Metropolitan Rural

We got back home from our vacation yesterday. The week in Florida renewed our desires to move some place warmer. Especially after returning to the frigid temperatures here in St. Louis. We went by the in-laws place yesterday evening to pick up the slew of animals we left over there for the week.

We talked with them a bit about their thoughts for the moment on retirement and moving. They waffle back and forth on when to retire and where to move, if at all. They, like us, like the idea of living somewhere warmer, but are torn because of all the great things that we would all miss about St. Louis. Besides friends, there is the wealth of culture and history here that is difficult to find most anywhere else.

When/If we decide to make that move in the next few years, it will definitely involve a LOT of research to find the right place to go. Work will likely require a larger city or buying a business in a smaller community, but with all the other stuff we want, I’m sure we’ll end up in a big city anyway.

I’ll gladly take any suggestions you have for a great place to live in the south!

As we were driving back from Tampa today to our condo in Orlando, we were talking some more about where we might like to move to down this way someday. We started listing out things that we want wherever we move. These aren’t in any particular order, but I’ll put some notes by the ones we have in St. Louis.

• It must have older homes (this is a great thing about St. Louis, we love older homes)
• Small Neighborhoods (another great thing St. Louis has going for it, who needs new urbanism when you have the real thing)
• Needs warm weather year round and within a day trip to the beach (what can I say, I need a place to golf)
• Near a major airport (St. Louis is pretty good as an airport, some of the other places we talked about are much further from one or only have one as a link to a larger airport)
• Needs a university and cultural events (St. Louis has a wealth of this, it’s amazing how these two things are linked together so well)

Notice 2 things that aren’t on our list that so many suburbanites put as top priority (Low Crime and Good Schools). We already live in the country’s most dangerous city, so we can’t get much worse. Since we home school we don’t have to worry much about schools, though home school laws for the state could have some affect.

Realistically, St. Louis holds up very well for what we want out of a city with the exception of weather and family. My parents are down here in Tampa and my wife has family down here also. Her parents are considering retiring down here in a few years as well. When all that happens, we will likely find a place in the Southeast as well. Thus, we are starting to think and do research on places down here so we will make the right decision.

I’ve been at my new job now for just over 3 months. I’m enjoying the different atmosphere and learning something new (always fun for me). I realized the other day there is something I’m missing…

MATH

Weird huh? I’ve been diagnosing numbers from production schedules, commodity prices, financial analysis and the like for 9 years now. This is the first job I’ve had that hasn’t required me to do math on a daily basis, and I miss it. I so enjoy the challenge of numbers. It makes me look forward to teaching my next Quantitative Analysis course starting next month.

I couldn’t help myself but laugh. My homepage has a link to the Quotes of the Day site. Today there was this wonderful quote. I just had to share:

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets
after them.
Bill Vaughan

It seems almost too true.

This past Sunday we drove up to Pere Marquette State Park just outside of Graffton, IL. We met the in-laws up there for Brunch at the lodge. The food wasn’t bad, but it was a gorgeous day for a drive along the river road.

The kid went with the Grandparents on the way back so they could cross on the ferry while we headed back home to get some cleaning done around the house in preparation for going on vacation. With a quiet car, the windows down and sailboats on the river I got to thinking.

Where should we really live?

My parents are living down in Tampa. My wife has a grandmother in Vero Beach, FL and one in Orangeburg, SC. She also has an uncle around Clemson, SC. My son’s real dad also lives down in Ft. Lauderdale as well. To top it all off, the in-laws are talking about retiring and moving to Vero Beach in the next few years as well.

So, where does that leave us? We are going on Vacation next week down to Orlando again (using our timeshare). To me that seems like a good location between Tampa and Vero Beach if we wanted to move down there some day. However, I also really liked our family reunion several years ago down in the Charleston area of SC. I liked that Charleston was also an older city and had the older homes that I really love.

Out of random curiosity, I typed, “where should I live” into Google (no quotes). I came up with these search results. The first site on the list is a place called Find Your Spot. They offer a pretty extensive quiz on your likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. to match you up to a city or small town. So, I took the time and went through all the steps. Guess what 2 cities topped my list?

Right, Orlando and Charleston. St. Louis wasn’t anywhere to be found, but I’m sure that’s because I don’t like snow and I want to live near a beach. Other than those two things, I really love St. Louis.

So, what cities do you come up with?

There’s another guy who recently started work in my department just a few weeks after myself. He’s probably in his early 50’s or so. Him and his wife are from the Atlanta area and have a typical suburban house about 30 minutes or so from downtown.

In taking this job, they are renting a loft condo downtown until they decide if they want to formally move (he’s a contractor like myself). I talked to him recently about how he like St. Louis and he is thrilled with the city. They are evidently making the transition to downtown living very well and don’t miss their suburban lifestyle at all.

I guess they would probably fall in the empty-nesters category which is a demographic that fits well for the loft lifestyle. It’s good to see someone from out of the area who is enjoying the revitalization of the city.

Okay, so here’s the final pics from replacing my fence. I still have to cut the posts down to size. I’ll also redo the front section to look like the side here in another month or so when I get back from vacation. The only other thing I might do is put on some post caps for a finishing touch.

Let me know how I did!

Saturday, I worked into the darkness with the help of the kid holding the flashlight trying to get my fence complete. Unfortunately, we were short just a few pickets of the whole thing. I reused the old ones and was hoping it would be enough.

So, Sunday morning was a quick trip to the hardware store for 4 pieces of wood and I was done within 20 minutes of getting set up at home. Of course, the rest of the day on Sunday was busy, so I didn’t get my final pictures yet. I’ll try and do that tonight so that I can post the final slide show of how it turned out.

Keep an eye out for later tonight or tomorrow for the results!

The state of Government, Politics and Society today has really been bugging me lately. I keep having these questions go through my mind:

SINCE WHEN….

• Is it the governments’ responsibility to educate my child?
• Is it the governments’ responsibility to pay my doctor for me?
• Is it the governments’ responsibility to pay me to not work or retire?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I think we should do away with public schools, medicare, social security or the like. I just get so frustrated listening to politcians and media types arguing over this stuff. Sure, I appreciated the unemployment checks I got when I was between job, it really came in handy and got us through a tough spot a few years back.I struggle though with the sense of “entitlement” people seem to have.

Just because your child is in school doesn’t mean it’s the teacher’s job to make sure your child grows up well. For hundreds and thousands of years people learned without public schools. Our public schools are sorely failing our kids these days while our universities continue to be some of the best in the world. Learning starts at home and NO teacher or administrator can make up for a lack of parental involvment and committment. Remember the day when you dreaded taking a note home from school because you’d be in even more trouble at home? Now, when children bring home notes, the parent is upset with the school!

How many years did people survive in this world without medical insurance? Why do we seem to think everyone has to have it when not more than 100 years ago it didn’t even exist? Yes, healthcare is expensive. Partly because doctors have to deal with insurance companies for payments and lawyers for malpractice. Give them a break and it won’t be nearly the price it is now. If you are a productive member of society, then you should have some sort of coverage. But I don’t want my money going to those who do nothing. Universal healthcare for this country scares me. It will be more expensive than you can imagine. The more medical services we require, the more expensive it gets.

Why again do we need social security? What did people do at retirement age for all those millenia before it was instituted? Right, you either continued to work or you saved your money yourself so you wouldn’t have to work. Why does the government have to save my money for me (not that it’s actually saving, it’s really just transferring for the current workers to the current retirees)?

There is one thing, and one thing only, that you have responsibility for in this life. It’s yourself! You CHOOSE…

• To get yourself in too much debt
• To have a child to raise
• To not get more education to better your career chances

I found this book on Amazon, was highly recommended, and borrowed it from the library. It’s called “Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate.” I’m about halfway through the book by now and it’s vaguely interesting.

The author, Jay DeCima, instructs you to buy run down, ugly rental properties, fix them up some, and keep them rented for years. At first I thought it was refreshing to see a perspective that wasn’t about buy it cheap, pay nothing down, put paint on it and sell it for big profits. But then I got further into the book. He talks a lot about how to finance these deals and assuming mortgages and seller financing.

I’ve never noticed too many properties out there that have assumable mortgages or that many owners willing to finance (though that may be a little up now a days with the poor market). So, I have a few questions for my readers (hopefully a few of you will answer).

Are there really assumable mortgages out there any more?

Do you have any recommended reading on rehabbing and managing properties?