Posted on 07/13/2020 9:31:37 PM PDT by SquarePants
Dateline- New Hampshire. The last few years my kids and my wife and I have had a really amazing experience living in Manhattan. The restaurants, the shows, the culture were more than just wallpaper for us. We actively tried to engage in them and had the time of our lives. We were truly blessed to be able to share with our kids experiences that most people outside of NYC don’t get. The growing up experiences that the “insiders” get. Like 8th grade graduation at Columbia University or music day at the Lincoln Center or art appreciation at there Met. It’s a special place to us. That’s why it’s so hard to say I may never live there again.
On March 14 we packed up our car on Central Park West and headed uptown and out of town. We were planning on three days to go to New Hampshire and see a vacation home we had interest in and drop off our daughter back at school. We were coming back on the 18th off March to our really well planned life. I was going to work another two years, and then the next two to four years we would enjoy the city with all the kids in college. All of this would be financed generously by the vacation rental of this home we were thinking of buying. Frankly we needed to replace the Miami home we had recently sold. So off we went for a 3-4 day trip.
Well, four months later we are still here, living in what turned out to be our dream home and if I’m being honest, loving it. New Hampshire has no income tax, lower property taxes than there home in Florida we sold to buy this, and zero sales tax. A fact you will notice if you decide to purchase a firearm. Did I mention New Hampshire is a constitutional carry state? The daily hiking, swimming, kayaking, floating, atv-ing, fishing, and exploring are well worth the trouble of the telecommute. And constitutional carry helps keep my telecommute secure.
Right now I’m starting to wonder how long I’m going to be willing to pay for our apartment in the city. An apartment in a city that seems to be falling apart and eating itself. A NYC where dozens of people are getting shot every day but no citizen is allowed to own a gun for self protection. Oh and the cops? Yeah. Pandemic aside, the public structures that held NYC together seem to be under attack. For generations NYC has been the place in America that’s perhaps closest to the razor’s edge of (I’m going to put a blank here so I don’t say something about a third world crap hole that anyone would call racist like Calcutta or Paris or Chicago or something). At any rate it feels like the problems facing New York might make it a war zone, culturally if not literally. Heck maybe it already was and I didn’t notice. Hm.
I think I may have been born a Live Free or Die guy, but I only recently am discovering it. As a native of the Deepest South, I had no idea how awesome it could be up here. We can do an outdoor adventure every week for years before we would run out of things to do from hikes to swimming holes to white water rafting to kayaking to fishing and shooting and climbing and camping and on and on. I’ve always enjoyed that stuff, but doing it in 70 degree weather... I almost don’t miss the biscuits.
Oh yeah my electric bill this month was like $120. No A/C needed in the White Mountains. How could I not be considering staying permanently? Live Free or Die!
Let’s hope he left his crappy NYC politics behind him.
NH doesn’t need any of that to stay the way he loves it.
Correction.....
Let’s hope you left your crappy NYC politics behind him.
NH doesn’t need any of that to stay the way you love it.
The justice system in NH is hopelessly corrupt.
How are the black flies?
And if your property taxes are considered “low” you must have been paying through the rear end before. NH property taxes are notoriously high. The local taxes more than made up for the income tax, but if you are on a fixed income you would have a difficult time keeping up.
But, it is pretty up north. Winter will set in sometime around Labor Day.
“Winter is coming”
“Black flies. You forgot black flies.”
Yes, the Black Flies ... they should be our state “bird”.
Hate those things immensely.
I’m firmly convinced a person needs two homes, one in the south for winter and one in somewhere like New Hampshire for summer. Make your permanent residence the one that offers the best tax benefits for your situation.
There are fewer and fewer places in the U.S. I’m willing to set foot in much less live in. I’m 52 and have travelled for a living my entire working life (airline pilot), I’ve been pretty much everywhere and have a good feel for where I want to be and where I don’t. I’m from Mississippi and I’d live in New Hampshire. New York could fall into the ocean and I wouldn’t even yawn.
We moved here in 86. We go back and forth to visit family but no amount of money would convince me to move back to NY and stay. New Hampshire has it’s faults, but there’s no place like home. We’re the “Big Green House” and as they say if you go past her, you’ve gone too far.
I'd ABSOLUTELY LOVE to test 8th graders against 4-year Grads of Columbia University! While not thinking that the 8th graders would beat them BUT when you add the COSTS OF 4 YEARS at CU, hmmm!
Here on the Florida Gulf Coast (actually all of Florida), we refer to such people as 'snowbirds', coming down from the northern tier of states and Canada, starting around November and leaving around April and May. Without them we would never have had our NHL Teams (Lord Stanley needs a tan)!
By June you start to realize why Florida was a small population state before Air Conditioning became inexpensive. It is called A/C because it is not just the temperature, it is the HUMIDITY that wilts and is made livable by the same. There is a reason why A/C repair companies have 24/7/365 service down here!
I remember going to Asheville NC one August for a military reunion from here in Florida. I knew it would be nice but we were reveling in it while the locals were bitterly complaining of the oppressive heat wave. Perspective!
I met a pilot one summer around 12 years ago at a tiny bar in the middle of the Green Mountains of Vermont.
He flew international for Lufthansa and was on vacation.
While sitting at the small bar i asked him that since you have been everywhere why pick the Green Mountains of all places for a vacation.
His reply was well yea i have been all over the world but i really don’t know of a more beautiful, peaceful place than where i am sitting at right now.
As far as i know he was right..
but yea New Hampshire is pretty nice too..
That reminds me of vacationing in Florida.
I’m from MA and this has happened more than once for me but i remember one time being in one of those outdoor bars on Miami Beach in February...it was like 70 degrees and i was in heaven....BUT the locals were complaining and freezing their butts off.
I was like wtf?
lol
That sounds like Alaska’s “Spring Breakup” period. Oy!
Yeah, hailing from NY, 70 is t-shirt and shorts weather.
I LOVE the Gulf beaches in FL but circumstances do not permit us to head back for a vacation any time soon.
It’s certainly NOT going to happen before the election. I plan on being hunkered down and well prepped by the time Oct rolls around and avoid the chaos and upheaval I see coming whoever wins.
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