Why are you moving? Are you crazy?
These are the two questions that we get asked all the time. The first one is easy; we planned on moving before we got here. When we left the US we knew we wanted to live in different places in the world. We started by moving to Thailand where we lived for 3 years and loved it there. We bought a condo, remodeled it, and sold it when we left. We chose Thailand because our dollar would go a long way, getting a visa wasn’t a problem, health care was affordable and they didn’t tax our Social Security.
Next stop: Ecuador. We chose Ecuador for the same reasons as we chose Thailand; now it’s time to continue our journey. Our next stop will be Europe; we’re not sure where yet.
The “are we crazy” is a little harder. Why, because we love it here, as we did Thailand. We’re older too, I’m 77 years old and want to experience different places in the world before I get too old to do that. We’ve traveled all through Europe but that is different from living there. Many of our friends and neighbors here in Ecuador don’t understand our thinking, they say, “How can you give up…”
- the tranquility of Puerto Lopez
- the affordable healthcare
- your beautiful home
- the income from your Airbnb
- your friends
And on and on.
Are we crazy? Maybe, but it’s our journey.
One last thought. We also get asked, “Is it better to buy or rent.” Either one is good, depending on what you want. If you rent and you desire to leave, you can quickly. We decided to be buyers and not have the flexibility of leaving quickly, but we have other things that are important to us. A home designed not to be less than we had in the US, and built to the US standards we were accustomed to. And finally, the money saved. We estimate we saved a minimum of $600 a month for 8 years, which totals $57,600 saved. When we sell our house, we’ll recoup our initial investment, and be gone.
Ciao!
