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Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 1:33 pm
by Hankaroundtheworld
Quick update. First impression of Hungary (south) is great, beautiful landscape, nice people, and indeed, nice farm-houses and enough land you can get for around 40k euro (renovated). We are still looking, but it seems highly likely we will find something. Next to farmhouses/land, seems medical level good (especially dentist), nice wineries, nice cities with enough "culture", cheap & easy transport, etc.. Life seems good here, and very affordable for ER(M). Good progress.

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 1:53 pm
by rube
be aware that common real estate can be freely bought, but anything that is official listed with an agriculture purpose, has restrictions for foreigners. Should probably be not be an issue, just sometjing to double check when you see a property (but first check everything out and compare it with Portugal!)

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 4:45 pm
by Hankaroundtheworld
Thanks Rube, and yes, we are aware with this rule :-)
Regarding Portugal, so far I can see online, prices are much higher, but may be I should talk with a real-estate company to get a complete overview of Portugal

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 3:47 pm
by Hankaroundtheworld
Update from Hungary initiative, it might come handy for everyone that wants a more self-supplying lifestyle, in an economical but still interesting way. We have looked around in the South, and we are close to a deal for around 40k Euro. What do you get for this? Big house (160m2) in a nice farm-style, fully renovated with all western facilities (incl gas heating or wood if you like, isolation of window, walls, roof, floor-heating, broadband internet, you name it), outside covered area, big garden, then several big barns, at least total 100m2 (that you partially can rebuild for extra living space), wine cellars and around 1 Ha of land!! This all for 40k Euro .... And if you are afraid that country-life gets too boring, there is a very nice city nearby (Pecs, with concert hall, culture, rock bands, nice restaurants, social life, etc...beautiful city), but otherwise Budapest. But, you are only 3 hours away from Vienna, or the Kroatian blue sea or nice old cities, etc, etc.. Last but not least, life is extremely affordable, for already 1000 euro/month you live comfortable, and for 1500/Month, like a king, including car, medical, you name it. And if you feel after 5 years or more, that you have seen it, no problem, you only invested 40k Euro, so easy way out ! Only thing, this is for ER life, if you need to work, it is tougher, so only do this, if you have ER money available (but you do not need a lot).

Soooo, if you ever considered to switch to a "back to the roots", afforable and good life-style, you should consider this! We are close, I hope in a week to have it organized.

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:17 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Yes, we did it, we said yes to the farm-house, and there is even a small vine-yard included, and a small wine house on the hills, with a million-dollar view... we cannot believe it.

It has a positive impact on ER(M), because I have moved the deadline from End-2015 to Mid-2015, basically I cannot wait to go to this Paradise and explore other routes in life !

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:31 am
by henrik
A légpárnás hajóm teli van angolnákkal!
(Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao)

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:18 am
by rube
wow that is quick! You even didn't considered Portugal anymore? Anyway, congrats and it will be mid 2015 very quickly!

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:04 pm
by DutchGirl
He can always move to Portugal when Hungary gets boring :-D

(Maybe it never will...).

Congratulations, Henk!

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:14 pm
by Hankaroundtheworld
Lol, Monthy Pyton, always good, and yes, language is a barrier, but I met enough foreigners that have learned it in 2 years!

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 4:43 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
How strange the human mind works, now that I have set the ER(M) deadline to mid-2015, and I even have "bought" myself a new lifestyle in Hungary, those last Months at work seem to go slower and it drags even more energy of me.... I was hoping I would enjoy those last Months of work, knowing that not much matters anymore, so you can treat everything in a lite mode, but .... it becomes painfully clear that I have taken the work life far too seriously, focusing too much on the earning/money and not the joy of working (of that what you like), and with the end in sight, it suddenly all feels like a burden.

Anyway, I am not trying to whine (it might come across like this however, lol) , it is just a recording of how I feel at work in my cubicle at the moment !

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 4:52 am
by DutchGirl
Good luck, Henk. I guess it can feel like that if the end is so near. Perhaps you can find meaning in these months because you're working towards a different life, so you could use your time off work to build the next stage? Perhaps at work you can try to at least leave behind a nice impression of yourself and a decently done job for the person who takes over?

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:07 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Hi DutchGirl, thanks, and I appreciate your comments. It is just strange how the mind works, I know I should be grateful for what I have, what I have accomplished, that I am healthy, that I have a good relationship, friends, reached ERM at 49, you name it, so much privileged you could argue, and still you feel not as happy as you might expect because somehow I feel trapped. Of course, not when I started this working journey around the world, I was full of energy when I arrived at my 1st location outside Netherlands, "top of the world" feeling, but somehow I have lost connection to that more pure feeling/drive of the start. So, yeah, I better draw a line to the current route, overly clear :-) and search for a new route, but that might take time. When I told my wife that I need at least a year to detox my mind from this work, I think I am not joking. I feel I can sleep for a year :-)

Would be great to read my thoughts again in a years time, and be surprised again how it has changed.

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:26 am
by DutchGirl
I have this work colleague now who is leaving the work force; she is also looking for how to handle it. She is a bit closer than you, though, just two more months to go for her. She is also curious how other people did it.

There are, by the way, a lot of books about it, also in Dutch; interviews with retirees, ideas of how to get used to being retired, etc. There are also courses that you can take when you're on the brink of retiring, sometimes even for the couple, instead of just for the person who is actually retiring. It's big business :-)

I was thinking about gifting my colleague one of these books, but while the first part of this particular book was nice (interviews with retirees, about how they had dealt with retirement - one claim there was that it generally takes 1 - 2 months after the retirement to rest, after that time you're rested from the work and can start building new activities), the next part was all about "how to live on a pension" or "how to write your will", etc, things I feel that are not what she worries about. So in the end I didn't buy that one for her.

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 7:02 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Well, I am not afraid to switch to ERM, no need for me to read those books either, I cannot wait to start retirement and find new skills/routes in life :-) I just need to find the energy till mid-2015 and then take a detox period (losts of sleeping, perhaps yoga everyday)

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 9:29 am
by GandK
Yes. I slept A LOT those first few months. What an exciting time, congratulations!

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 11:25 am
by Tyler9000
Hankaroundtheworld wrote:How strange the human mind works, now that I have set the ER(M) deadline to mid-2015, and I even have "bought" myself a new lifestyle in Hungary, those last Months at work seem to go slower and it drags even more energy of me.... I was hoping I would enjoy those last Months of work, knowing that not much matters anymore, so you can treat everything in a lite mode, but .... it becomes painfully clear that I have taken the work life far too seriously, focusing too much on the earning/money and not the joy of working (of that what you like), and with the end in sight, it suddenly all feels like a burden.
I totally relate. My best advice is to take the opportunity to pour your attention into something at work that challenges you. That will help the weeks fly by. If all you do is look at the bank account and count down to the endpoint, everything else will seem like a burden. That's simply not a healthy mental state to maintain.

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:05 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Thanks Tyler9000, I have decided to be a speaker at a big event in my Industry, and that for sure takes my mind away and it is even a nice "farewell" to bring a story to a big audience. Also, my wife and I will be planning to visit Hungary a few times as preparation for mid-2015, that helps as well :-)

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:21 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Just a recording (so I can read it back in a year's time after ERM): lately been really depressed, a new feeling for me, and main reasons are the local situation (we are currently in "ebola" area for work -- not that we have it, but our movements are limited -- basically staying at home during weekends, etc..), partially it has to do with a too long situation of my own decision-making around work, I have dragged on the working situation for too long, telling myself "milk the cow now that it is still possible", but i think I am been fooling myself, I basically do not like the work that I am doing anymore, no satisfaction anymore. Anyway, I hit myself for whining about it.... so I will continue till mid-2015 as planned, and do the trips I have in mind, so time will fly somehow. I also see this as a learning moment, you are basically facing yourself with your worries, fears and decisions I have made. The rational mind is saying "be happy, you got everything, and a new ERM period is around the corner", but the challenge is to influence my feelings, basically my body is showing signals and I can try to ignore this with my rational mind, but I cannot fool my body :-)

alright, enough ramblings for today, tomorrow will look better, I know !

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 7:21 am
by Hankaroundtheworld
Everything back on track ! The mood swings are now in positive domain :-)

Just reading the news of the socialst Political Party in Netherlands, SP, that likes to increase wealth-tax. I feel sorry for the people in the Netherlands paying tax ... there is a growing group of non-workers and declining group of people that earn and pay tax... and government is trying everything to squeeze more out of this last group, and no surprise, more and more people have enough of this increased tax burden, and want to escape, read ... going abroad, there are enough countries that like to embrace good knowledge workers, pay good money and charge low tax, and you have a chance to build up your own pension (instead of being forced in the Netherlands to use Company pension plan, that nowadays is not guaranteed anymore, and too costly)

Of course, Tax is necessary, but it has gone out of balance in the Netherlands, and now that the world is more open, people that have the right education/experience will make a move. If you combine this with ERE/ERM, it creates even more freedom to make this transition to other countries.

I am afraid that Europe will remain in trouble for another 10-20 years, at least low growth and higher tax burden to pay for pensions and growing non-working population....

Perhaps a bit egocentric, but I am happy to have found that escape route ...

Re: Henk's journey thru life

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 7:12 am
by RealPerson
Yeah, this push to squeeze the producers and give to non-producers is happening in the US as well. You only need 51% of the population on some form of handout, so they can vote to tax the 49%. Detroit demonstrates how well that works out.

Increased global competition has evaporated those high paying blue collar jobs that used to support an entire middle class. Companies started realizing that Chinese workers will do the same work for a fraction of the cost, so....That situation is not likely to reverse any time soon, at least until wages in China and India have risen to near Western levels. That may take a while.

I like your geographic arbitrage. Of course, if this becomes too prevalent, govenments will start taxing their citizens worldwide (as the US does) or come up with some other scheme. I you denounce your US citizenship and leave, you may pay an exit tax on your assets. I believe that California taxes your investment income even when you leave the state, as long as the money was saved from California-generated revenue. No doubt these schemes will serve as a model if geographic arbitrage becomes too common.