Retirement

[homer]

Make sure access to healthcare is a top priority no matter where you go. Even in the US the quality and access can vary wildly state to state. 

[LouisEly]

5 minutes ago, nate82 said:

The popular place right now is Portugal. 

Minimum $400E property purchase (low-density area, otherwise $500E).  $350E if in an "urban rehabilitation area" - i.e. a fixer-upper in a slum.  And can't be on the coast - has to be inland.

[nate82]

Just now, LouisEly said:

Minimum $400E property purchase (low-density area, otherwise $500E).  $350E if in an "urban rehabilitation area" - i.e. a fixer-upper in a slum.  And can't be on the coast - has to be inland.

It is just one of the popular options right now.  I wouldn't do Portugal as other countries are far better IMHO. 

[GAME05]

What's been on my mind a lot lately and ultimately what I have to figure out before "What country" or even "What part of the US" is whether being close to a brother and a couple cousins is worth the downsides of weather I don't like and a low-middle-class standard of living. I feel it's the same even moving within the US since the separation is still there. And obviously nobody else could ever answer that but me. I asked my boss who is also moving away and he had no issue since he'd be regularly flying back to visit. And I'm sure I would, too.

Iran or Russia doesn't concern me much at all with Georgia, though. Granted I wouldn't be doing any vacationing in its neighboring countries.

[homer]

2 hours ago, GAME05 said:

What's been on my mind a lot lately and ultimately what I have to figure out before "What country" or even "What part of the US" is whether being close to a brother and a couple cousins is worth the downsides of weather I don't like and a low-middle-class standard of living. I feel it's the same even moving within the US since the separation is still there. And obviously nobody else could ever answer that but me. I asked my boss who is also moving away and he had no issue since he'd be regularly flying back to visit. And I'm sure I would, too.

Iran or Russia doesn't concern me much at all with Georgia, though. Granted I wouldn't be doing any vacationing in its neighboring countries.

To each their own obviously but community is vastly underrated, IMO. Can you live like a snowbird? Stay in WI during the summer and move elsewhere in the winter? RV? Airstream?

[GAME05]

31 minutes ago, homer said:

To each their own obviously but community is vastly underrated, IMO. Can you live like a snowbird? Stay in WI during the summer and move elsewhere in the winter? RV? Airstream?

I couldn't agree more, which is why I'll end up thinking about it for a long while yet. And not that I couldn't make friends elsewhere, but still friends are friends but family is family. Plus I could certainly try Wisconsin for a while first without making any big financial commitment to it or anything.

RVing feels like the same thing in just being gone for good stretches of time. I could conceivably come back from wherever I am and stay with each sibling for a month or so.

A cousin of mine is in Puerto Rico now but hates it and will be moving back home to Texas. He said Wisconsin would probably suit me better. And I'll bring it up at Thanksgiving, too. I've certainly got a lot of time and am certainly not at the point I'm racing out to learn Georgian yet.

[CheezWizHed]

Prague has always been a bit of a fantasy... but Argentina might be lovely. 

[homer]

On 11/10/2023 at 9:00 PM, CheezWizHed said:

Prague has always been a bit of a fantasy... but Argentina might be lovely. 

Might want to see how the next presidential election turns out. The frontrunner consults with his dogs:

Quote

The 53-year-old economist paid a reported $50,000 to clone his original dog Conan, which he adopted in 2004 and died in 2017. He told local media that Conan was one of his closest friends and confidants, who always stood by him.

After Conan's death, Milei sent the dog's DNA sample to animal cloning firm PerPETuate, which has written publicly about cloning Milei's dogs on its company website.

Through a medium, Milei's original dog, he alleges, gave him the mission of becoming Argentina's president, which he could - against the odds - pull off today or next month.

 

 

[GAME05]

The bolded part was initially shrunk down, so I thought "What's wrong with any of that?" But then I expanded the post and read the bolded part. Cripes. Still might be worth it for how good I assume Argentinian beef to be, though.

[Fear The Chorizo]

For as much as I've heard about people relishing the chance to retire abroad, more often than not unless money is no object, those people find themselves right back in the U.S. after realizing perceived greener pastures elsewhere come with their own varying types of suck - most of which make them worse places to live than America.  The US has a place for just about anyone to love retiring to - you just have to know what you love and be openminded on where you'd need to move within the states to have it.

 

 

[LouisEly]

On 11/10/2023 at 11:34 AM, GAME05 said:

Iran or Russia doesn't concern me much at all with Georgia, though.

Russia already controls 20% of Georgia territory.  There's a reason why it's cheap - Europeans aren't unaware of Georgia.  There's plenty of money in Europe to buy property; if there's a place that's cheap, there's a reason why.

[GAME05]

At first I thought I had to be vague about it since his first assignment required armed escorts everywhere he went, but now I see it's on his Linkedin, so I guess I'm ok:)  A relative of mine is a high-up with the State Department including having served in Georgia. I haven't asked him about the current situation, but as time gets closer he'll certainly be in the know as far as safety and living conditions and the like in Georgia or anywhere else I might be considering going.

[madbad2000]

17 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

For as much as I've heard about people relishing the chance to retire abroad, more often than not unless money is no object, those people find themselves right back in the U.S. after realizing perceived greener pastures elsewhere come with their own varying types of suck - most of which make them worse places to live than America.  The US has a place for just about anyone to love retiring to - you just have to know what you love and be openminded on where you'd need to move within the states to have it.

 

 

I think there are two types that retire abroad.  Those that planned it out and prepared and those that dreamed.  Visiting a place on vacation does not usually give you the feeling of how it's like to live in a place on the day-to-day.  I've known quite a few that did their research, visited for long periods of time and then prepared either by buying property and/or getting everything setup before arrival.  Those are the people that stick it out.  I've also known the early retirees that take off and basically move to a location like it's vacation.  Those are the ones that quickly get homesick because they soon realize the comforts they don't have and/or ease of finding their niche.  If you're going to go abroad, research and prepare to include long stays living in that locale.   Don't just pickup and move to a place because it's the new hot spot. 

[GAME05]

Even after long-term visits you still take a bit of a leap. A cousin has lived in Puerto Rico a couple years and he's gone from "love it" to "good and bad" to now "I hate it here." Or situations, particularly in non-Western countries can change quickly. Ecuador is a popular expat country, but apparently the crime has gotten a lot worse and a lot of expats are moving away because of it.

And there's certainly tradeoffs to make even staying in the US. "Familiar culture" is a big thing even moving within the US. One thing I'm trying to start doing is figuring out just where those tradeoffs rank and what those priorities are.

[CheezWizHed]

On 11/13/2023 at 11:53 AM, homer said:

Might want to see how the next presidential election turns out. The frontrunner consults with his dogs:

 

Still not worse than our recent options. And to avoid being political... I'm including both sides of the aisle. Wish I could put that in blue... 😖

[GAME05]

We have a couple different income streams when we retire. Last week the boss was calculating them out and accidentally used the 1.83% pension number for his 0.83% special supplement, and for two hours until I came into work he was all excited to retire tomorrow.

edit to Tbilisi: Georgia doesn't allow second citizenships, so it's out. Not gonna renounce my US citizenship and give up social security payments nor would want to give up the possibility of moving back home permanently. They're a candidate State to the EU which I assume would change citizenship laws, but I've read they're unlikely to be accepted.

Crete (Greek island to the south of the mainland) is a new Top 3. Good bit pricier, though. About $250/sq. ft. Okay golf course. But views of the very blue water and the food look pretty fantastic. I understand the island of Corfu is like that but greener, but haven't looked at that yet. And they just upped their citizenship-by-investment to $400,000. Another option exists which is basically just like the US citizenship test, but of course conducted in Greek. Still searching the map for the island of Mepos (yeah, I know it doesn't exist). America or burst!

Possibly my new #1 choice (I still have 8+ years to change my mind) is Bulgaria. One of the prettiest golf courses in the world at Thracian Cliffs on the Black Sea. About $160/sq. ft. for a place at the resort is cheapest yet. $312,000 residence-by-investment. May have to jump to the Christian Orthodox denomination, though, which I'm not super thrilled about.

edit: With Bulgaria I think I'm weighting the golf too heavily. Housing there certainly looks like an ex-communist designed it and it doesn't look so permanent-resident-friendly. Crete seems better even if the golf isn't. The investment minimum will be tough, though. Other option to residency is language fluency, which I'm not too optimistic about.

[pitchleague]

Funny that this topic picked up this week.  My wife has officially retired from our school district, effective Friday.   However, she’s doing a year of the “double dipping” before being done for good at age 55 next May.

yesterday, I spent a good amount of time with calculators and my own calculations to see how well we can retire comfortably together when it’s my time to leave the teaching profession (probably in three years.).  I was losing some sleep trying to do math in my head regarding insurance and pension incomes, among other things.

Thankfully, every calculator (and my own numbers) say that we are right on track and doing well to live comfortably.  It sure doesn’t seem like it, though.

I never gave a thought to moving overseas, though.

 

 

 

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Moving overseas and even vacationing overseas for an extended amount, I think the limit is 90 days will make one ineligible for Medicare. I don't know the exact number, but a cousin of mine travels quite often for a substantial amount of time. 

[GAME05]

You might be thinking Medicare Advantage and the prescription drug plan, which you're ineligible for if you move away. You can get back on it if you move back, but there's a waiting period between signing up and actually getting it.

You can still sign up for and keep A and/or B since you don't lose your US citizenship with a new passport, though it's not going to cover you for anything outside the US. Whether a person chooses to keep any premium-paying portions of it usually depends on how often the person thinks they'll be back in the US. 

From what I've seen the median price for international health care plans is $500/mo. 

[stoutdude04]

On 4/22/2023 at 4:37 PM, PlayerHader said:

Any non-teachers on Brewerfan? Lol

I’m 38. Making it another 17+! Years feels daunting. I like working with kids. Teaching high school English is challenging, though. And there’s more pressure to get kids to perform on tests (that mean nothing to them) each year.

It sounds insane, but I’ve been considering a change in content or even adding an admin license. I’m even considering SPED.

39 here and finishing up year 15.  I teach 3rd grade and overall it is still enjoyable.  I am at that age where students are still excited(or at least fine) with school, but you can still talk to them and goof around. Though, all of the paperwork and extra stuff is starting to grind my gears.

[CheezWizHed]

On 5/25/2024 at 10:01 PM, GAME05 said:

We have a couple different income streams when we retire. Last week the boss was calculating them out and accidentally used the 1.83% pension number for his 0.83% special supplement, and for two hours until I came into work he was all excited to retire tomorrow.

edit to Tbilisi: Georgia doesn't allow second citizenships, so it's out. Not gonna renounce my US citizenship and give up social security payments nor would want to give up the possibility of moving back home permanently. They're a candidate State to the EU which I assume would change citizenship laws, but I've read they're unlikely to be accepted.

Crete (Greek island to the south of the mainland) is a new Top 3. Good bit pricier, though. About $250/sq. ft. Okay golf course. But views of the very blue water and the food look pretty fantastic. I understand the island of Corfu is like that but greener, but haven't looked at that yet. And they just upped their citizenship-by-investment to $400,000. Another option exists which is basically just like the US citizenship test, but of course conducted in Greek. Still searching the map for the island of Mepos (yeah, I know it doesn't exist). America or burst!

Possibly my new #1 choice (I still have 8+ years to change my mind) is Bulgaria. One of the prettiest golf courses in the world at Thracian Cliffs on the Black Sea. About $160/sq. ft. for a place at the resort is cheapest yet. $312,000 residence-by-investment. May have to jump to the Christian Orthodox denomination, though, which I'm not super thrilled about.

edit: With Bulgaria I think I'm weighting the golf too heavily. Housing there certainly looks like an ex-communist designed it and it doesn't look so permanent-resident-friendly. Crete seems better even if the golf isn't. The investment minimum will be tough, though. Other option to residency is language fluency, which I'm not too optimistic about.

I've adopted two children out of Bulgaria and it wouldn't be my top choice.  Sofia is a pretty modern city and we enjoyed staying there, but I have no interest in living in a city long term.  The Black Sea was also beautiful area, but the country customs are a bit appalling.  Just a very dirty country - trash along the roads everywhere.  And yes, as you mentioned, very poorly built infrastructure just like typical USSR countries (I've spent time in Ukraine and Belarus also).