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I retired from work, not from being an American. My country needs me here. I pay my taxes, buy UAW made American Cars and whatever else I can find American Made, I boycott WALMART and travel within the USA. Perhaps if every American supported America we could turn this mess around
Just my thought.... it seems like every time a country has to be evacuated, whether it's for a natural disaster, an uprising, or whatever, you see stories about senior citizens in trouble and far from home. When you're in another country, you're the bottom rung when it comes to receiving assistance. I remember in particular a woman who retired to Egypt, never dreaming that Arab Spring would happen, and her family's frantic effort to get her out of there. No thanks.
I retired from work, not from being an American. My country needs me here. I pay my taxes, buy UAW made American Cars and whatever else I can find American Made, I boycott WALMART and travel within the USA. Perhaps if every American supported America we could turn this mess around
The UAW virtually destroyed the American auto industry. They're the ones who drove the companies' health care costs into the sky. Thankfully, American trucks are magnificent and unequalled in any other country.
There are virtually no Ameican-made consumer electronics and haven't been for years.
I probably save more than two thousand per year on groceries alone shopping at Walmart. Amost all of that food comes from this country. Walmart doesn't have a policy of selling Chinese products. They have a policy of selling to their customers at the best prices possible.
You live right near the Mexican border. If you don't go to Mexico for prescription drugs, liquor, specialty foods, and a host of other products you must be the only soul in Cochise County who doesn't.
You want to make American businesss prosper? Work to lower corporate taxes; work to repeal minimum wage laws; work to get rid of OSHA; work to repeal the nightmare of other business taxes and regulations; work for Right to Work legislation; work to repeal Obamacare. Work to reduce government.
You want me to buy American? Show me value. I drive an American pickup; it's only ten years old. I own an American drill press made in the old days. I own an American view camera and have several American lenses for it, sadly, another relic of better days. Show me value if you want my money.
I remember thinking as a boy how lucky I was to have been born in this country. Those days are long gone, for me and for everyone else. Until just a few years ago we were at least a free people. Now the government treats those freedoms as a joke... and scarcely anyone cares.
I have a friend who went to Costa Rica when they retired. After several years there they discovered her husband had Alzheimers. They moved back to the states so he could get better medical treatment and also they wanted to be near family.
I lived in Panama years ago. Besides medical care you have to realize that the culture is just different. There is no middle class. You are either rich or very poor. Many of the Americans who lived there were upset by the living conditions. No water, no electricity, dirt floors, houses made out of cardboard, but they had free health care.
Depending on the country you may be welcomed or you may not especially if you expect it to be like the US.
I retired from work, not from being an American. My country needs me here. I pay my taxes, buy UAW made American Cars and whatever else I can find American Made, I boycott WALMART and travel within the USA. Perhaps if every American supported America we could turn this mess around
Does it count if you buy a "foreign" non-UAW car that's "Made in America"? We here in the south have a lot of foreign non-union auto manufacturing places. Which are providing jobs to American workers.
Also - at least where I live - well the port of JAX is one of the major ports for foreign auto imports. The Port provides a whole lot of local jobs - even though the cars aren't "Made in America". Robyn
I have a friend who went to Costa Rica when they retired. After several years there they discovered her husband had Alzheimers. They moved back to the states so he could get better medical treatment and also they wanted to be near family.
I lived in Panama years ago. Besides medical care you have to realize that the culture is just different. There is no middle class. You are either rich or very poor. Many of the Americans who lived there were upset by the living conditions. No water, no electricity, dirt floors, houses made out of cardboard, but they had free health care.
Depending on the country you may be welcomed or you may not especially if you expect it to be like the US.
Very true. I haven't traveled extensively in second world countries (Costa Rica - Mexico - Egypt - that's all I can think of) - or ever lived in one. But my lasting impression is the same as yours. Either very rich or very poor. No (or almost no) middle class. The rich people living behind barbed wire. The poor people living in slums (favelas) that make our "slums" look like Palm Beach. Seeing places like this - and the people who lived there - always made me feel very uncomfortable. Which is why I don't go to places like that anymore.
FWIW - in Miami - when rich people from central/south American countries like this bought condos as second or third homes - they often had their "help" sleep in the A/C closets on tiny cots. Used to make me cringe. Robyn
If you retire in one of the extremely depressed real estate markets like Phoenix, Florida or Las Vegas (the Detroit of the West) you'll find housing bargains that can beat out prices in the 2nd or 3rd world today. Honest! And with gas prices, they're always higher in South America, with the exception of Venezuela.
Food is on a par with oil today. Go walk into a major grocery store in Ecuador, and your eyes will roll up into your head in disbelief! We heavily subsidize agriculture in the U.S., some of the cheapest grocery prices you'll find!
So what are you gaining by going down there? That was the question I asked myself on my 2 trips to Ecuador, flirting with the idea of ex-patting it there one day.
I talked with an ex-pat in Otavalo one night and she warned me, about moving down there, to have a plan for occupying myself in my retirement years down there. Since there's virtually no job opportunities there for foreigners, if case you get bored stiff and want to work, your other choice is to open a business like she did, a restaurant. It generates no income for her, but at least it keeps her from going insane with all that freedom.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tijlover
...So what are you gaining by going down there? .
Healthcare for one. I had 3 'early retired friends' die last yr due to not having access to affordable healthcare in the USA.
Previously these friends had long-term jobs at fortune 100 companies.
WHENEVER you immigrate, you best be ready to integrate!! not ez, but essential to enjoying your new culture. Permanent Ex-pat style living would be NO FUN, and certainly not rewarding. I prefer to dig in and help the locals. That simple act will repay many times over and lead to RICH relationships..
WHENEVER you immigrate, you best be ready to integrate!! not ez, but essential to enjoying your new culture. Permanent Ex-pat style living would be NO FUN, and certainly not rewarding. I prefer to dig in and help the locals. That simple act will repay many times over and lead to RICH relationships..
It's not for me but I totally agree that it's do-able and great for some. I've a couple of friends who are happy ex-pats in Mexico, and another who is considering Costa Rica after several extended stays there.
The health care thing is impossible to generalize. There are so many variables that it's impossible to say one place is overall better or worse. Individuals need to assess their own situations.
The language barrier would be the chief obstacle for me. All 3 of my friends have worked hard at becoming somewhat fluent in Spanish. I'm willing to work just as hard but I'm one of those folks who would never get there, I just don't have the 'ear' for learning other languages.
I do envy those who are willing to step out of their comfort zones, it's a grand and diverse world.
If I'm going to go thru all the effort of relocating for retirement in a foreign country, and wisely knowing the global costs are catching up everywhere in the world, it would be an idyllic climate I'd seek. And there had better not be any need, any day of the year, for use of A/C or a heater, and no insects! My ain't I the pickiest!!!
Check out Quito sometime on weatherunderground.com, I did! Yes, in the dept of winter, even straddling the Equator, it's that 9400 feet altitude that will do it! Yes, some chilly evenings in winter, down to the 30's! Cuenca, slightly lower in altitude, can't be much different at that altitude!
When I was fantasizing about ex-patting it there, I narrowed it down to Banos, Otavalo or Ibarra. No steamy-hot humid Guayaquil! Or coastal regions!
I would want my retirement years to have absolutely no chill and no sweat, no need to even own a blanket!
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We heavily subsidize agriculture in the U.S., some of the cheapest grocery prices you'll find!
