Anonymous wrote:I fall into the $5-$10 million category, live in the DMV, am early retired, and as we speak vacationing abroad. Why can’t you just that? Why do you have to move away from your family and friends?

Anonymous wrote:I fall into the $5-$10 million category, live in the DMV, am early retired, and as we speak vacationing abroad. Why can’t you just that? Why do you have to move away from your family and friends?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest question.

Just got back after two months in South America (including some very dangerous areas), and didn’t see much crime.

Land in Newark, and witness a knife altercation outside Newark Penn station.

I just don’t understand why anyone stays in the us outside of the chance of economic opportunity.

But on a more serious note, a lot of dcum’ers have 5-10 net worths…why aren’t you guys buying your way out to San Sebastián or Bilbao or lake garda or lucca or strasbourg, nice, aix-en-Provence, tours, Innsbruck etc…just as examples.

….5-10 is more than enough to insulate yourself from the cost of living in nice European towns, partially retire and live off of an actively managed portfolio while consulting or doing odd stuff here or there for some pocket change if you want to.

Is it friends/family?

Before people accuse me of being a poor, I have a number of friends who make 1.5-2 a year, and I’m not that envious of their lives and they still have to deal with some of the same QoL stuff by virtue of living here. It’s not like their lives are magically in a bubble
where it’s suddenly a Swiss style living for them because of their income and wealth.

Maybe my one friend who exited to park city that makes around 3 a year is the only one that seems to have insulated himself well.

Great question but the most obvious answer is this: just move to safe and sane and cheap Florida. Which is what hundreds of thousands of people are doing every year, leaving blue states.

Moving abroad requires much more work.

Lol. Florida? Florida is a overcrowded swamp with no culture and nothing but a bunch of blue heads, rednecks, and hicks. I’d rather retire to El Salvador or something.

You almost certainly would not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest question.

Just got back after two months in South America (including some very dangerous areas), and didn’t see much crime.

Land in Newark, and witness a knife altercation outside Newark Penn station.

I just don’t understand why anyone stays in the us outside of the chance of economic opportunity.

But on a more serious note, a lot of dcum’ers have 5-10 net worths…why aren’t you guys buying your way out to San Sebastián or Bilbao or lake garda or lucca or strasbourg, nice, aix-en-Provence, tours, Innsbruck etc…just as examples.

….5-10 is more than enough to insulate yourself from the cost of living in nice European towns, partially retire and live off of an actively managed portfolio while consulting or doing odd stuff here or there for some pocket change if you want to.

Is it friends/family?

Before people accuse me of being a poor, I have a number of friends who make 1.5-2 a year, and I’m not that envious of their lives and they still have to deal with some of the same QoL stuff by virtue of living here. It’s not like their lives are magically in a bubble
where it’s suddenly a Swiss style living for them because of their income and wealth.

Maybe my one friend who exited to park city that makes around 3 a year is the only one that seems to have insulated himself well.

Great question but the most obvious answer is this: just move to safe and sane and cheap Florida. Which is what hundreds of thousands of people are doing every year, leaving blue states.

Moving abroad requires much more work.

Lol. Florida? Florida is a overcrowded swamp with no culture and nothing but a bunch of blue heads, rednecks, and hicks. I’d rather retire to El Salvador or something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Long term generational wealth? Nauseating. Your job as a parent is to give the kids a good upbringing, pay for college, steer them in a debt free right direction and that’s it. It’s not to endow them financially for the rest of their lives.

While I agree with you that the long term generational wealth comment is pretty odd, moving your kids to a different country is going to have pretty big impacts on their lives. Is a kid raised in say, Costa Rica, going to attend a college in the US? Or go back and live and work in the US? Will he be able to make the kind of money you made to allow you to move to Costa Rica and live a nice life? Probably not, and it will be because he grew up in Costa Rica.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Long term generational wealth? Nauseating. Your job as a parent is to give the kids a good upbringing, pay for college, steer them in a debt free right direction and that’s it. It’s not to endow them financially for the rest of their lives.

Speak for yourself. I was happy to get 75% of my college education paid for on top of being cared for well until I turned 18. I want much more for my kids - enough money to do something but not so much money they have to do nothing, as Warren Buffett said.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Long term generational wealth? Nauseating. Your job as a parent is to give the kids a good upbringing, pay for college, steer them in a debt free right direction and that’s it. It’s not to endow them financially for the rest of their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest question.

Just got back after two months in South America (including some very dangerous areas), and didn’t see much crime.

Land in Newark, and witness a knife altercation outside Newark Penn station.

I just don’t understand why anyone stays in the us outside of the chance of economic opportunity.

But on a more serious note, a lot of dcum’ers have 5-10 net worths…why aren’t you guys buying your way out to San Sebastián or Bilbao or lake garda or lucca or strasbourg, nice, aix-en-Provence, tours, Innsbruck etc…just as examples.

….5-10 is more than enough to insulate yourself from the cost of living in nice European towns, partially retire and live off of an actively managed portfolio while consulting or doing odd stuff here or there for some pocket change if you want to.

Is it friends/family?

Before people accuse me of being a poor, I have a number of friends who make 1.5-2 a year, and I’m not that envious of their lives and they still have to deal with some of the same QoL stuff by virtue of living here. It’s not like their lives are magically in a bubble
where it’s suddenly a Swiss style living for them because of their income and wealth.

Maybe my one friend who exited to park city that makes around 3 a year is the only one that seems to have insulated himself well.

Great question but the most obvious answer is this: just move to safe and sane and cheap Florida. Which is what hundreds of thousands of people are doing every year, leaving blue states.

Moving abroad requires much more work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Long term generational wealth? Nauseating. Your job as a parent is to give the kids a good upbringing, pay for college, steer them in a debt free right direction and that’s it. It’s not to endow them financially for the rest of their lives.

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Anonymous wrote:Countries outside of the US are nice to visit - as you did OP. If you were from one of these paradise destinations, you would think othewise. There is no place like America.

Anonymous wrote:Because we are thinking about long term generational wealth and stability for kids and grandkids. Not just peacing out and living in a vacation destination for the rest of our lives. That’s what travel and trips are for.

Anonymous wrote:The US is the best country in the world for healthy, savvy, high earning professionals who have strong social supports. And to a lesser extent for people with special needs or disabilities or children with special needs. That describes a lot of people on this board including me. For everyone else it is a crap show.

But even now my husband and I consider getting a condo in our home country in retirement. This would have been somewhat unthinkable 20 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being an expat is hard and lonely.

Op here

I have been an expat

It’s not that hard and imo since it’s easier to afford areas with less dysfunction and a more “socially attuned” built-environment (public third spaces, public transport, Walkability) abroad than similarly in the us, I’d argue the us is more lonely (which data seems to back up)

And with the economic resource parameter I mentioned above, it would be even easier as I was an expat with less resources so I couldn’t trade money for time to socialize as easily as I could with more money

Expat is just White people term for immigrant. The vast majority of immigrants in the US were Expats first and they all adapted and thrived. Along the way, most chose to become immigrants and settled here. The common trait among all successful Expats is youth. Kinda hard to find someone in their 70s who'd thrive in a new environment especially if they don't know the language.

I do agree with OP on this.. If you are in your 30s/early 40s, already made some money but not all (say $2-5 mil), have a business that runs on its own, there's absolutely no reason to migrate to other parts of the world. Your kids will be young enough to adapt and will be enriched in the process and you will enjoy a lifestyle that is several times better than your current one in the US.