are the kinds of questions to consider.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years after Rob Morris bought a condominium in West Palm Beach, Florida, so his wife could play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,176410,147,530,176408,176413,176411,176409,176412],"class_list":{"0":"post-355586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-hidden-costs-for-snowbirds","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-snowbird-finances","13":"tag-snowbird-on-a-budget","14":"tag-tips-for-retirees","15":"tag-tips-for-snowbirds","16":"tag-tips-for-soon-to-be-snowbirds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}