Visited New York just once, a couple of decades ago - a truly bizarre place, for me this was like going to the Dark Side of the Moon, as a place for human habitation. What particularly stood out, were the immense, immediately adjacent contrasts - prime tourist locations, with the most sparkly edifices of human effort, were joined at the hip to the roughest of the rough - look down a laneway besides a world famous location, and the depths of human despair came to mind ...
Spending extended times in Asia plays havoc with your verb agreements and definite/indefinite articles.
Belief? More like experienced it. best to just forget it.
Here is what is happening to many people.... www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/index.html
There are a huge number of such reports over the years up to the present time... it aint gittin better. So take this into consideration when you plan to retire and where.
I am keeping all my options open... (already have trust etc).
-RM
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Quite positively in fact. Most immigrants are paying into the Social Security and Medicare systems, they live in a cash economy where most of their purchases are subject to state sales taxes. Their wages are with-held yet many don't file taxes and don't get refunds or EITC. US has net population growth. The issue with respect to wages is probably correct at all ends of the income spectrum, from day-laborer to EE.
This morning's NYTimes carried an article on immigrants and the new health-care law. An Ethiopian cab driver in Washington complained that he used to get free care for his family at a charity clinic, now he's paying for it. Many of the immigrants are having difficulty grappling with the idea of paying premiums of several hundred dollars per month and deductibles for their insurance of several thousand dollars.
Getting back to my point on retiring to "rural" parts -- if you're willing to drive an hour for health care you can draw a 40 mile radius around most of the large Midwestern cities (I exempt Chicago where 60 miles can take 3 hours) and find a nice place to retire -- provided you can deal with the weather. Ice fishing anyone?
Coronary arteries...bah!
I was pretty smug about my vascular health until a couple of months ago...after all, I have been a regular runner for the past 40 years and a marathoner/ultramarathoner for the past 30. Then I went in to have my cardiac calcium scored. "Moderate coronary artery disease." No symptoms as yet, except for the loss of smugness.
I have heard complicated explanations for the mechanism, but I can't help but think that with regular vigorous physical activity, I have eaten as much-and as badly- over the years, as most fat people have. Perhaps that is what is showing in my vascular system. So, I am eating better now, although I am aware that genetics is a bigger factor.
Bill,
How did that "coronary dissection" manifest itself?
John
I was pretty smug about my vascular health until a couple of months ago...after all, I have been a regular runner for the past 40 years and a marathoner/ultramarathoner for the past 30. Then I went in to have my cardiac calcium scored. "Moderate coronary artery disease." No symptoms as yet, except for the loss of smugness.
I have heard complicated explanations for the mechanism, but I can't help but think that with regular vigorous physical activity, I have eaten as much-and as badly- over the years, as most fat people have. Perhaps that is what is showing in my vascular system. So, I am eating better now, although I am aware that genetics is a bigger factor.
Bill,
How did that "coronary dissection" manifest itself?
John
For many of us in the upper Midwest the winter is a positive. I could not stand to live in a one or two season climate. Fall here is glorious and winter has its own beauty, albeit by March we are anxious for spring. Of course a couple weeks on a beach in Mexico in February helps immensely with the outlook. A key to loving winter (back on topic) is retirement. When the snow piles up and the temperatures plummet we simply stay home!!
Jack, this has me puzzled - how exactly is life cheaper in those areas? We have cheap and expensive areas in The Netherlands, but really the only difference is housing prices (which may a big factor I concede that).
Food, clothes, gadgets, gasoline, newspapers, internet/phone/TV is pretty much the same price everywhere.
Maybe NOT living in a city stops some of your otherwise impulse buys, but that could be controlled with some effort.
Jan
House prices (or rents) and property taxes would be the answer for rural areas around here.
Housing is much less expensive -- and property taxes more so. A similarly situated house in Ohio will cost half of the one in NJ. Income tax rates at the top end are 2 full points lower in Ohio, 6 points lower in Pennsylvania vs NJ. Ohio has no estate tax. Food and medical care are lower in Ohio and Pennsylvania -- and you have either the Cleveland Clinic or University of Pittsburgh medical centers.
Of course "yins" folks in Pittsburgh don't really speak English and their girth is enhanced by Primanti sandwiches at lunch.
Fuel, utilities, taxes, food, insurance. If one moves ten miles north of where we live, auto insurance is 30% cheaper, gas is 20% cheaper, insurance and taxes are half. In Texas, housing was half what we pay here and there was no state income tax (here, it's about 6% of salary, with higher rates in Chicago).
Montana was even cheaper, and we're fairly set on getting back there if my work dries up.
I have too, rural India and China working side by side with locals building homes.
The idea of a home in India would surprise many folks. My wife and I hate being the "rich" American amidst desperate poverty, you might think it only happens in the movies but we witnessed children blinded and maimed to make them better beggars.
I saw that CNN article, personal bankruptcy does not equal losing your home in many cases.
I would advise taking legal advice only from lawyers not forums. I must thank this thread, the Homestead laws are very interesting and I was unaware of them.
True. There are places in most large metropolitan areas where bad things happen. Many of them are obvious....drug deals in plain sight, etc. Sometimes it isn't so obvious. I was robbed at gunpoint when I was 17 years old less than a mile from my home. I had a total of about $3 in my possession at the time. It's everywhere....
Yes, it's true that your primary residence is exempt from attachment, or seizure in bankruptcy cases. Yet Florida ranks NUMBER 1 in home foreclosures in the country. You can also lose your home for overdue property taxes.....Oh, did I mention the property tax rates, insurance and the home prices.....A minimal 3/2 in South Florida will run you $250K to $350K (post collapse). The taxes will be about 5K / year depending on location. The homeowners insurance is another 5K / year, and flood insurance another $750 / year. Crime is rampant, most local governments are corrupt, it's hot and humid all year round.......I just left Florida after 61 years there. The west coast or panhandle area are somewhat cheaper today, but this is changing rapidly.
Generalities like this work for some people, but every body is different and what works for some will not work for others. I find that minimal cardio exercise (treadmill intervals for 15 minutes 3 X per week), 3 or 4 days per week of challenging (OK, hard) resistance exercise, and a decent, but not strict diet, works great for me. It does not work for everybody. It took me almost 50 years to find this out. I ate everything I saw, yet weighed 140 pounds at age 40. My first real physical at 40 revealed terrible blood work. Triglycerides, 800. Cholesterol, 300. Fasting blood sugar, 160. BP, 140/90 or worse..... I was always physically active, bike riding, Frisbee, Sailing a Hobie Cat 10 or more hours per week, so the doctor put me on a no (junk) food diet. I got even skinnier on salad, fish and chicken, yet the blood work got worse. By age 45 I was eating 7 different prescription meds to "fix the numbers" yet I felt like crap and was gaining weight (fat). No energy, cranky disposition.....
Then they put a gym in at work, and made it FREE. I started going when I was 47 years old, by age 50 I weighed 205 and it was all muscle. I ditched most of the meds and all the "numbers" are excellent. 10 years later I weighed 195 and could bench press 325 (excellent for a 60 year old) and all the blood markers were still excellent. Work and the free gym ended about 4 months ago. I haven't worked out since, and I feel it. There has been a loss of energy, and weight loss. I'm about 175 pounds today (still very low bodyfat though). I am joining a gym that I will have to pay for. They tested my BP, 100/65. We will see what happens.
