I would build the biggest & best pier the world has ever seen & then not allow anyone to fish off of it or near it! Bronze Whaler's Surfing Pier: NO FISHING ALLOWED
Good Plan I think Yankee has the most realistic look on things. 5 mil just ain't enough money to spend whatever you want and make it last. (Ask Mike Tyson or any number of pro athletes who are bankrupt!) My plan is to check out in 7 years(58 yo) My condo at VB paid off. Own outright my modest house in Nicaraqua. 1.5-1.8 liquid. 8 months living modestly in Nica a year. 4 in VB. No car payment. No house payment. Figuring inflation that wil last me until I'm 85 or so, I've got two goals for when I retire. I am not going to own any socks and that the last check I write before I die bounces!
id take a mil and buy a used 70' sailing yacht from some bankrupt c.e.o. and spend the other 4 mil living the f**k out of life!!! On that note, im going to pick up some lotto tickets on the way home.
YANKEE i love that quote.... but iv heard it as "if it floats, f*cks, or flies, its better to rent than buy"
Oh hell to the yeah ! Any way that it's said, Lee, that's the gospel truth right there ! Esp renting the beaver....once a guy figures out that all he's doing is renting it, whether it's pro or non-pro, marry it or date it, once you know the over-under on beaver, the financial mystery is eliminated from that thing...some guys never figure it out though... You're only rentin' that thang ! Another one of my faves, not that it has anything to do with anything, is: "Behind every gorgeous woman is a man who's tired of screwing her." oh yeah
And another thing And no matter how good looking she is, somebody, somewhere is tired of her $**t !!!!!!!!
Study after study after study on happiness and well being find that people are happiest when they're close to their family. So I'd stay here. But with my five mil, I'd take some serious trips, maybe buy a small place in Colombia, where my wife's family is from and a place, I believe, is one of the last great unexplored surf regions (for damn good reason) I'd finally have some hope of putting my kids through college.
I was thinking also if I rented out my current house if would pull a profit cause I woudl pay it off with some of the 5 mil aswell. Also I could buy a duplex in Wildwood and rent out the other half to someone for the whole summer or line up people to rent through out the summer
WOW! This thread really took a different turn from what I thought it would. I didn't expect guys to say how they'd spend the money but I figured they would talk about if they would stay on the EC.
Ha! Amazing! I dig your style. As for the main question, financial discussions aside, I'd stay in the MD. Like Zack said, if you're somewhere with great surf year round and still miss Maryland, then it's probably where you want to be. I remember the Hawaii days, sitting around at night chatting with my roommates (all from CA or HI) and telling them how much the East Coast would suck 90% of the time...but that other 10% BELIEVE YOU ME, try finding waves like 26th St Hurricane Earl uncrowded in San Diego...it could happen, but even if it did, I'd still rather have that day back home. 3 blocks bed-to-beach, 6-8 people in the lineup (and you know most of them), hang out with family in the afternoon...maybe it is me getting old, but that stuff's what makes life special. It might take living abroad for a few years to understand because, 6 years ago, I would have disagreed. Besides, I can always travel to the North Shore for 12-14 days and be pretty much guaranteed at least a few great sessions. Even this last time I got "skunked" in my opinion and still got overhead waves for over half the trip.
Concur Concur. It's starting to sound like Samir's answer to the "million dollar question" in Office Space! That's cool and all...I'm just a lot more interested in the original topic.
Im not real estate guru, but I have been watching real estate for the past 8 years back east on the coast line, and OC MD is the #1 most over priced housing market. For a place that has ZERO year round economy, it AMAZES me that you can't get a shoebox over there for under 200k. Ocean pines is the most affordable area (5 miles away from the beach) but its still over priced... And man, I have almost NEVER seen anything for a first time buyer on teh entire DE coast. I thought OC MD was bad until I looked around up in DE. There is NADA up there for sale under 300k... Point being, I can get a Condo i San Diego, 5 blocks from the beach for 200K. There is a sick unit right across the street from me where I live now... Its just crazy that OC MD prices rival that of the SoCal housing market. I mean, everyone back east has this impression that coastal CA is soooo expensive, when really, there are deals all over every nook and cranny around... You can have a single family home in Oside for less than 200k. I mean, its a paradigm that everyone has back east... The only place I can find affordable housing back east is like Atlantic City/Margate or down in Virginia Beach... Its crazy... Now that Im married, we are planning our family etc, and really would like to move back to the beach in MD/DE/VA... But there are no jobs in OC and the real estate is ridiculous. We already have great high paying jobs on the west coast, so the mid-atlantic area is making it really f***ing difficult to come back to.
Of course in VA Beach, the other variables make it undesirable...the soul-crushing traffic jams every day of the week, the suburban sprawl that makes it near-impossible to get anywhere without a car ride, and the fact that you STILL need to drive at least an hour for decent surf. Honestly, I'm almost as happy now living in Annapolis because it's a slightly shorter drive to OC (and without the $12 bridge-tunnel), where I know the waves will be decent if there's swell as opposed to half the size and mushy down VA. I suppose that's the trade-off. In the end, I agree that it's far less expensive to set up a good surf situation in SoCal. I'd just rather be in MD.
maybe oahu if i won $5 million, but i wanna do that later on. i feel i am where i'm meant to be for now. in 07 i was prepared to buy my uncles house in ormond beach when he died from his son. i offered him more than market value, and threw the point across that he wouldn't have to pay a real estate comission, but he said we should put it behind us, and move on. the house was originally built for our grandparents in 58, and us, and both our dads enjoyed summers at the house, and have fond memories. ormond beach doesn't have spectacular surf though. in 08 i was in talks with the girl i was with at the time to move down to jacksonville florida with her. she left me before we got to, and now i'm fine with that. i love florida. my mom, grandparents, and all my siblings, and even one of my best friends live in the st petersburg area, and another good friend is moving down there in the new year. my best friends parents who i am very close with live in venice florida, but no surf there on a nearly regular basis. have seen the gulf look good though. no interest in moving to florida. no interest in san diego either or california. different kind of life for me. i like nicaragua. went there last november as well as el salvador, costa rica, and puerto escondido mexico. i love puerto escondido, but don't know if i would love there. same with nicaragua. i got my mind set on oahu. i'm aiming for there sometime in the next 15-20 years lottery or not.
Actually, it's not all that crazy that prices in the east rival the west (coastal regions). Supply & demand. The east coast coastal region has millions more inhabitants than the Cal coastal regions. Meaning, not located only on the coast. If you drive inland from San Diego & it's, what, mountains & arid land & trailer parks & pot growers in the desert. Go inland 100 to 200 miles from much of the coastline of Cal & it's pretty wide open & sparsely populated. Conversely, you journey inland from the east coast & pow, you hit huge congested metropolis regions. Philly is 1.6 million. NYC is 8 million. DC is 3 million. Throw in all the packed 'burbs & crowded exurbs & the 'smaller' cities. The pop of the megalopolis is over 60 million people. The total pop in Cali is 37 mil. Just sayin'....it's a human numbers game. For example, it's common for many folks from Pittsburgh to drive to the coast for the weekend. Shoot, man, that's a 500 mile drive to the coast (VB). I saw more PA & NY license plates in the OBX this year than ever before. People are getting priced out of their 'home' areas, so they journey to the beach & buy property there & the result is higher prices. Larger numbers of people in the megalopolis from Boston to DC results in more demand for everything & thus higher prices in real estate. Just adding a bit to your observations.
You got it: if you buy it, it has to earn you money. Positive cash flow is the way & the truth. This is the cardinal rule that I forgot with my ex-wife...
I need somewhere in the order of 2-3 mil to call it quits. Jersey house would be paid off, as would my second homes in Costa Rica and the coast of Spain. Since I would only be using the second homes for certain portions of the year, I would rent them out. This would pay for the upkeep and put about $9-10 grand (for each house) in my pocket. I would also pay off the boat and get another $5-10 grand in my pocket from charters...not to mention selling any of MY catches. I'd invest the remaining $1-1.5 mil in misc stocks, bonds, etc. and EASILY get a 4% return. This would net me about $70G a year. Of this, about half would be from cash or overseas transactions that may not make it to my tax returns. Not to mention the tax benfits from business expenses of the charter boat. And if I claim that as my "Job" I may be eligible to get $$ from the Govt'. (ie welfare). When you essentially have no bills, one can easily nd comfortably live off $70G a year. Keep in mind the above numbers are conservative and will probably be a bit higher.
Just Wondering Might you share your reason with an interested Nica land owner? Unless, of course, it was personal financial reasons, in which case it's none of my business. I hope you didn't take too much of a hit. Prices there, as in the states, have dropped precipitously.
