Places Where You Can Retire on $200,000 and Feel Rich

[roam]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

How long until you are ready to buy?
- If it's 10-15yr, yes, get it in the market. Downturns tend to be under 2years. 3 is a really long downturn. You have time to ride it out.
- If it's 2yr, no, keep it conservative. A 20% downturn could derail your plan.

I'm planning on buying next year so I'm mostly just stashing cash in my savings account. I do put a little bit of money in my LendingClub account every week but it's only adds up to a few thousand a year.

-Hugh

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Since only the wealthy qualify for these high end cards, this is just another example of wealth transfer from the poor to the rich.

Not really. All you need to do is to run the card up each month buying the same things you would normally and pay it back at end of month. It's a free loan no matter who you are. Chase just keeps raising my limit each time I run it up because they think that means I will spend more. I think that card started off at $2500 years ago and now it like $30k. They keep asking me to update my income, but I don't have an income and never answer and they still increase my limit if I buy something big (brought a car couple of months ago on my card till my daughter paid me back).

The past 33 months Chase has paid me over $1000 back on the stuff I would have brought anyway. I haven't paid any credit card fees or interest and they pay me $1000 to use the card.

It's not debt for me, it's money convenience of only paying 1 bill each month.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Not really. All you need to do is to run the card up each month buying the same things you would normally and pay it back at end of month. It's a free loan no matter who you are. Chase just keeps raising my limit each time I run it up because they think that means I will spend more. I think that card started off at $2500 years ago and now it like $30k. They keep asking me to update my income, but I don't have an income and never answer and they still increase my limit if I buy something big (brought a car couple of months ago on my card till my daughter paid me back).

The past 33 months Chase has paid me over $1000 back on the stuff I would have brought anyway. I haven't paid any credit card fees or interest and they pay me $1000 to use the card.

It's not debt for me, it's money convenience of only paying 1 bill each month.

You are with Chase, right? Are you outside of the US? Don't they charge a fee for using some other bank's ATM? And a fee for the foreign exchange? and then the fee charged by a foreign bank for a non-customer to use their ATM?

With BofA we pay 3% for using an ATM and $5 flat fee per cash withdrawal, somewhat less for a puechase, and most ATM's in foreigh countries (remember the topic of this thread) charge from $1.5 to $3 for each ATM usage. At the end of the month the bank fees run up.

I know some credit unions an local banks in the US have lower fees, but I am surprised to hear that you can get away scot free.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by wingssail

You are with Chase, right? Are you outside of the US? Don't they charge a fee for using some other bank's ATM? And a fee for the foreign exchange? and then the fee charged by a foreign bank for a non-customer to use their ATM?

Yes I'm using Chase. The foreign fee is almost wiped out by the cash back. I don't use MY credit card in atms and when use my debit card I get a lot out to reduce the fee % (only taken out cash twice the last 3 years, both time in Georgetown Bahamas 2 years ago). Paying a $5 atm fee to get out $100 is one thing, to pay the same $5 to take out $500 is something else.

BTW - if you are going to be in a foreign country a long time there are no exchange fee cards. They normally have a yearly fee of about $100 so you need to do the math

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Yes I'm using Chase. The foreign fee is almost wiped out by the cash back. I don't use MY credit card in atms and when use my debit card I get a lot out to reduce the fee % (only taken out cash twice the last 3 years, both time in Georgetown Bahamas 2 years ago). Paying a $5 atm fee to get out $100 is one thing, to pay the same $5 to take out $500 is something else.

BTW - if you are going to be in a foreign country a long time there are no exchange fee cards. They normally have a yearly fee of about $100 so you need to do the math

Transferwise has a debit card now that, combined with their currency exchange product, is probably a great free tool for anyone who travels internationally to have.

[Mr B]

I have a credit card, I use it to buy every thing, One piece of paper, Lists every thing I buy, Easy to keep track of things,
If the card is in credit all year long, By using it as a bank deposit, Your money in it,
They will pay 12% on the lowest amount in the card annually, But It must be always in credit for the full year, One debit and you dont get the interest,
I found this out by accident, One year I got paid interest on my credit card, What the hell is this,
Took a while down at the bank to find out, Its a well kept secret, Finally a girl stated that the bank will pay interest on Bank cards that are in credit,
No one else in the bank knew this,

Another one I find funny to hear, If Financial advisers were so smart with advice, Why are they still working for a living, ???????????
They are only gambling with your money, If it all goes south, You lose, But you will still pay them for their bad advice,

[belizesailor]

On the subject of banks & cards. Ive got a debit card on my Fidelity Investments account. No/refund of ATM fees. No foreign txn fees. And a biggee for me, free bank wires including international! Wow, my primary bank charges $50 for an international wire (rip off). I do a couple of international wire xfers per month plus a bunch if atm/debit txns so this saves me a ton of money.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I have a credit card, I use it to buy every thing, One piece of paper, Lists every thing I buy, Easy to keep track of things,
If the card is in credit all year long, By using it as a bank deposit, Your money in it,
They will pay 12% on the lowest amount in the card annually, But It must be always in credit for the full year, One debit and you dont get the interest,
I found this out by accident, One year I got paid interest on my credit card, What the hell is this,
Took a while down at the bank to find out, Its a well kept secret, Finally a girl stated that the bank will pay interest on Bank cards that are in credit,
No one else in the bank knew this,

Another one I find funny to hear, If Financial advisers were so smart with advice, Why are they still working for a living, ???????????
They are only gambling with your money, If it all goes south, You lose, But you will still pay them for their bad advice,

Interesting. I wonder what they would do if you paid a signficant amount of cash to the card?

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

this is what I found:






Source: https://www.creditcards.com/credit-c...redit-tier.php

For many years I have had 3 credit cards for the 3 different currencies that I mostly use
All of them have automatic debit from that same currency account each month.
I have never paid a penny in interest....
Its all about discipline.

[Mike OReilly]

According to CreditCards.com:

"If you’ve had credit card debt for more than a year, you’ve got a lot of company.

According to a new poll from CreditCards.com, 56 percent of credit card holders who are carrying balances have been doing so for more than a year."

It's obviously true that some people win the cc game by being disciplined and financially wise. But the cc companies know that many (most?) people are not this way. This is why they offer all these enticements to get people to use their cards.

[bill352]

Getting back to feeling rich, I can't believe no one has posted this yet - so I will:


"Gratitude is riches and complaint is poverty..and the worst I ever had was wonderful!"


-Brother Dave -

[neilfraser]

Originally Posted by SV Windrush II

Come to the Philippines, food is cheap, beautiful anchorages, hook up to a mooring for about $200 per month or less, or just hang out for free on the hook. Puerto Princesa Palawan is a great place with great food and good moorage for about $100 per month and rarely Typhoons, but some hiding holes if necessary. Don't listen to negative from people who don't live here. There are good and bad places in every country, but Filipinos are very friendly to foreigners and hospitable.

There is also a marina that will be built soon in Lobo Batangas. It will be the largest full service marina in SE Asia. American designed.

Hi Windrush,
I am a long time sailor (40yrs) living in Bacolod and was wondering if you know the location of the new marina in Lobo??

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by roam

I'm planning on buying next year so I'm mostly just stashing cash in my savings account. I do put a little bit of money in my LendingClub account every week but it's only adds up to a few thousand a year.

-Hugh

Go cash.

I can't tell you if the market will do good or bad over the next year but if it does bad and drops 20%, you either liquidate and lock in the losses or you have to delay your plans to depart.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Not really. All you need to do is to run the card up each month buying the same things you would normally and pay it back at end of month. It's a free loan no matter who you are. Chase just keeps raising my limit each time I run it up because they think that means I will spend more. I think that card started off at $2500 years ago and now it like $30k. They keep asking me to update my income, but I don't have an income and never answer and they still increase my limit if I buy something big (brought a car couple of months ago on my card till my daughter paid me back).

The past 33 months Chase has paid me over $1000 back on the stuff I would have brought anyway. I haven't paid any credit card fees or interest and they pay me $1000 to use the card.

It's not debt for me, it's money convenience of only paying 1 bill each month.

Are you sure, you have not bought anything extra? I can't find it but I saw a study a while back that you spend more when using credit cards vs cash...because it's so convenient.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Mr B

Another one I find funny to hear, If Financial advisers were so smart with advice, Why are they still working for a living, ???????????

Uhhh, do you know any financial advisors? Ever seen the employee parking lot of a financial services company? How even their tan is, even in the dead of winter? Financial advisors stay in the game because it pays very, very well. But for investing imbeciles like me, they are better than just leaving our money in a bond at 1.5%.

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

It's obviously true that some people win the cc game by being disciplined and financially wise. But the cc companies know that many (most?) people are not this way. This is why they offer all these enticements to get people to use their cards.

One can sort of "win" the cc game by being very diligent with paying off balances. For me the biggest potential win is getting what amounts to an interest-free loan for up to 30 days on purchases, and not having to carry wads of cash for contingies. Also, it enables on-line commerce. and so far at least, the cost is borne by the merchant, not the consumer.

The downsides of a credit card are, besides the interest on unpaid balances, are slightly elevated risk of losses through fraud, and of course the deceptive ease of use which makes it so, so easy to make impulse purchases.

But besides the opportunity to get interest payments from undisciplined consumers, and the skim from merchants, the credit card companies benefit mightily from knowing what you buy and when. The card premiums they offer, like points, airmiles or cashback, are basically just an honorarium for that info.