Reconsidering "the Move"

[Pepe']

Spent the holiday in Las Vegas with relatives. Short version we've been here before. Wife loves it, I couldn,t care less.

Interessting thing is we could sell our house and San Diego. Buy a nice new one cash with the proceeds and live the easy/prettty darn easy life here. We call it Californication here. Take the profits from your grossly overvalued property, buy a new house else where and have cash left over.

Lots of San Diegans are doing it and the "window of opportunity is closing rapidly in Vegas

It's really got me questioning the move to LOS. Quite frankly it doesn't sound like things are getting much better, "quality of life that is.

Viva Las Vegas!?

[TizMe]

We call it Californication here.

Psychic spies from China

Try to steal your mind’s elation

Little girls from Sweden

Dream of silver screen quotations

And if you want these kind of dreams

It’s Californication

It’s the edge of the world

And all of western civilization

The sun may rise in the East

At least it settles in the final location

It’s understood that Hollywood

sells Californication

Pay your surgeon very well

To break the spell of aging

Celebrity skin is this your chin

Or is that war your waging

Chorus:

First born unicorn

Hard core soft porn

Dream of Californication

Dream of Californication

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world

Be my very own constellation

A teenage bride with a baby inside

Getting high on information

And buy me a star on the boulevard

It’s Californication

Space may be the final frontier

But it’s made in a Hollywood basement

Cobain can you hear the spheres

Singing songs off station to station

And Alderon’s not far away

It’s Californication

Born and raised by those who praise

Control of population everybody’s been there

and

I don’t mean on vacation

Chorus

Destruction leads to a very rough road

But it also breeds creation

And earthquakes are to a girl’s guitar

They’re just another good vibration

And tidal waves couldn’t save the world

From Californication

Pay your surgeon very well

To break the spell of aging

Sicker than the rest

There is no test

But this is what you’re craving

Chorus

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Spent the holiday in Las Vegas with relatives. Short version we've been here before. Wife loves it, I couldn,t care less.

Interessting thing is we could sell our house and San Diego. Buy a nice new one cash with the proceeds and live the easy/prettty darn easy life here. We call it Californication here. Take the profits from your grossly overvalued property, buy a new house else where and have cash left over.

Lots of San Diegans are doing it and the "window of opportunity is closing rapidly in Vegas

It's really got me questioning the move to LOS. Quite frankly it doesn't sound like things are getting much better, "quality of life that is.

Viva Las Vegas!?

Will I have to come to Lost Wages for that bottle of Cab Sav with you Pepe ?

[Pepe']

Tizme,

hey where does that come. Sounds quite true.

Doc,

I'm not really a gambler but parlayed $100 into $500 at the black jack table in two hours of play that was fun. Winning that is.

I don't know I'm just kind of thinking out loud. My real goal is not to have to continue to make the "big nut" every month.

I'm weighing the pros and cons of retiring in Thailand right now. If I can live simply in the US I'm just debating which is the better choice.

Oh yeah and tons of excellent, inexpensive "Cabs around for meditation and medication puposes...

[SoCal]

Pepe,

1) Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't think it is your speed, but only you can answer that.

2) Same answer to your dillema- only you can answer that. I think Thailand is a great place, and the people are outstanding, but someone in your position has other worthwhile options. Do what your heart says. As someone else in a similar position pointed out earlier, they chose to live in US, and visit BKK for extended periods of time each year. Sounds like a great compromise, and you are in this position.

PS- as I say to anyone who feels lucky in Vegas- Look Up. God? Naw, that multi-million dollar hotel that they charge you $50-100/night to stay in. How do you think they do that, as a corporation and show a sizeable profit? The $10-20 all you can eat sea food buffet?

Best of Luck,

SoCal

[Pepe']

Pepe,

1) Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't think it is your speed, but only you can answer that.

2) Same answer to your dillema- only you can answer that. I think Thailand is a great place, and the people are outstanding, but someone in your position has other worthwhile options. Do what your heart says. As someone else in a similar position pointed out earlier, they chose to live in US, and visit BKK for extended periods of time each year. Sounds like a great compromise, and you are in this position.

PS- as I say to anyone who feels lucky in Vegas- Look Up. God? Naw, that multi-million dollar hotel that they charge you $50-100/night to stay in. How do you think they do that, as a corporation and show a sizeable profit? The $10-20 all you can eat sea food buffet?

Best of Luck,

SoCal

So Cal,

1)OK Red Hots I do like them and I thought they were actually a local San Diego band. Just didn't recognize that song.

2) Yeah, just in a period of indescision right now. It will all come out in the wash. Thailand is still my first choice. But the thought of having a brand new house with no mortgage just outside Vegas is somewhat appealing.

3) Fortunately I have relatives to stay with when I go so its more fun and no hotel bills. And the buffets not much good for me as I'm vegetarian 30 years and in the process of trying to drop 30 pounds. I think my wife eats both our shares though

I was lucky for a couple of hours anyway but I do know that eventually the house allways wins.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Tizme,

hey where does that come. Sounds quite true.

Doc,

I'm not really a gambler but parlayed $100 into $500 at the black jack table in two hours of play that was fun. Winning that is.

I don't know I'm just kind of thinking out loud. My real goal is not to have to continue to make the "big nut" every month.

I'm weighing the pros and cons of retiring in Thailand right now. If I can live simply in the US I'm just debating which is the better choice.

Oh yeah and tons of excellent, inexpensive "Cabs around for meditation and medication puposes...

Those Cabs that abound cheaply in the US of A, sure do cost considerably more in the LOS.

[wamberal]

Pepe'

My wife is against the idea of us moving back to Thailand -- she says that I will live longer here in Australia. I think she is pretty right there. On the other hand, her youngest sister just went back to Thailand after three months here, they had a great time together, and I know that my wife misses her family. But that is the only reason for returning, frankly, and I assume that she will after I die. Moving earlier than that would be good in that I could handle all the financial aspects. But at the moment, I know that we are happier here than we would be there.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

And as I just intimated to Pepe, the west has much cheaper Cabernet Sauvignon too. That Australian wine is very, very good. ( and very, very cheap compared to prices in Thailand )

[Pepe']

Doc,

You do have a one track mind. I like it!!!

Besides women, it is my only vice Pepe

Edited July 8, 2004 by dr_Pat_Pong

[ProThaiExpat]

Pepe: Mr. Serious here. Your decision to sell your inflated value home in San Diego is very sound upon retirement. Relocation to a cheaper place to live is a sound decision.

Now. Where? There are many publications describing and rating places to retire to that you should investigate.

Most people who live in Las Vegas don't gamble. If you like to gamble, moving to Las Vegas is folly, in my view.

If there ae things other than gambling or cheap housing available in Las Vegas that interest you, look at those.

There are many places in the U.S. where there is cheap housing available and the cost of living is lower than in San Diego. The question is what are their negatives?

Of course, remoteness from urband centers is one of those by definition.

I was living in Hawaii, from personal experience, a better enviroment to live in than San Diego. Applying the "relocate and buy a house with the equity in my U.S. home and have oodles more" principle, I chose Thailand for a love interest and the cost of living.

Since you have a love interest already, your only determinitive factor in relocation is cost of living and enviroment.

What you will do in retirement will be important. Will your interests be satisfied in Thailand. Will your wife's? Will she have a maid in Las Vegas?

Having grown up in Japan, I have little if no homesickness to deal with nor do I have a problem living among Asians. The weather here is far from desireable for me, too hot and humid, but other than that and petty inconveniences, there are no other real negatives lviing here.

Your dilemma to me, is you have a "world" of choices for relocation, alsmost anywhere in the U.S. away from urban centers, determing which one is the problem. Good luck. Know yourself and your wife and go with your instincts.

[Dutchy2]

Spent the holiday in Las Vegas with relatives. Short version we've been here before. Wife loves it, I couldn,t care less.

Interessting thing is we could sell our house and San Diego. Buy a nice new one cash with the proceeds and live the easy/prettty darn easy life here. We call it Californication here. Take the profits from your grossly overvalued property, buy a new house else where and have cash left over.

Lots of San Diegans are doing it and the "window of opportunity is closing rapidly in Vegas

It's really got me questioning the move to LOS. Quite frankly it doesn't sound like things are getting much better, "quality of life that is.

Viva Las Vegas!?

It has been said before but people in Thailand do not live that long, if I'm well informed the average male will get 69 years old. The medical care is good, so if you happen to get a heart attack you're only worry will be the traffic jams on the streets.

It's a decision every one has to make, I have chosen to make the plunge five years ago but we are considering moving back to farang land. I would love to drive a bicycle again, visit friends without driving an hour, breath fresh air... although I do enjoy aspects of life here too, great food, domestic help, relaxed atmosphere.. It all depends on what you're looking for, there are other places to retire in Asia which could offer good alternatives to Thailand.

Good luck with your decision!

Dutchy

[KevinN]

I would never think of living in Las Vegas, I worked at Nevada Test Sight and went to Vegas weekly shopping as we had 3 kids at home then and lived at Beatty, I have a friend now that lives at Amagosa,Lathrop Wells area,has a new home and land, he says that with the over inflation of property there now that he is going to sell and move away when he retires,Maybe to here.

If I was going to move from San Diego,which I would,and wasn't sure about coming to Thailand,which you ain't, I might consider going down south somewhere,maybe Manzinillo,Colima,about the same climate but a lot better food.and an easier language to learn.fine fishing too,And easier,shorter access to USA, better than here.Easier visa's and with an FM3 immigration is easy. with the on again,off again mind set here,when my wife retires,we might make the move ourselves as the immigration policies of Mex.are a lot more stable than Thailands.

Plus more personal freedoms in Mexico than here and about the same cost of living.And if you are into prospecting,there is a lot of gold to be found between Colima and Vila Victoria. I have lived there.

But there is a lot of world out there to think about. I have lived so many places that I would be hard put to think of just one place.

[mbkudu]

The immortal Red Hot Chilly Peppers are from LA.

[Pepe']

mbkudu, KevinN. Dutchy2, V and all you other guys,

I really appreciate your well thought out replys as this is a big descision and the variety of inpur is really invaluable at this time.

Thanks...