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An older man contemplates the road ahead
#51

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 08:29 AM)ChefAllDay Wrote:  

If you were to end up in a LTR relationship from a woman from SA, would splitting time between your home country and hers do much to stop the situation of her becoming like the women you were avoiding in your home country? Say you had a rural acreage already established. How feasible would it be to 6 months in that situation and then travel back to SA for the winter months? I don't know if you could manage 2 rural properties like that. But it should be easy to maintain the one in your home country.
Rather than having 2 rural places I'd have one rural (probably S America) and a condo, perhaps in SE Asia.

I'm not looking to own property in the US at the present time because of high property prices and property taxes and cost of labor.
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#52

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 11:06 AM)Duke Main Wrote:  

Quote: (04-22-2019 06:32 AM)asdfk Wrote:  

As a pilot, do you think aerotoxic syndrome is a real thing?

How did you like the food in Medellin? Did you feel well nourished after a month of just that food?
I'm not sure about Aerotoxic Syndrome. That's a much more serious situation than the low level contamination I'm describing, which I experience on every flight. It would be a good topic for the aircraft accident thread, even though I'm not sure it's ever been linked to an actual crash.

I didn't spend a whole month in Medellin. I was in the city for about a week and in Guatape for 2 more. There was a high quality restaurant where I ate frequently near my building in the big city, but I didn't get an overall good impression of the food available in normal restaurants. The grocery stores had attractive produce displays, but it's hard to tell if it's organic or non GMO just by looking. What was your impression?

In Guatape I found a little family restaurant where I ate virtually every day, and yes I felt well nourished.

Whether or not I have my own farm eventually, I'd like to be near an organic farm to be able to source the best food possible.

Can you compare your impressions of the food in different locations? How was the food in Peru for you?

Where are you now? Should we start a "Healthy food locations" thread?

Take care Amigo.

I hear great things about the food in Peru. I keep a Peruana around and the cooking is a big plus.

The feedlot method has started hitting Argentina's beef industry as fallout from their 2006 beef export restrictions when they chose to go from exporting beef to Europe to selling the Chinese soy. Uruguay still does mandatory grass fed drug free with their beef to maintain its premium export status. Big Ag in Brazil are pioneers in the factory and chemical warfare farming industry.

Here in Uruguay the downside is that this is an expensive country. Yes I can get a kilo of entrecot for 345 pesos (~10 dollars) and rents aren't too bad. The price of everything else adds up though.

Quote: (04-22-2019 11:21 AM)Duke Main Wrote:  

Quote: (04-22-2019 08:29 AM)ChefAllDay Wrote:  

If you were to end up in a LTR relationship from a woman from SA, would splitting time between your home country and hers do much to stop the situation of her becoming like the women you were avoiding in your home country? Say you had a rural acreage already established. How feasible would it be to 6 months in that situation and then travel back to SA for the winter months? I don't know if you could manage 2 rural properties like that. But it should be easy to maintain the one in your home country.
Rather than having 2 rural places I'd have one rural (probably S America) and a condo, perhaps in SE Asia.

I'm not looking to own property in the US at the present time because of high property prices and property taxes and cost of labor.

One thing to mind with rural properties in general is, things tend to wander off if left unattended for too long. In rural South America, as an outsider this can be a problem. A cattle rustling case made the national paper here in Uruguay a few months back (3.5 million people, 12 million cows). It is something to consider if rural to you means a working farm instead of just a house outside the city.
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#53

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-21-2019 04:16 PM)robreke Wrote:  

I'm personally more attracted to Latinas than Asian girls. You could probably buy an apartment (or house) in a decent SA city for a much lower price than the USA.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I remember hearing how cheap you could buy property in Costa Rica a few years ago. Personally, I prefer Colombia.

The gringo factor will be helpful in attracting women, but at your age, you may need to run a little "provider game" to get in the low 30s or even 20 something year olds. Also, the proximity issue is much better with your family.

Research, obviously, is key.

Fish, meet Barrel. [Image: banana.gif]
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#54

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 06:32 AM)asdfk Wrote:  

As a pilot, do you think aerotoxic syndrome is a real thing?

How did you like the food in Medellin? Did you feel well nourished after a month of just that food?

Bandeja paisa = peasant food. [Image: dodgy.gif]
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#55

An older man contemplates the road ahead

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!
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#56

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 11:06 AM)Duke Main Wrote:  

What was your impression (of food in Medellin)?

(...)

Can you compare your impressions of the food in different locations? How was the food in Peru for you?
I'm reluctant to critique food sourcing in specific places where I haven't spent more then a few weeks. After all, with enough effort one can always find local produce / flesh in most places.

Having said that, I think that soil quality, farming methods and local microbe populations play a huge part. For example, I found the vegetables in Colombia often of terrible quality. They didn't nourish me like in other parts of the world. The fruits were excellent. I recognize this is subjective and I assume it has to do with the three factors above.

This is probably all very personal. Many people feel great on Colombian food. (Although I have to say that I saw many people get serious food poisoning during my time there, something that fortunately did not happen to me)

To not make my response too complicated: Japanese food is the best in the world, both due to the cuisine and its supreme food sources.

I love Peruvian cuisine. The country has a huge biodiversity that I hope to explore in the future. Sources I can't comment on as of now.

Brazilian cuisine is unsophisticated but they have good vegetables and meats. They just don't know how to prepare them. It's all plain. Better to buy stuff at the grocery store and grill your own steak.

Personally, for food I just need access to a few high quality sources for the most risky things I eat regularly. Tasty, highly nutritious foods takes preparation and planning. Unless you are in Japan.
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#57

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 03:57 PM)BBinger Wrote:  

Quote: (04-22-2019 11:06 AM)Duke Main Wrote:  

Quote: (04-22-2019 06:32 AM)asdfk Wrote:  

I hear great things about the food in Peru. I keep a Peruana around and the cooking is a big plus.

The feedlot method has started hitting Argentina's beef industry as fallout from their 2006 beef export restrictions when they chose to go from exporting beef to Europe to selling the Chinese soy. Uruguay still does mandatory grass fed drug free with their beef to maintain its premium export status. Big Ag in Brazil are pioneers in the factory and chemical warfare farming industry.

Here in Uruguay the downside is that this is an expensive country. Yes I can get a kilo of entrecot for 345 pesos (~10 dollars) and rents aren't too bad. The price of everything else adds up though.

Quote: (04-22-2019 11:21 AM)Duke Main Wrote:  

Quote: (04-22-2019 08:29 AM)ChefAllDay Wrote:  

If you were to end up in a LTR relationship from a woman from SA, would splitting time between your home country and hers do much to stop the situation of her becoming like the women you were avoiding in your home country? Say you had a rural acreage already established. How feasible would it be to 6 months in that situation and then travel back to SA for the winter months? I don't know if you could manage 2 rural properties like that. But it should be easy to maintain the one in your home country.
Rather than having 2 rural places I'd have one rural (probably S America) and a condo, perhaps in SE Asia.

I'm not looking to own property in the US at the present time because of high property prices and property taxes and cost of labor.

One thing to mind with rural properties in general is, things tend to wander off if left unattended for too long. In rural South America, as an outsider this can be a problem. A cattle rustling case made the national paper here in Uruguay a few months back (3.5 million people, 12 million cows). It is something to consider if rural to you means a working farm instead of just a house outside the city.
That's interesting information about the beef industry in Uruguay vs Argentina. Definitely something to consider. Also a good point about leaving property unattended in LatAm. I mentioned Bill Bonner in a prior post. He seems to have found some loyal, reliable employees but he has much deeper pockets than I do. My vision is to have a little farm of my own, but I'd probably be better off with a house in a farming community hopefully near an organic farm.
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#58

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 08:15 PM)SlickyBoy Wrote:  

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!
Thank you SlickyBoy for that great response. We are on the same page regarding USA specimens of womanhood.

The journey from Argentina to SE Asia is daunting. I'd break it up by visiting friends and family in the US. Once or twice a year should be doable for a few years until I'm too feeble for that.

I saw that video about the Phils and I'm subscribed to Reekay's channel. I agree with pretty much everything he says. Vietnam is great in so many ways but English proficiency is not one of them. I'd learn Vietnamese to the best of my ability if I lived there, but I doubt I'd ever be very fluent. I loved it there and it's in the running. I plan to go to Dalat (coffee region) next time.

Thailand has many pros and cons, the biggest pro being, in my opinion, the availability of decent affordable medical care. I could be wrong, but I think the locals differentiate between the loser alcoholic falangs without a pot to piss in, and expats who present themselves well and respect their culture. I've kind of crossed Chiang Mai off my list due to the pollution, especially during rice field burning season.

I definitely need to go to Malaysia.

I'll leave it there for now. Maybe I'll see you in Vietnam one of these days.
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#59

An older man contemplates the road ahead

I will be 40 this year. I am going to purchase a piece of land on an island in Estonia and eventually build a small house on it. I have people to help me build it and watch it. I think I will airbnb it and let my little helper there keep whatever profits there are from the airbnb. And take a small percentage for myself. I will stay there when I go on vacation and then eventually have a place to stay in the warmer months, when I retire.
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#60

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 10:06 PM)BlackFriar Wrote:  

I will be 40 this year. I am going to purchase a piece of land on an island in Estonia and eventually build a small house on it. I have people to help me build it and watch it. I think I will airbnb it and let my little helper there keep whatever profits there are from the airbnb. And take a small percentage for myself. I will stay there when I go on vacation and then eventually have a place to stay in the warmer months, when I retire.
That sounds pretty cool.
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#61

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-22-2019 09:11 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

That's interesting information about the beef industry in Uruguay vs Argentina. Definitely something to consider. Also a good point about leaving property unattended in LatAm. I mentioned Bill Bonner in a prior post. He seems to have found some loyal, reliable employees but he has much deeper pockets than I do. My vision is to have a little farm of my own, but I'd probably be better off with a house in a farming community hopefully near an organic farm.

It's not impossible to hire well. You've gotta get to know your neighbors, spend time there before hiring, and if possible find a place with some other gringos who can help you adjust to the very local peculiarities that grow in these places.

One thing to remember is that a lot of the local classism exists for reasons. A good chunk of the mass Italian immigration to the southern cone came from the criminal Italian classes. For some parts of the population (Think Pepe Mujica's base) there is a persistent belief that thieving is a work like any other, though as in other professions the effort put into the work is generally very poor. A bit of deterrent can go a long way.

I don't know much about the situation in Argentina, but generally the trend down here in labor law is for a "puesto de trabajo" to be treated as a right... provided someone manages to get a job. This means hiring mistakes can get expensive. It also means good employees are gold. If you catch one, their retention is a priority. Time limited employment contracts where possible seem to offer some measure of cost containment when it comes to bad hires.

Anyways, I recommend you take some trips to do scouting in the areas that interest you. You might find a place that's beautiful, but the local accent is absolutely intelligible to your ears.

Also check out the customs laws and local pharmacies. Some things you may want, need, or find essential to civilized living may be almost completely unavailable.
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#62

An older man contemplates the road ahead

Quote: (04-13-2019 10:46 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

...
I guess that more or less sums up my dilemma.
...

Your situation is better than 99.9998% of all humans that have ever lived. You can also consider Mexico, namely the Mayan Riviera, though being a white gringo in his 60s will not be any novelty, unless you are in excellent shape or have lot of disposable income.

How much do you have on your 401k and other liquid assets? Having 200k may work for Filipines, but not much in South America, specially the civilized parts.

On the other hand, having 500k + in assets can purchase you quite the retirement.
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#63

An older man contemplates the road ahead

My income won't be extravagant but it will be more than adequate unless the US economy collapses. I've tried to hedge a little for that possibility, but I majored in sociology and later became an airline pilot, hence financially barely literate. With this thread I'm trying to address logistics more than finances.
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