Laid off people turned Ex-Pats Living on the CHEAP?

havent been to this thread for awhile....

kinda seems like chatter has gone off topic....

Nuthin new about that!

Maybe if all those Texans threatening to secede did so, we could bring tuition costs down. But then, by Dec. 21 it ain't gonna matter anyway... we'll all be toast. 'Cept for the doomsday preppers. What a crazy fucking world. :eek1

Now back to you're regularly scheduled programming...

Depends on where you sit on the International Dateline!

Good point. The rest of us can sit by and see if Tuvalu and Kiribati bite the dust, and then take appropriate action if necessary. I hope CNN has someone positioned out there to give us the signal.

My only regret is that I will have but two hours to savor the demise of Texas.

Just read the last few pages. A few thoughts:

About the guys making mad cash out of the country? I travel often and have plenty of reason to come into contact with EXPATS. One I know just landed a gig with KBR in Australia for near $200K U.S. plus expenses a year.

Exception, not rule. Most of the expats I know struggle to make $50K a year.

For the ones who have gone completely on the local economy? Why would anyone assume that they would make any more than the locals doing the same job? Unless of course they had a rare skill not possessed by the locals.

There are many newer expat communities where the residents expect a level of service above what the locals can provide and may pay for it....but let's remember, they are there mostly to live on a limited budget, so how much more will they really pay?

A friend of mine is looking at Belize because he can live there on less than $1300 a month and his pension will be $1900 a month. What are the chances that he's going to pay mad cash to get his boat fixed?

I posses a rare and mysterious skill which would easily earn me several hundred thousands of dollars a year in select countries......No thanks. I'll pass. I like it here just fine.

As for College? I put my kid thru college in four years. we paid for most of it and borrowed a total $8K.

1. College costs will rise to consume all available funding. Making loans easier to get or cheaper won't control costs. It will do the opposite.

2. Not everyone belongs in college. Sorry, that's a hard fact that goes against our current touchy feely climate. Some kids? Belong in a factory making widgets. Let's spend some money finding meaningful jobs instead of education kids who don't belong there for jobs that don't exist.

3. No more free rides. A kid going to college needs to have some skin in the game. If they really want to go, they'll figure it out. Uncle Sam giving away cheaper loans won;t do anything but make it more expensive. I gave my son what I was giving and the rest was on him. He worked, he saved and he scrimped to get by. And he knew I was only playing for 4 years. Not 4 1/2 or 5. I was paying for education, not drinking and banging young hot skanks.

I've got three kids that are all straight A students and two left who need college. I could buy a new Corvette every year...but instead I save for college. Because that's what grown ups do. I was making $11 an hour when my son was born 24 years ago. In 24 years I've done some crappy jobs and I've worked for a lot less than $11 an hour and I make a whole lot more than that now. All the time I've missed from work in the last 24 years adds up to less than 3 months. Total. And that includes the recession of the early 90's.

If I made less, I would pay for my kids to go to a school more in line with what I could afford. And if my kids weren't college material? The Military is a fine place for a young man and there are plenty of vocations that require minimal (18 months or less) training for a young lady to take up.

FREE Public Education is the foundation of modern western democratic society.

Hmm, the phrase "you get what you pay for comes to mind".

First of all, public education is not free. More education doesn't necesarily equate to better opportunities or better competitiveness for John Q Public who is paying the bill. Better education may, though better is not limited to private schools.

In what way is it "the foundation of modern western democratic society", and what does society get for that investment?

I can't believe that anyone in the 21st Century would argue against public education.

It's unbelievable John ,

I agree with that, but it's not incompatible with making higher education more affordable for those that ARE college material.

I always thought Thailand had a good model. All graduating high schoolers take a national standard exam, and based on their scores they can choose their own placement; highest scores get first dibs on the best universities and the most desirable majors, for example medicine or law. And when those slots are filled the next highest can make their choices and so on down the line until all university entry slots are filled and the rest can either go to work at something appropriate to their intellectual level or pay handsomely for a private university (which have less prestige in Thailand --everybody knows why you are there). For those admitted to public universities costs are very low -- but medical and dental grads are required to spend some time after graduation in public hospitals and clinics to repay society for their education.

This meets your goal of keeping less-than-capable kids out of colleges where they waste their time and their parents' money. And it is totally merit-based. Yes, many may not be able to fulfill their lifelong ambition to be a doctor, lawyer or microbiologist, but reality is going to jump up and bite them at some time anyway.

Congratulations - most of us don't, and are unwilling or uncapable of finding, learning or making up a skill like that, that will fund college options for multiple offspring and a lifestyle that affords the possibility of a new Corvette every year as an alternate option or once they are all on their way, option...that's why we're all looking at other options.

I don't see that your "thoughts" add any value to the thread, at all, in any way other than to make sure you contrast yourself with people of less fortitude, competency and ability but with more capability to look for something outside the 'merican dream you purport to live. You have found a niche and we applaud you, but the rest of us haven't or don't see the possibility and seek greener(to us) pastures and are looking for similar advice/scenarios/possibilities.

Congratulations, you have not done what or explored the places that most of the posters have in this thread - the inspirational ones. I dunno what you did before you had kids but based on the chronology you illustrate, not much that might inspire most subscribers to this thread.

Lastly, aren't you enabling your kids with your "investment" in them just like the government would have with student loans or grants? Please, differentiate in the differences of enablement factor!

I meet a lot of people here in Alaska that have lived and worked all over. A lot of people here, especially those without kids or spouses, work here in the summer months and then head south to wherever is warmer i.e. anywhere come winter... or bunker down in their little cabin in the hills till the sun comes back. Heck my original goal wasn't far off from that and is still something that interests me. what I've learned most this summer is that a person can live frugally anywhere.

The only real difficulty for me has been getting my s.o. on the same page. I'm having a hard time convincing her that life is still life if it's lived in a house, on a boat, in an rv, or out of a saddlebag. Or maybe I'm the one that needs convincing that a home isn't a death sentence to travel and a wandering life.

"Belong in a factory making widgets"

Those jobs are gone or will rapidly be gone. Factories don't require manual labor any more the few jobs that haven't been eliminated by computers will be in a steady march to what's termed "lights out factorys" the lights never come on, materials in one end, product out the other. Oh Truck drivers are still required for the time being but as Warren Buffett said about his billions invested in railroads, they'll be the transportation of the future.

The whole concept of work needs to be redefined as humans are rapidly becoming obsolete in accomplishing work, wheather it's blue collar or white collar. We could start the definition with the requirement that a person has a high school diploma of content, not what passes in the USA for a diploma by todays standard.

We have just started to realise this in Britain and re-introduced apprenticeships, for one thing we were running out of skilled people be it in my field of engineering, the building trade or mechanics, if it were not for the influx of skilled workers from Central Europe nothing would get done here. The other point is with tuition fees and living costs while studying, university education has become an expensive luxury with no guarantee of a good job afterwards, school leavers seem to be encouraged to do any degree with little thought as to its use afterwards, we have some very qualified shelf stackers and bar staff.

in another thread that I thought related well to this one, which I love to read...
Summary: you can do well in the US also.

Jdowns: "Living in a foreign country sounds good on paper but it gets old for most people after 6 months or so. I suggest people go rent a place in the foreign country that interests them and see for themselves before making any big expensive lifestyle changes." THIS. I've lived in a few 1st world countries, and enjoyed it, but if you don't speak the language and make friends fast, you get lonely... IMHO. A rental in a foreign country for 3 or 4 months, then running back home would be ideal. My goal is to have a few rentals in the States, run away for 3 or 4 months, then bounce back... take care of business. I find the US of A to be about as cheap for the quality as you can get... people just want and expect too much, and often, you can't find that for cheap in other countries.... Mexico included. Quality and safety cost...

I live in a house that cost me 48k, 4 years ago in a somewhat ghetto neighborhood, close to Atlanta... they stole my 1997 DR650 in April... part of the cost you pay... this place has saved me over 38,000 dollars in rent/mortgage over 4 years versus my intown house that I now rent out... the moto was valued at 2k and got me to the Copper Canyon and back last December...

In a few years I plan on renting a place ON the beach in Central America, probably Honduras or Guatemala, for a few months and just laying low, and riding out when I feel like it....

JDowns, thanks for your RR, they are hard to do and keep up with. My RR to Copper Canyon was decent I thought, but it was really, really tough keeping up with it.... http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=745618 you are doing a great job and keeping us entertained to boot! Thanks! Ride Safe and keep on Writing! Gentri in GA

Sorry -- at your current age your SSI won't be kicking in at 65. More like 71

If ever.

Live now. Then Live good later too. The Deferred Life Plan is no good. Thinking you will have it made 20 years from now..........

So true. But it's great to have plans for the future.

Seems life is always surprising me with something new that I hadn't expected. Sometimes it good, and sometimes it's not.

It's easy to make lemonade from lemons, but I haven't found a good way to salvage BS!