Fstoppers moved to Puerto Rico. Have you had the desire to move?

[webrunner5]

Really interesting Long video, about Fstoppers moving to an Island. I get itchy feet often, moving myself 1,000 miles away from where I live now or more. Not that drastic of a move but.. Anyone else had the desire to just sort of pick up and go somewhere Really different? Not just because of something bad happening where you are located, but just to get a new shot of energy from a new community, a lift in spirits,. A new look at even the same profession, or maybe a chance to change completely.

I really never gave Puerto Rico much of a thought. But it does sound interesting, and less of a challenge than I would have guessed. This video might help someone who thought about moving there. It answers a lot of questions about it.

 

[thebrothersthre3]

Its probably lovely there. Mean while here in Michigan we are getting record lows -3 tomorrow lol. I've definitely thought about moving. 

[webrunner5]

Yeah I know how you feel. I was raised out in the country south of Lansing, Michigan as a small kid for 6 years. My brother was born in Lansing. Nice place to say you Used to live there LoL. Plenty of Mosquitoes and Snakes where we lived. Yeah suppose to be -6 degrees here tomorrow night. Wonderful. Snowing again right now.

[kye]

Not to Puerto Rico!

I'm playing a long game to disconnect where I live from how I make my money, so having a more international lifestyle, kind of like the Digital Nomad dream.

I remember when I was young and you'd see the snooty rich people saying "we spend our summers in the south of France" in their snooty accents while looking down their noses at everyone else who can't afford to do that.  
Later on in life the thought crossed my mind that if you can work remotely (or work online, etc) then you can do that "summers in the south of France" kind of lifestyle too.  Instead of buying an average house (the median house price here in Australia is something like AU$800k!) you can live really simply and can buy two or three small apartments in small out-of-the-way towns in various places around the world, and just travel between them.
That was about 15 years ago, and now we have airbnb, housesitting, and other sharing platforms, and this means you don't have to own anything really.  As soon as you look at real-estate more than a 3-hour drive from any capital cities CBD then prices drop significantly, and so the rent-for-a-few-months price goes down below the cost of renting a not-great place in the suburbs.  If you're interested in building capital with property ownership then buying multiples at $100k a pop is still an option, assuming you can navigate the foreign ownership laws of whatever country you're looking at.

Possibly the biggest challenge is that you move away from your friends, family, kids, etc.  It's a big deal for people who retire to somewhere warmer that they leave behind their social and support networks.  

My long game is to live between the same few locations and build up networks in each of them.  Of course, I have to work out how to pay for everything first

Good thread.

[webrunner5]

Yeah I follow 4 people, some with kids that RV and 3 people that are on sailboats, and one on a power boat. I help support all of them through Patreon. They all have jobs they do through the internet. Most of them work for the same company they used to work for. So a person can live on the road as they say for at least several years. I doubt forever kind of thing you could.

I am lucky I get social security and 2 pensions. Not rich, but make enough to be pretty free and independent. But if I want to buy a somewhat high dollar item I pretty much have to sell something else I bought to do it. No 2 toys at a time thing.

I didn't ever do what I really wanted as I worked in my younger years. I kind of always wanted to have a completely different kind of job every year. I get bored pretty easy. And I also like to always be learning something I never knew before. But when you are married and have children those sort of dreams don't also make any real sense. So you do what you are required to supply, a steady income for your family. Welcome to normal life.

But I will be 72 in a little over a month and I know my time is coming to an end, at least to be doing any sort of moving, RVing, walking, hiking on and on, or hell maybe even living to see another year. Never know. I have been rode hard and put up wet as they say. ?

No I am not moving to Puerto Rico either LoL. But it does sound a lot more doable than I would have guessed. I sort of envy the Fstopper folks. Doing something they like in a whole new surrounding, meeting apparently some really interesting, successful, friendly people to learn a few new tricks. Whats not to like. Change can be good. It can recharge your batteries. Make it worth looking forward to getting up in the morning. That is something that is very desirable for sure in a happy life, and damn hard to maintain.

[newfoundmass]

Puerto Rico is still in such a bad place after the hurricane, and even before that the economy was in a pretty awful state. 

I can see why it could be attractive though. The cost of living is comparatively low compared to the rest of the US. If they're living off of ad revenue it'll go a lot longer there than it would in most states. The low cost of living has been a big reason why Asia has seen significant numbers of westerners moving there. Camera Conspiracies on YouTube has lived in a half dozen apartments while living in Thailand, some were nicer than others but all were under $500 a month even though they were fully furnished. I could see similar benefits to moving to Puerto Rico. 

 

Me, I've lived in Vermont pretty much my whole life. Used to dream of getting out as soon as possible, but it's home. Sure, it gets freezing cold. And yeah, the two snow storms in the last 2 weeks dumping 2 feet of snow total is a bit much, even for me, but I still love the place. Prefer it greatly to the 2 months I lived in Austin, TX last year at the height of the bombings. Wasn't too keen on living about 5 miles away film one of the bombings. 

[webrunner5]

I am very surprised by your statement of AU$800k for a average house. That sounds crazy. Where I live here I would say the average is 150 to 175 thousand dollars. Even my daughter that lives in California I say is 500K or a bit more on average, and she lives 14 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. You Really Need to move LoL.

10 minutes ago, newfoundmass said:

Puerto Rico is still in such a bad place after the hurricane, and even before that the economy was in a pretty awful state. 

I can see why it could be attractive though. The cost of living is comparatively low compared to the rest of the US. If they're living off of ad revenue it'll go a lot longer there than it would in most states. The low cost of living has been a big reason why Asia has seen significant numbers of westerners moving there. Camera Conspiracies on YouTube has lived in a half dozen apartments while living in Thailand, some were nicer than others but all were under $500 a month even though they were fully furnished. I could see similar benefits to moving to Puerto Rico. 

 

Me, I've lived in Vermont pretty much my whole life. Used to dream of getting out as soon as possible, but it's home. Sure, it gets freezing cold. And yeah, the two snow storms in the last 2 weeks dumping 2 feet of snow total is a bit much, even for me, but I still love the place. Prefer it greatly to the 2 months I lived in Austin, TX last year at the height of the bombings. Wasn't too keen on living about 5 miles away film one of the bombings. 

Austin, TX is actually one of the Few places I would live in Texas. A really progressive city with a lots of things to do. And a dream come true if you are into country western music LoL. Even a terrible place can seem like home, but I think change is not a bad thing for all involved. Tough leaving family, but that is sort of how life is suppose to work. Going out on your own as they say.

Yes Vermont is a very beautiful place to live but man with this Global Warming stuff it seems like it is becoming a Bad place to be. Not much into 2 foot snowfalls and floods all the time LoL.

[kye]

18 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

I am very surprised by your statement of AU$800k for a average house. That sounds crazy. Where I live here I would say the average is 150 to 175 thousand dollars. Even my daughter that lives in California I say is 500K or a bit more on average, and she lives 14 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. You Really Need to move LoL.

Tell me about it!

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australia-has-5-of-the-worlds-20-least-affordable-cities-in-which-to-buy-a-home-2016-9

What's amusing about that list is that Australia only has 5 cities with more than a million people in them, so every one of them is in the top 20

Then again, how much would someone have to pay me to move away from all my friends, all my extended family, all my clients and professional contacts, all my kids friends, etc etc...  My plan is to add locations to live in, not remove this one.

I also left out something from my above summary.  If you're interested in investing then you can buy and rent out properties (or invest in industrial real-estate which is a better investment in some locations) and then use rental income to offset the cost of temporary accommodation wherever you're actually staying.  That gets around foreign ownership laws, etc.

[User]

Nice thread Webrunner5.
I've spent 25 years hoping 40 different countries with long periods in several of them.
As Kye put his finger on, I'd say the main challenge is building up a decent group of friends - especially in a world where many seem to be content with social media and their own families.
In my younger years I thought I could set up in just one place and hang in, but I began to see that it was somehow better to keep my options open and that meant not owning property unless it's was a base in the country of my nationality, which I've managed. But it does get exhausting always having to hunt accommodation out in the wider world.
The challenge is that after so many years in so many places, no place is home... even my home. So I constantly keep an eye out for a place that could work... the trick in going forward is to not get trapped in paradise 
Cuba gets interesting, highly educated and low crime... just have to wait for Trump's court date and the warming that we saw under Obama can continue. Let's see.


 

[IronFilm]

2 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Really interesting Long video, about Fstoppers moving to an Island.

New Zealand has a really great Island to live on. 

25 minutes ago, kye said:

Tell me about it!

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australia-has-5-of-the-worlds-20-least-affordable-cities-in-which-to-buy-a-home-2016-9

What's amusing about that list is that Australia only has 5 cities with more than a million people in them, so every one of them is in the top 20

Unfortunately NZ has a kinda similar problem as well....

 

48 minutes ago, newfoundmass said:

Camera Conspiracies on YouTube has lived in a half dozen apartments while living in Thailand, some were nicer than others but all were under $500 a month even though they were fully furnished.

What does the guy behind Camera Conspiracies mostly do for income?
 

[Orangenz]

41 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

I am very surprised by your statement of AU$800k for a average house. That sounds crazy. Where I live here I would say the average is 150 to 175 thousand dollars. Even my daughter that lives in California I say is 500K or a bit more on average, and she lives 14 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. You Really Need to move LoL.

Not only that, but the size and quality is completely different too. US houses are like mansions compared to here. It can easily be over $10,000 just to get the local city council to look at the plans to build a house here, without the land being touched or any guarantee you can build anything. 

4 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

New Zealand has a really great Island to live on. 

Well there is that

[kye]

2 hours ago, User said:

But it does get exhausting always having to hunt accommodation out in the wider world.
The challenge is that after so many years in so many places, no place is home... even my home.

Yeah, I've moved house a lot, and in some ways I feel like if I had just had a single house growing up and one or two as an adult I'd have had more time and energy to invest in other things.  Moving house is kind of a major project that you wouldn't want to do more than once a year.  I'd be a lot of major projects ahead of where I am now, that's for sure.  Then again, if you just stop watching TV and do projects instead you can accomplish quite a lot over time.

I read a book about being an expat and it was interesting.  One of the things that it mentioned was that every place you go is an opportunity for you to see how other people live and to potentially adopt a few of their habits into your life.  Unfortunately as you get older you fit into any single culture less and less, and when you come 'home' you find that you no longer fit in there either.  There's definitely challenges that go along with the glossy postcard moments!

2 hours ago, Orangenz said:

Not only that, but the size and quality is completely different too. US houses are like mansions compared to here. It can easily be over $10,000 just to get the local city council to look at the plans to build a house here, without the land being touched or any guarantee you can build anything. 

Actually, we're not so different in terms of size: https://www.commsec.com.au/content/dam/EN/ResearchNews/2018Reports/November/ECO_Insights_191118_CommSec-Home-Size.pdf

Average size of new homes in US 202.0sqm and Australia 186.3sqm.  Existing houses would be interesting to see the stats on, but I think that the US has more extremes.  Yes, there are huge McMansions that Australia doesn't have that many of (we do have some) but we also have far less apartments than the US.  It's easy to get caught up in the "everything in the US is bigger" hype (those Texans sure talk a big game) but we're getting closer in car sizes too.  The most common cars here are large family vehicles, which are a lot more popular here than smaller cars like Corollas or whatever.  The US is still beating us though, but only because they're desperately trying to overcompensate for something...  https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/australia-taking-on-american-love-of-big-cars-38036

Besides, Texas is pretty small actually..  it's not even the largest state in the US

[ND64]

3 hours ago, kye said:

The US is still beating us though, but only because they're desperately trying to overcompensate for something..

Technically speaking, only indigenous Australians don't need to compensate for that thing. 

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

I'm thinking very fondly to move from Brazil to Portugal in this year or next. For retired americans, Algarve is kind of a paradise, beutiful and cheap.

[kye]

1 hour ago, Eric Calabros said:

Technically speaking, only indigenous Australians don't need to compensate for that thing. 

Yeah ???

[BTM_Pix]

Me and my better half have been living the dream as it were of working in one country while living in a different one (UK and Spain) for a few years.

In her case, its quite static (UK from Spain) but with me, depending on what it is I'm up to, I will do jobs in both countries and also other EU countries as well.

It works really well and completely seamlessly (with VOIP, calls are transferred from her colleague as though she was in another room rather than another country) and the lifestyle difference is fantastic, particularly for her as her commute to work lasts about 15 seconds each way rather than 45 minutes each way.

I would definitely recommend it if you have the sort of job (or can even create or learn the sort of job) that can be done remotely or is an easily re-locatable skill.

What I would caution though is that if you are doing it as a mixed nationality couple then you somehow safeguard against the possibility of one of your countries conjuring up an omnishambles that completely torpedoes all that as ours will be in 58 days, 7 hours, 53 minutes and 27 seconds from now

At which point, I'll be a non-EU citizen trying to live and work in an EU country and she will be an EU citizen living in an EU country working for a non-EU country.

Currently browsing short term rentals in Tokyo....

 

 

[webrunner5]

Wow Tokyo that would be quite the change! Not too fond of cities that big but it certainly is a beautiful city with amazing history behind it. I doubt I would fit in there very well. I am not really too polite LoL. Not proud of it, but it is what it is. Plus they take stuff way too serious. Doesn't sound like fun in the long run to me.

[webrunner5]

1 hour ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

I'm thinking very fondly to move from Brazil to Portugal in this year or next. For retired americans, Algarve is kind of a paradise, beutiful and cheap.

I have always loved Portugal but i have never been to that area. Mostly the Lisbon area.  It looks beautiful from the pictures I have seen. Closest I have ever been to it is Gibraltar fending off monkeys left and right, and well eating them also LoL. The old monkey on a stick street food! And have been to Tangier across the way, and that is like a night and day difference. Camel on a stick there with a goat or two thrown in for flavoring LoL.

I have Never been to South America. And really don't know anyone I know that has been either. Rather strange when I think about it. I mean it is a Huge Continent. Hmm.

[Django]

10 hours ago, kye said:

I remember when I was young and you'd see the snooty rich people saying "we spend our summers in the south of France" in their snooty accents while looking down their noses at everyone else who can't afford to do that.  
Later on in life the thought crossed my mind that if you can work remotely (or work online, etc) then you can do that "summers in the south of France" kind of lifestyle too.  

1

As someone who has family and spends a lot of down time in one of the most popular areas on the coast of the south of France it kind of amuses me to hear that, as people who live down there all year are always complaining about it and dreaming about going to exotic places (well for them) like Brazil, Hawaii or Australia etc..

Basically, my answer to this thread is the grass is always greener on the other side.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't chase that dream (especially if you are feeling miserable where you are) but it can sometimes be more a fantasy or an illusion.

I know for many visual creatives & electronic musicians here in the EU, Berlin has long been considered the mecca.

I've got quite a few friends that moved there and now are back home (including our own Andrew Reid i believe).

Now working/living in several places that's definitely an entertaining idea which I'm considering myself mid-term. Kind of hard to pull off though.

[zerocool22]

25 minutes ago, Django said:

As someone who has family and spends a lot of down time in one of the most popular areas on the coast of the south of France it kind of amuses me to hear that, as people who live down there all year are always complaining about it and dreaming about going to exotic places (well for them) like Brazil, Hawaii or Australia etc..

Basically, my answer to this thread is the grass is always greener on the other side.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't chase that dream (especially if you are feeling miserable where you are) but it can sometimes be more a fantasy or an illusion.

I know for many visual creatives & electronic musicians here in the EU, Berlin has long been considered the mecca.

I've got quite a few friends that moved there and now are back home (including our own Andrew Reid i believe).

Now working/living in several places that's definitely an entertaining idea which I'm considering myself mid-term. Kind of hard to pull off though.

Yeah def agree on the grass is always greener on the other side. I live in belgium, but want to move (or travel around the world). But my wife and kid are not into that. So there's that. That leaves the annual vacations ^^. My main reason for moving is, that it is quite boring over here, the scenerey is all the same and I am stuck in a rut. No big cities a la NY where I can keep walking around at keep finding nice places to take pictures. I don't have a reason to get outside over here, I rather spend it at home.  

Berlin is one of the most overrated cities I have ever been too though. But thats prob because I live in Belgium, If I lived in Texas or something it prob would be a whole different experience. Most americans come to europe to see castles and remainings of the world war(s) or in other words the old world, while we want to see the Grand canyon, New York, LA, etc.