Quote: (04-20-2019 02:39 PM)Guitarhappy420 Wrote:
Not meaning to be harsh, but any man approaching their 60's and 70's having trouble finding quality women in the USA, you need to lose the weight, lease a Corvette, and work with a stylist on your wardrobe and grooming. You don't have to do much else and they'll come crawling out of the woodwork to find you. I'm being a little facetious but you get the point.
Unless he really truly wants a divorced 55 year old with saggy skin and a catchers mitt face from tanning & botox, he'd be wasting his time with the Corvette. Better solution is to find a fresher forest for things to crawl out of, which he's onto already.
Argentina is amazing - if you like steak & red wine and can speak Spanish, you may fit right in. Attractive women, best in SA from what I hear, and it's affordable. But as with much of Latin America, scams are everywhere as is petty crime. Don't even get started with local corruption. Main drawback for you though is that it's just so far from everywhere. The idea of you having two places, one in Thailand and another in Argentina - makes an old fellow tired just thinking about the jetlag.
Sp5 mentioned Spain - you should give that a second look if it's realistic. You could get a place not far from Rota and have all the military retiree benefits on top of an easy trip back to the US. Not quite as cheap as the other options, but doable. While you're there, give Portugal a glance - similar economics.
Philippines
I have spent considerable time all over Asia, but not the Phils just yet. I will eventually visit, but I've got a healthy preview from the guy in this video who's just a couple of years younger than you, retired, and got finished spending about six years all over those islands. He's in Vietnam now and after only a month decided he's not going back to the Phils. In fact, he waited until he was out of the Phils to make the following precautionary video for fear of reprisals.
Long and the short of it, the Phils is the wild west and you need to be on your toes, but plenty of guys - especially ex US military guys - make it happen. It's super cheap, all kinds of women and plenty of sights to see. If you might want another round of kids that's possible too, definitely within your stated budget. One thing, the guy in that video admits he gets mistaken for a Philippino guy all the time (he's actually Mexican American), so he may have had a slight advantage avoiding the scam radar all the time he was there. YMMV, but be careful - the first lesson you should learn is don't make any big decisions for the first couple of months. Whether it's women, leases, location, anything - just decompress a few weeks at a time, don't be shy about changing locations and take your time.
This includes buying land - especially some kind of farm - anywhere, not just there. One step at a time.
BTW, yes there is a VA medical center in Manilla, but it's a basic clinic. You can get treatment for service connected disabilities there, but only basic checkups beyond that. Unless you really want to suffer through all that traffic to get some Sudafed and Motrin from time to time, local clinics are less hassle, just as good and pretty cheap from what I've heard.
One thing he said about Philipinos that stuck with me - he spent six years there and didn't have a single local guy friend. Maybe it's a combination of resentment and scam behavior from them, but it isn't like that in every SEA country. Chances are even if you meet the love of your life in the Phils and she's sweet as can be, you'll be putting up with scam attempts from her extended family forever. They do it to fellow Philippinos too.
Vietnam
Since he only just got to Vietnam a couple of months ago, you should subscribe and follow his channel. He goes over everything from basic living to women, language, food, etc. I've been to Vietnam a couple of times and leaning that way for retirement too - though keep in mind that there is no official retirement visa. I loved it there though - excellent food, infrastructure is top notch (way better internet than the Phils) and if you want rural life that's possible too.
Thailand is on the radar; been there a bunch and all the reasons apply - affordable, great food, poon tang, etc. But the visa situation is changing and many expats say it's not the economic deal it used to be. Still, I think as long as you can keep $25k in the bank you should be ok, but that visa run thing every so often would get tiresome. And yeah, culturally, they really don't want you there but they'll put up with you.
Malaysia is wildly underrated. English is widely spoken and the local language isn't that difficult either - similar to Indonesian (another possibility, BTW). People are scared because Malaysia is Islamic, but there's still plenty of fun to be had. Politically it's shaping up, though Chinese Malays still get treated like second class citizens - it's basically reverse affirmative action in favor of the ethnic Malays. Kuala Lumpur can be expensive but overall your dollar will go further in Malaysia than in Thailand. One thing you get a lot less of compared to Thailand and the Phils are the drunk idiot expats who think the whoie country is an open air brothel.
Real estate ownership is not something I'd want at that stage in life, especially in a very foreign legal environment. Never mind the headaches of maintenance. I don't know how attached you are to your things, but it'll be a lot easier to move around from one place to another with just a bag or two, one short term lease at a time, until you get settled. Even then, less to take means less to lose or get stolen. When I get ready to make the move you're considering it'll be a major 'cut sling load.'
So watch a few vids, join a few more country specific expat forums and research the places you want to go. Good luck & keep us posted!