[TripleG]

Not completely related to this thread but I'll give an example of someone who lived in a hotel for over 10 years. My dad and I knew an old multi-millionaire who sadly passed away a few years back.
He was doing business with my dad and lived for the last decade of his life in one of Washington, DC's fanciest 5 star hotels literally overlooking the US Treasury and White House. He was an old guy who did not have any close family in USA as most of them were overseas. Outside of business he did not have many friends and considered the hotel staff as his true family. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. He would spend literally hours each day at the hotel restaurant and bar smoking cigars, drinking, reading the paper and socializing with both the hotel staff and the patrons. He dressed impeccably and craved the attention. Days like this I could see a full smile on his face; a large 5-star hotel was his playground and I could sense that living anywhere else (even a mansion in a nice neighborhood) would not have pleased him. I guess it helped him with his loneliness and because of his advanced age he truly appreciated the personal attention that he received, including eating almost every day at one of the city's best restaurants and being offered all types of specials by the hotel (for example VIP tickets to Kennedy Center, embassy events, limo, and so on).

Everyone from the hotel manager down, to the bartender, to the maids were at his disposal 24-7 and over the 10 years or so he spent at the hotel his bills must have been over a million (easily). He received a yearly discount for the rental price of his "suite" however it still averaged out to at least 300 dollars per day. My dad asked him many times if he wanted to move out and he always said no. I guess this 5 star hotel was almost like a very fancy "nursing home" to this gentleman yet still afforded a degree of privacy, freedom and made him feel normal as he was not stuck with a bunch of old folks.

This is one example where I can imagine someone living in a hotel long-term...in this case someone who may not have many family/friends around but still wants in old age to live out the last few years of their life in utmost luxury feeling cared and appreciated.

[Beyond Borders]

(02-03-2018 11:41 PM)puckerman Wrote:  

Biggest drawback was the lack of storage. I still had lots of stuff and had to put it in storage. If you have lots of stuff, it definitely won't be worth it..

This is very true. I actually see this as a positive, which I forgot to mention. Coupled with my frequent moves, this has really forced me to maintain a very minimalist approach to buying and owning things.

I do have some belongings scattered across the planet with friends in different places I've lived, but this is more of a result of my learning curve than a way I'd recommend to manage your "things". I slip up sometimes but for the most part I try to err on the side of deciding not to buy stuff that tempts me. I hate the process of offloading things I optimistically bought upon settling in somewhere and generally ditch them when I move on. It feels wasteful but I just can't rationalize the time and cost of storing or selling them based on past experiences.

It's more common that I regret buying stuff more than I regret not buying stuff, due to the inconvenience it causes me. I've found as the years go by that my material needs, aside from things I can "rent", are extremely simple. Experiences, on the other hand, are something I happily spend money on.

I could see this changing someday as I age and start wanting to build a nest of sorts somewhere with finer things, but for now that sounds like heavy chains to me. I'm open for settling in more and changing my thinking on the matter, but I also know myself enough to know that at this stage the temptation will just backfire if heeded.

[Caractacus Potts]

I was in Panama City, Panama two years ago. I stayed at the Hyatt and my friends stayed at the Hard Rock. One of my buddies hooked up with one of the bartenders from the pool bar at the Hard Rock. He didn't fuck her in Panama but she did when he flew her to Cancun for a week.

She told him that you could rent rooms at the Hard Rock for a month for between $1,000 and $1,200. I think that was a one bedroom suite with a living room and kitchenette. That included a parking spot. Apparently this is not something that they widely publicize.

One night I was talking to the owner of Gauchos (an Argentinian steak house in Panama City). He went to school in the US and his english was very good. He told me that when all of the hotels and high rise condo developments were going up in Panama City you could buy in cheap - $10,000 per unit.

He said that there is a ton of Colombian drug money tied up in Panamanian real estate. Every once in awhile a unit inside a hotel comes on the market. I have given thought to buying one when I retire. The Hard Rock... or preferably the Trump Hotel

[monster]

Screw that. Neighbors suck.

I want to live far enough away from anyone so I don't have to phoney smile and fake hello my neighbors whenever I walk to my car.