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I think your observations are spot on. Despite spending considerable time there as a child and young adult, having family there, being a citizen of San Marino, and speaking the language fairly well, I was almost always referred to as "the American". It wasn't derogatory but I wasn't one of them no matter how much I tried to be.
This is the bigger hurdle in my view. I've lived in many different countries but feel I would never be fully at home anywhere other than the USA.
I think your observations are spot on. Despite spending considerable time there as a child and young adult, having family there, being a citizen of San Marino, and speaking the language fairly well, I was almost always referred to as "the American". It wasn't derogatory but I wasn't one of them no matter how much I tried to be.
Once I read an article about a Frenchman who had joined a club in Florida. He was quoted as saying to his fellow club members, "You accept me as one of your own. In my country, you would never be French."
Probably Singapore as my wife still has citizenship there and I by virtue of marriage could obtain permanent residency. Taxes are low and she is eligible for subsidized government retirement housing. Otherwise private housing is among the most expensive in the world.
Government housing is modern, well kept and ultra modern. As a permanent resident I would be eligible for medical care on a discount something like Medicare here. As she is of retirement age she also receives a modest regular government stipend from Singapore and also collects Social Security from working here.
The weather like all of Southeast Asian is hot and humid but just about everything is air conditioned. Private vehicles are ultra expensive. A Ford Focus for instance costs about the equivalent of 90,000 US dollars. But there is efficient, clean public transportation and Uber for short trips say for grocery shopping.
One reason I asked is that I have dual citizenship with the Rep of San Marino and even have a current passport from there, but the cost is overall expensive and I would struggle to afford it. It's very tiny with a pop of about 36,000 but has one of the highest GDP in Europe although not part of the EU. Even if I could afford it, I'm not sure I'd do it. Taking into consideration it has excellent medical facilities at no out of pocket cost to me, maybe it's something I should explore further.
My brief research about this done just now says that citizens of San Marino can freely live & work in Italy, that leaves quite a large area to consider geographically or economically. I know many European states have worked out agreements with the US to avoid double taxation... but we always have to pay the US taxman.
Isolation as an expat is a fact of life to the degree dependant on the effort made to integrate with the local community, but really even my moving to many areas in the rural/suburban US south I would be considered an outsider as well based to a large degree on religious & cultural differences, etc. A similar adjustment would have to be made or one could become unhappy.
I have dual US/EU citizenship but my extended family live in an expensive country with nasty weather so I'm considering Portugal or Spain as possible retirement or snowbird destinations. I'm not at all opposed to living in an expat popular area as long as it isn't a package holiday destination or aggressively segregates itself against the local population.
I still have an elderly parent here, when she passes I'll have little family left in the US & literally all old friends have already moved from here to cheaper states, so I may consider the jump. I'm curious what might happen to home prices if no Brexit is reached & a significant number of Brits leave places like Malaga.
I've always liked Umbria so, after winning the lottery, I might buy a small villa in the hills somewhere near Assisi or outside of Perugia somewhere. I probably wouldn't live there all the time because I truly like where I live now.
I always wanted to go back to the Netherlands. Would love to stay in a flat in a downtown area were you can wake up to the smell of coffee. I was stationed near the southern part of the country near the town Herlen and loved it!
My brief research about this done just now says that citizens of San Marino can freely live & work in Italy, that leaves quite a large area to consider geographically or economically. I know many European states have worked out agreements with the US to avoid double taxation... but we always have to pay the US taxman.
Isolation as an expat is a fact of life to the degree dependant on the effort made to integrate with the local community, but really even my moving to many areas in the rural/suburban US south I would be considered an outsider as well based to a large degree on religious & cultural differences, etc. A similar adjustment would have to be made or one could become unhappy.
I have dual US/EU citizenship but my extended family live in an expensive country with nasty weather so I'm considering Portugal or Spain as possible retirement or snowbird destinations. I'm not at all opposed to living in an expat popular area as long as it isn't a package holiday destination or aggressively segregates itself against the local population.
I still have an elderly parent here, when she passes I'll have little family left in the US & literally all old friends have already moved from here to cheaper states, so I may consider the jump. I'm curious what might happen to home prices if no Brexit is reached & a significant number of Brits leave places like Malaga.
That's very interesting as I have family in Italy as well about 35 miles from San Marino. Good to know these things. But if I were to move to Europe, it would be San Marino. I like that it has it's own history and identity and government and isn't part of the EU and I've always felt very fond of the place and to some extent bonded there because of family history going back centuries.
Last edited by marino760; 02-06-2019 at 01:11 PM..
Odd question since presumably if someone wants to leave the US and has the money to do so, they would have left, yes?
At any rate, we considered retiring to Mexico, mostly to have an adventure. We searched for the right spot while traveling there and decided against it for many reasons, but cultural differences was the biggest. We have friends who have retired to Mexico and they all live in Americanized communities. If saving money isn't your goal, what's the point of living with a bunch of people just like you - you can do that at home.
For us, weather was the other thing we were after. We wanted more sunshine than northern US gets. We ended up moving to Maui. Plenty of sunshine, Medicare works, it is stable and safe.
Reality is my hub wants to go where it's warm. I love New Jersey and am scared to retire where they have various storms like Florida. I couldn't live knowing there are hurricanes coming for moths at a time.
First ever post on C-D.
I had the same concerns before moving to FL four years ago. It seems like the standard criticisms of living here seem to always involve hurricanes, the oppressive heat, sinkholes, and lack of four seasons.
Although there’s some truth to all of those, generally speaking much of it is overblown. Yes, hurricane season begins June 1st every year, and storms in the Atlantic basin tend to get into high gear toward the end of August, but truthfully it’s not something that most of us, at least in Central Florida, give much thought about until or unless a storm truly threatens. And even then, the building codes in FL are so stringent now that there is much less of a threat than there was even 20 years ago. Of course this presumes you don’t live within 5 miles of the coast.
Hurricane Irma roared through the state in 2017 and essentially passed directly over our house just west of Orlando. Sure, it was loud and it took down three sizable pines in our backyard, but we never felt in any real danger. Homes here are constructed with cinderblock walls and all manner of steel strapping criss-crossing the trusses. In fairness, not all homes are safe enough to withstand a direct hit owing to pre-hurricane code construction. That being said, if you’re moving here and you have the means to buy a home built in the last decade or so, and especially if you live in an area set back from the coast, it’s not the terror-filled existence many people imagine.
On the plus side, it’s Feb. 6th and we had dinner out on our back patio this evening after a day with clear, crystalline blue skies and temps that touched 80 degrees. Sure, there’s a .000001% chance a sinkhole opens up and swallows us whole while we’re eaten by alligators as we hurtle toward the earth’s molten core, but life in Florida is 99.999999% pretty awesome. And if demographics can be believed, roughly 40% of the state of New Jersey seems to agree because you can swing a cat in any direction down here and hit someone looking for pork roll.
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