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

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

These prices seem right in line with typical Canadian prices: €16 = $24 CND, which is a tad pricy for a steak meal, but in the range. Likewise, $25 CND (€17) for salmon seems on the pricey side, but within the typical range.

Not sure what all the fuss is about guys.

I know you are not talking about where I live!! NYC would love those prices, but then we're out of our minds for living here!

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Not really sure what the bun fight is over. Just that your menu caught my eye. The prices seem comparable, but on the high side, of what I’d expect to find here. It’s been a while since I’ve travelled in the USA, but my little currency converter suggests the steak and salmon dinners are also in the expected range; not really more, nor less..

That’s because you haven’t traveled across any oceans to discover the HUGE difference in quality, service, ambience and taste.... to experience it first hand.

You only know Canada... we’re not discussing cheap Canadian restaurants.... you can’t use a currency converter to compare food between Montenegro and Newfoundland.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

I know you are not talking about where I live!! NYC would love those prices, but then we're out of our minds for living here!

Could be .

Originally Posted by Kenomac

That’s because you haven’t traveled across any oceans to discover the HUGE difference in quality, service, ambience and taste.... to experience it first hand.

You only know Canada... we’re not discussing cheap Canadian restaurants.... you can’t use a currency converter to compare food between Montenegro and Newfoundland.

Ken, I know you don’t mean to be condescending, but you are. You have no idea where I’ve travelled or what I’ve done.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Ken, I know you don’t mean to be condescending, but you are. You have no idea where I’ve travelled or what I’ve done.

Condescending???

All YOU ever do is talk up everything Canada and put down everything from everywhere else, especially the USA.

Please enlighten me as a fellow Canadian, as to where you’ve traveled recently and what foods served in countries other than Canada that you tasted. Hint: Chinese food served up in Canada doesn’t count.

[markpierce]

Restaurants are very expensive in Switzerland, but beer is cheaper than water in Prague.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by daletournier

The G20 meeting in Brisbane is where it changed I believe.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-g2...rom%20%251%24s

Although there's meant to be a federal government (Australia)guarantee that covers upto 250k deposits in reality there is no fund setup to cover those deposits. The waters are very murky here. New Zealand has very transparent bail in laws.

Remember when you have money in the bank you are a unsecured lender to that bank.

We have a similar problem here. There is a very interesting company that functions in a similar manner as a bank, but does it with physical gold (NOT futures). Obviously there is a transaction fee but essentially you buy an amount of physical gold and the company holds it for you. You then get an ATM card and make cash withdrawals as needed. They convert the gold to your local currency.


It is a nice way to hedge some of your money against devaluation, bail-ins (aka legal theft) and other nefarious schemes. No system is perfect but this has some value.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by markpierce

Restaurants are very expensive in Switzerland, but beer is cheaper than water in Prague.

That is the important part!!

[a64pilot]

Well whatever it’s worth I have travelled the world pretty extensively, some invited with a passport, some not
The standard of living if maintained as the same seems to be actually very close. Now there are differences like just after the wall fell you could get things at a good price, but if you wanted the same standard of living that you had in Western Germany, the cost was about the same, the difference was the average standard of living was much lower, so comparing average to average, it was cheaper.
Kuwait City, Dubai and the UAE weren’t cheap, but who would want to live there anyway?
Morocco was interesting as I believe it was more South Europe than North Africa If that makes sense. I liked the Gendarmerie I worked with.
Columbia was beautiful, the interior anyway, I could live in Medillian.
Cost Rica has too many Americans, Guatemala was promising, don’t know about Mexico, no recent experience there or Belize.

Ecuador from what I saw was just too poor. I hate to see children begging in the streets.

[UFO]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Pales in comparison to oil companies, arms merchants and war mongering.

Very True - You forgot Pharmaceutical Companies though

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Here’s the full picture(s).

Looks like a beautiful and delicious night Ken.

I think part of the joy of travelling is the food trip!

I agree, the Med outshines every other Sea in the world, with local cuisine to a very high standard.

But in this cost conscious thread about value, it is the remote areas where a boat can take you .....that you can either catch or buy seafood at truly remarkable prices.

Wild Tiger Prawns $2.94/kilo
Mangrove Crabs, the same!

Remote placed in Thailand or Malaysia have great Cuisine if you like curries and Asian food, but I drool when thinking of some of the great Resteraunts I have been to in Europe.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I think part of the joy of travelling is the food trip!

Remote placed in Thailand or Malaysia have great Cuisine if you like curries and Asian food, but I drool when thinking of some of the great Resteraunts I have been to in Europe.

Put me down for some of that action.
Its what we have been working towards for a decade and now have the boat to step off, carry a spare boat in parts and come up to adventure land.

Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to replicate Thai, Viet, Malay/Nyonya, Indo feeds.

Be great to get there and get the real deal again daily.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Well whatever it’s worth I have travelled the world pretty extensively, some invited with a passport, some not
The standard of living if maintained as the same seems to be actually very close. Now there are differences like just after the wall fell you could get things at a good price, but if you wanted the same standard of living that you had in Western Germany, the cost was about the same, the difference was the average standard of living was much lower, so comparing average to average, it was cheaper.
Kuwait City, Dubai and the UAE weren’t cheap, but who would want to live there anyway?
Morocco was interesting as I believe it was more South Europe than North Africa If that makes sense. I liked the Gendarmerie I worked with.
Columbia was beautiful, the interior anyway, I could live in Medillian.
Cost Rica has too many Americans, Guatemala was promising, don’t know about Mexico, no recent experience there or Belize.

Ecuador from what I saw was just too poor. I hate to see children begging in the streets.

Belize is very expensive because import duties and fuel/sales taxes are all very high. Belize produces very little so most all products available are expensive. Importation is not only expensive, but a big hassle too (until you are there long enough to work out an arrangement w a Customs agent). [emoji6]

Belize & CR are the two most expensive countries in Central America. Both however do have much more stable histories than their neighbors.

Guate is way less expensive, but way less infrastructure (poor) than CR, and of course there are security/stability issues. I love Guate, its the most amazing country in CA, but its not for everybody.

Panama is a good compromise in CA. Modest cost of living. Good infrastructure (transport, utilities, fire, medical, police...). Lowish crime rate. Few security/stability issues. Booming economy...which helps w all the above.

Colombia is beautiful and their security situation appears to be on the road to improving, but...Im pretty sure moving there would be bad for my marriage! [emoji7]

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to replicate Thai, Viet, Malay/Nyonya, Indo feeds.

Be great to get there and get the real deal again daily.

+1 on that.

In ThaiLand waters, we found that dinghying ashore for a meal at a small food stall (the sort of thing attached to a home) was less expensive and better than purchasing provisions and cooking on board.

But I note from the ThaiLand press a few disquieting events in recent months:

* starting on 20 August, smoking a cigarette in your own home in ThaiLand becomes illegal. No one knows how this is going to be enforced. And the law is a joke when you realise that big parts of Bangkok (and Chiang Mai) suffer from serious air pollution for months each year. The usual story ... laws in ThaiLand too often are ways to take money from your pocket and put into an enforcer's pocket. See: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand...e-to-be-banned

* since March this year, it's been a technical requirement that foreigners register their address (and update their address) when in ThaiLand. And that seems to include all foreigners, including permanent residents. For the nonce, a marina in which you're moored takes responsibility. But for anyone thinking of swallowing the anchor in ThaiLand, it may be something of an irritant. Again, how this will be implemented (instead of just used to extract money from your pocket) is unclear. Here's today's story on the issue from the Bangkok Post: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business...gh-with-guests

* the good news item is that food in ThaiLand is getting safer. Fresh fruit and veg have been checked for each of the past few years. The trend has always been that fresh veg and fruit at supermarkets is always more likely to have been overdosed with pesticides than what you buy at a wet market (the deal being that supermarkets want produce to look good and the way to do that is to soak it in pesticides while it is growing. Same goes for up class restaurants. Small scale eateries are more likely to buy their ingredients at the local wet market). So this year, only 41% of fresh veg was poisoned with pesticide. Down from 46% in 2018 (and down from 2017 etc). See: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand...s-contaminated

[Pelagic]

In the Philippines, if you are a foreigner with a residence visa, you need to make an annual report at the nearest immigration office within the first two months of the year.
Takes about 5 minutes and cost 10$
Nothing onerous about that

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

In the Philippines, if you are a foreigner with a residence visa, you need to make an annual report at the nearest immigration office within the first two months of the year.
Takes about 5 minutes and cost 10$

Yair. When I lived in MManila in the 1990s, we had to have full dabs of all fingers and palms, etc. Apart from that, v relaxed wrt authorities.

The real problem was the general low level of security, high level of gun ownership, and high level of air pollution in Metro Manila. Outside of the Philippines, I could to dine out on my stories of seeing pitched battles at the local barangay bar between the police and the AFP. Or the PAL employee who took out his femoral artery when he slipped his pistol into his waistband on his way home from the office. Or the number of people I knew who were killed in bungled kidnap attempts. Or any of the several events of road rage when an angry driver on EDSA took out the horn-beeping driver of the car or bus behind him in the afternoon traffic. Or the New Years Day when NAIA was closed because the celebratory tire-burning had dropped visibility to zero. Or the wife of the ambassador from XXX who got her first drivers licence ever by sitting in the rear seat with her chauffeur up front doing the test. Or ...