I'm still "Just A Lurker."
The Chinese virus infected the Western world with Chinese-style totalitarian politics. - Gladiator
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken
But my Kids are all grown, hell I've got a 21 year old Grandkid. They don't need me hanging around all the time telling them about how shit used to be.
I'll pick one to finance a home with and call it my permanent address even though I'll be spending less than 1/3 of the year there. They'll keep the battery charged on my Hover-Round while I'm overseas.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin
One thing to discover on these discussions is how everyones situation is so different.
Many of us have family in USA and just cant get up and leave. Especially if you are younger relatively in your 40s or 50s.
Yayow has family in DR so that is huge factor in living there at his relatively young age.
Some expats move to PI because it is there only option living on their military pension or social security ONLY.
Then there is the used car dealer who had that board (forget his name) with sweet million dollar villa in Puerto Plata and livin large.
Guess what it comes down to is what works for YOU. As Grey said ones mans paradise is anothers poison.
That'll work out well, and they can take care of your mail and bills while you're gone, too.
I'll have to set up with a mail-forwarding service, once I'm ready to stay away more than a month at a time. Probably with St. Brendan's Isle, down in Florida -- you'd be surprised how many world-cruisers "live" there.
I'll tell you one thing that will DEFINITELY change. With up to 3 months to kill I'll switch from the $50 Single trip visa to the $100 East Africa visa when visiting that region. It will give me access to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania and I would like to come and go freely between all those places eventually.
I'd like to a road trip circumventing Lake Victoria, flying into Kisumu from either NBO or MBA and renting a Range Rover from Kisumu and drive through Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Mwanza (Tanzania), spending a day or two in Serengeti National Park and Masai Mara before returning to Kisumu for the trip back to "civilization".
I'll need a lot more than two weeks to knock that one off my bucket list.
From Wiki:
Saint Brendan’s Isle, also spelled St Brendan’s Isle, is a phantom island, or mythical island, supposedly situated in the North Atlantic somewhere west of Northern Africa. It is named after the Saint Brendan who founded the Clonfert monasteryand monastic school. It is said to have been discovered by the saint and his followers while they were traveling across the ocean, evangelizing islands. It appeared on numerous maps in Christopher Columbus's time, most notably Martin Behaim'sErdapfel of 1492. It is referred to as La isla de San Borondón or isla de Samborombón in Spanish.[1]
The first mention of the island was in the ninth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), placing the island into Irish and European folklore.
Nice one! Go to Atlantis and turn left.
Try this link: St. Brendan's Isle Mail Forwarding Service
The name reflects their sense of history, mystery, and above all else, their sense of humor.
La senora and I have "lived" at St. Brendan's Isle since 2012. My "mortgage payments" are around $22 US per month. In two weeks we are going "home" to check out the storm damage from the hurricane and pick up some mail. We declared domicile there in 2012 and that is where I'm registered to vote. For ex-pats, I highly recommend this service.
Blue Devil
What can I say, Jimmy... I try. The system makes it difficult for US ex-pats. Many routine things that US citizens take for granted (like opening a US bank account) is not possible for an ex-pat without a US address. The US Patriot Act has messed with people's privacy and mobility.
They DGAF about People leaving. They don't want MONEY leaving. They don't want CONTROL leaving.
You do realize that winning the "Gringo Lotto" is only the qualification round for this game, I'm sure.
Next time the jackpots get to a few hundred million look at the working poor ahead of you in line for "loot-o" tickets at the liquor store, 7-11 or gas station or bodega. What you are looking at is a long line of slaves standing at the tracks with their meager dollars in their hand, waiting....hoping that the "Freedom Train" will come along. It doesn't matter if they're in the East of West, North or South. Doesn't matter what they look like, who their Mamma and Daddy was, if you've got a SSAN you are a Slave. Your lifetime productivity is what backs the U.S. Dollar, not gold, not silver but People and their productivity potential.
Those who over-stand this and understand that to increase their perceived productivity they have to ignore the plight of a thousand working families when they have to make the "tough decision" to lay off 1,000 workers while maintaining their own salaries at 1,000x the average worker's pay. The easy answer to that "hard choice" is go get an honest job and let those people keep creating whatever it was that drives the profit in the 1st place but if you're going to talk shit to an overseer you'd better be able to snatch a silver dollar off the top of the backboard and leave 4 quarters in change.
True, that's why they make them buy round-trip tickets.
Have you looked at the taxes and fees on your flight itinerary. My last flight, 7K miles away was about $120 after taxes and airport fees. They get us when we make it, when we spend it and even when we try to access our money from an ATM (unless we have access to our bank) .
Just think. How many "Millennials" would line up around the block if they gave away a free iphone, a $500 gift certificate to "The Gap" and conferred a credit score (all 3 bureaus) of 850, cleansing previous credit history and offering a great start for the sole concession of accepting a sub-cutaneous R.F.I.D. chip from the gub-o-mint?
Banking industry in the USA controls the banking industry in the Caribbean. Let one of them refuse to release private banking info by someone with an SSAN...we'll find out who's running tings.
You're right about it being a great country. I doubt that there's another nation so geographically and genetically diverse, blessed with an abundance of arable land and mineral wealth, great forests, seemingly never-ending grasslands, swamps, deltas, deserts, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, valleys streams, islands, 2 oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, there's just no country like this anywhere else.
Problem with your statement is that it hasn't "run smooth" yet. I mean we're not on the brink of another Civil War or anything like that because I think the last one taught us that we'll have to find a way to get along and play nice if we're going to maintain a level of economic success that will get all our bills paid, but we're a long way from running smooth.
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