Every week, someone in their late fifties or early sixties runs napkin math on a legal pad: sell the northern house, buy in The Villages, live on Social Security and a portfolio, spend days on a golf cart. The brochure version is seductive. Then people move in and discover the budget was missing three or four line items nobody in the sales center mentioned. This piece is for the reader running that math right now, who wants to know the real annual number before signing a purchase contract.
The Real Budget Runs Well Above the Base
Start with Florida itself. The state’s cost of living sits at 103.4 against a national baseline of 100, so the “cheap Florida” framing is softer than most retirees expect. Sumter County runs above the state average once you price in the community’s fee structure. A reasonable working budget for a couple in a modest patio villa, before hidden items, looks like this in current dollars:
- Housing (property tax, homeowners and windstorm insurance, utilities, maintenance reserve): $14,000
- Food at home and dining out: $12,000
- Healthcare premiums, supplements, out of pocket: $10,000
- Transportation including a second vehicle and gas: $6,000
- Recreation, travel, gifts, personal: $8,000
- Miscellaneous reserves and federal income tax on withdrawals: $6,000
That is roughly $56,000 a year for a couple living comfortably but not lavishly. Now add the items The Villages specifically imposes.
The Line Items Nobody Puts in the Sales Brochure
The bond assessment is the first surprise. New homes carry an infrastructure bond, commonly in the $20,000 to $45,000 range depending on section and home type, either paid at closing or amortized over roughly 30 years at a fixed rate that runs several hundred dollars a year on top of taxes.
The monthly amenity fee adds another layer, currently around $200 a month for most residents and contractually indexed to CPI. With CPI running at 332.568 in June 2026 versus 322.169 a year earlier, that fee has been climbing every year. Then there is the Community Development District maintenance assessment, another few hundred to a thousand annually depending on district.
A golf cart is essential. A new gas or lithium cart runs $15,000 to $25,000, with insurance and battery replacement recurring, and most households eventually own two. Homeowners insurance in Florida has become its own budget category; wind, flood where applicable, and sinkhole riders in Sumter County push a modest home’s coverage well past what a similar house costs to insure in Georgia or the Carolinas. Add all of that in and the $56,000 budget becomes closer to $68,000 to $72,000.
The Portfolio Math
Assume a couple both claiming Social Security near full retirement age at roughly the current average, which lands household benefits around $46,000 a year after the 2.8% 2026 COLA. Against a $70,000 annual spend, the gap is about $24,000. At a 4% withdrawal rate that is a $600,000 portfolio target. At a more conservative 3.5% rate, which is appropriate for a 30-year horizon with rising fee escalators, it is closer to $685,000.
Medicare is a fixed cost you can lock in. The standard 2026 Part B premium is $202.90 per month with a $283 annual deductible, and a Medigap plus Part D combination typically adds $200 to $300 monthly per person. That is the $10,000 healthcare line, and it grows faster than CPI.
The Resale Problem Most Budgets Ignore
The Villages sells briskly on the way in, but the exit market is different. Existing home sales nationally are running at 4.09 million annualized in June 2026, which the interpretation guide classifies as a soft market. Inside a large age-restricted community, resale competition is concentrated: when one spouse’s health forces a move to assisted living, your home is listed against hundreds of near-identical floor plans built by the same developer, many with fresh incentives. The bond balance transfers with the home and reduces what buyers will pay for it. Florida’s number four overall tax ranking and no personal income tax help the carrying cost while you live there, though the resale market remains illiquid when you need to exit.
Plan the exit before you plan the entrance. Keep six to twelve months of expenses in cash outside the portfolio specifically to bridge a slow sale, and do not sink so much of your net worth into the house that a discounted exit forces a lifestyle downgrade elsewhere.
What It Actually Takes
For a couple, plan on roughly $70,000 a year in current dollars, two Social Security checks bringing in about $46,000 combined, and an invested portfolio of $650,000 to $700,000 drawn at 3.5%, with a cash reserve outside that portfolio to absorb the bond, the escalating amenity fee, and a resale that may take longer than the brochure suggests. Everything else is texture. Miss the reserve and the golf carts stop being fun.
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