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Last year, I met a woman who has been living aboard one cruise after another, between six to eight months every year, for the last four or five years. She said the out-of-pocket money for the almost-permanent cruise is the same as the cost of maintaining her own home, but the value is much higher considering she has a (cruise) staff of hundreds people available at all times. She comes home a few months of the year for her medical checkup and to assure her children that she is well and not yet out of her mind.
A few years ago on some CD thread I advocated the idea of permanent retirement homes and nursing homes aboard cruise ships---much less expensive, potentially---and so much fun, stopping at beautiful ports all over the world...and then, burial at sea.
This is strange. There are two versions of your post. Did you edit this change? I'm including both.
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Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
Assets do not a responsible person make (Shakespeare?)
I never heard that aphorism. But assets don't make a responsible person; a responsible person makes assets.
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Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
Better classes all migrated West?
That's not my opinion.
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Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
What is considered affordable for the average retiree (regular class) in Wyoming?
Affordable is what someone can afford. I've seen trailers on an acre of land going for 20k; I've seen houses and particularly ranches ranging up to 50 million. That should cover just about everyone's budget.
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Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
On topic, I'm reading a fair amount about Eastern Tennessee....anyone want to weigh in?
I don't know if you would consider the Nashville area to be eastern Tennessee. I have two clients who both live fifty or so miles west. One is a man in his early forties and the other is a retired lady of seventy. They both grew up in that area and have told me that they'd never leave. They do both like small town living and the towns there are small. The towns are close together which is very different from the western US, even parts of the midwest. The small towns have fewer services each because there are many more towns. Services aren't concentrated as they are here. My older client loves Nashville and visits frequently. My other client only goes there out of necessity.
Summers are long, hot, and humid, but it is a four season state. The Smokies get a lot of snow.
There's no state income tax except on interest and dividends. Other taxes seem moderate. Gun laws could be better, but they could be much worse. Crime is low in the area west of Nashville. Tennessee's high state crime rate is primarly a result of the astronomical crime rate in Memphis. I'd rate it "B-" overall for the average person. It gets a full grade up for the lack of income tax.
If you wish to know who the better classes are and what they think just read my posts. Consider me the paragon.
I have been unable to discern in your posts anything which would make you a part of the "better classes", except that you have some assets. Is that what you mean, that members of the better classes have assets? We could eliminate all this guesswork as to your meaning if you will just provide us with your definition of the better classes. And I hope you didn't dislocate your shoulder patting yourself on the back.
Assets do not equal class...there are so many examples of this being true in our society today - I can't believe anyone actually thinks this way.
I'd call it "snob value." Being from the left coast, many there have made disparaging remarks about our decision to move to the Ozarks. They ignorantly equate the area solely with "rednecks" and "hillbillies." What they don't take into consideration are the derivations of the words. We find nothing wrong with hard working, country people ("rednecks") or people who, by chose, live in hill country ("hillbillies"). Quite the contrary, we find much to admire in them excepting only the very few, Confederate flag-waving racists we've come across - perhaps three or four in the over two years we've lived here.
Due to the cost of living and average wages in this area, our retirement income and assets puts us well above the median and we benefit greatly from the much lower tax structures across the board. But that does NOT equate to "class." It simply means we chose wisely and well to maximize our retirements in an area we were already familiar with and thoroughly enjoy with a unique culture, robust history, four distinct seasons and ample and interesting nature of topography and wildlife.
Responsible means managing one's life in a responsible manner. By the time people are old enough to read this section of the forum with more than idle interest it means having assets worth protecting. Remember the old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Wow. Be responsible and go back to school and take a course in logic.Being a responsible person has little, if nothing to do with assets. A person can be responsible all their lives and get hit by a devastating illness and lose assets--by your logic they are no longer a responsible person.The person could still be a responsible person but living in reduced circumstances--and through no fault of their own.
"A fool and his money are soon parted." Yes, we've all heard that, I'm sure. The logic just doesn't follow from it that everyone who doesn't have a lot of assets or money is a fool. Faulty logic.Anyway, class is more defined as manners, decency, fair treatment of others. It's typical of the new rich to think of class as being equated with money but wait until they actually begin to associate with people who really DO have class. Their bad breeding will show, their vulgar obsession with money will raise eyebrows and they will generally be laughed out of existence.
Responsible means managing one's life in a responsible manner. By the time people are old enough to read this section of the forum with more than idle interest it means having assets worth protecting. Remember the old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Wow. Be responsible and go back to school and take a course in logic.Being a responsible person has little, if nothing to do with assets. A person can be responsible all their lives and get hit by a devastating illness and lose assets--by your logic they are no longer a responsible person.The person could still be a responsible person but living in reduced circumstances--and through no fault of their own.
"A fool and his money are soon parted." Yes, we've all heard that, I'm sure. The logic just doesn't follow from it that everyone who doesn't have a lot of assets or money is a fool. Faulty logic.Anyway, class is more defined as manners, decency, fair treatment of others. It's typical of the new rich to think of class as being equated with money but wait until they actually begin to associate with people who really DO have class. Their bad breeding will show, their vulgar obsession with money will raise eyebrows and they will generally be laughed out of existence.
I think that saying was created way before we even had a stock market. We have met so many older people who thought they were well invested only to find their stock portfolio blow up. I don't think they were intending for this economic crash to happen. These people, like us were not into taking lavish vacations or endulging in fine dining every night. We have been frugal for the most part. Huge medical bills can quickly wipe out those who are not quite to Medicare and with high deductable insurance. This economy has slammed many of us and has gone on for way too long. Let us hope for better days in the near future.
I don't believe you realize how absurdly high real estate prices are in the San Francisco Bay area. Having a modest car and paying winter heating bills are chicken feed by comparison.
Well done, Escort Rider. This is absolutely the case.
SF and NYC are very expensive. I would like to visit NYC someday though.
$1,200 a month for a 1 bed/1 bath for a decent place.
Where do you find $1200/m for one bedroom apartment in NYC especially when you have never been there?
For the three years between 2003 and 2006, my daughter paid $1800 for a 380 sq ft efficiency in Morningside Heights, a decent enough area that straddles between Upper West Side and Greater Harlem. Efficiency is not a one-bedroom apartment, but a very small studio apartment where all the living, working, eating, and sleeping is done in the same small space that was designed to fit only a double bed and a desk.
Her entire apartment is much smaller than a regular room in a cheap motel.
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"Better classes"? Definition, please.
