retired or want to be ?  By  nakedguy (Read 717 times)

Hi . First of all I am new to this board and old to riding , this post is not for any financial gain to me in any way , you may or may not agree to my ideas and that is fine , you will not change my thoughts and I will never change yours . I retired when I was 53 and moved from Canada to Panama , almost 7 yrs ago .friends up home were dying of cancer and having smoked for too many years and being a welder on top of that was the reason I drug up and moved , one needs to live brfore one dies . No I did not speak spanish and still not really good but with what little I know and the translation program on my smart phone I can get by .moving out of ones comfort zone is not for everyone just as it was hard yrs ago for the settles when they loaded the wagons and headed west from the east coast .lots of friends up home said I was nuts , other said they would love to try what I was going to do but had kids and or grandkids , I agree with them in some ways but not others , if your kids are still in school then Panama is not the place to be .grade 12 here is maybe grade 7 there .if you kids are adults I disagree as I can picture them turning down a job say in Hawaii because you are their parents and they need to live next to mom and dad , not likely they would be waving goodbye at the airport , grandkids are different , yes grandparents want to be part of their lives , but that does not mean that they could not spend their summer holidays with granny , and grandpa . I do not read or watch the normal main street madia (msm) as I have learned long ago the truth not be told , all of them TNNBS , CBSBS FOXBS , there all propaganda depts for the goverment .what you believe about the way the world and United States are headed is up to you to decide and it does not really affect me other than in Panama we use the USD , that scares me to be honest as I believe the days of the petro dollar will soon be over. Reading things the fool in the White House says should scare lots of people , like MyIRA  , that is a way of telling people that your 401k type things could soon be bailed in to buy goverment bonds that no other country other than Bulgaria will buy , which is weird in itself as they have bought 29% of their GDP in treasures , I would bet they did not have a 29% budget surplus , but a way of the US goverment to still be running QE 37 forever .anyway back on subject , if you are finding it harder to make ends meet , tired of the cold , need yr round scootin ,Panama might be worth looking at .we do have some that come and last only about 3 yrs and sell out because they find it is not just like home only cheaper , it is a 1st world latin american country , panama city has everything you can buy in Miami for example , million dollar homes or condos , a Bentley dealer etc , outside the city there are gated gringo gettos as most call them , and then there is small town living with the locals as neighbours .I know about the last one .I live just outside a town of maybe 2000 people on a acerage ,20 minute drive to the yr round degree ocean . In and around my area you can buy a new gringo style house , glass windows , good wooden cupboards , tile floors on about a 1100 sq mt lot for about 150.000 ,2 bed ,2 bath or rent from $100a month (very basic local house ) might still have cement floors , no really kitchen cupboards etc to about 800 a month , very gringo A/C etc .the banks here have no FDIC , but after you understand the banks up there have 7 billion insuring 7 trillion you understand you really don't have it up there is things go bad , sure they can cover som e friday after markets close banks like they do now , but thats about it , but here you can not get a loan being a unemployed bottle picker like up there .and I think downstroke on a house is 30 percent , forgot to mention you can also get reasonably nice new homes in new panamaian neighbourhoods , for under $100.000 .anyway they also pay interest on money here .I know a local Credit Union that pays 6.5 % on 5 yr CDs .so yes you might be able to retire earlier than you thought or make your pension go further if you are alrady retired , we have two seasons here , rainy and no rain season , unless you are living in the mountais like a place called Boqutte , it rains there lots yr round and to cool for my liking , I didn't move to the tropics to have to own a sweater , no rain season is there summer Dec until about the end of April , by then everything around me is brown , not much for the cows to eat , etc then I get about 60 inches in the rainy season , most days sunny with a few clouds and might rain for a hour or two , then no rain for a couple of days etc , other than cutting grass it does not really bugger much up .so thats just my 2 cents , you can be retired sooner , scoot lots , in cash 150 house ,10-100 g car ,1500 scooter , kotimi 150 sunracer or a hundred different ones ,200g in the bank paying you 1100 or so every month , which is enough if you have no bills other than phone and power ,24 beer ,$10.50 , chicken , rice , beans and a small salad (local style lunch ) $3 .anyway happy riding nomatter where you hang your hat