3 yrs to FI: ertyu's journal

[sky]

What are some of the good things about living in eastern Europe?

[ertyu]

I'm the wrong person to ask. I left my home country young and I have only settled down here because this is where I can afford to be. If I had 4x the money, it would not be my preferred choice. I'm too much of a liberal bernie bro - type snowflake and I don't really fit in. I do encounter many foreigners here, though. Some have houses in the surrounding villages and some live in the city.

[sky]

I have heard that a lot of people move there because of the low cost of living.

[2Birds1Stone]

What are some of the good things about living in eastern Europe?

COL is extremely low by western standards
The woman are drop dead gorgeous
There are many opportunities for entrepreneurship, less regulation
In many parts of eastern Europe, violent crime is very low
Still wild area (less developed, more nature, etc)
If it's up your ally, the food can be excellent

That being said, there are many bad things too, I'm sure ertyu can elaborate on many....

[ertyu]

I’ve lived all over the place and in the end, everything has good sides and bad sides. It’s very true that everywhere is, ultimately, what you make of it.

[Flurry]

The main reason I don't want to live in eastern Europe are the languages which are very hard to learn, imho there is no simple language except maybe Romanian. Slavic languages (not to mention Hungarian which feels really crazy to learn) are harder to learn than other Germanic languages or Latin languages if your first language is a Germanic language. But of course that's very subjective.
Except for that eastern Europe is great place to be, beautiful landscape (and women), good food and low costs of living.

@ertyu: Is it a secret in which country you live?

[7Wannabe5]

Eastern European heritage females do have the second best distribution of lumbal-gluteal fat pads. Also, very good at math and tough as rocks.

Is Mongolia considered to be Eastern Europe? I have Mongolian teeth, so always wanted to visit.

[Stahlmann]

Is Mongolia considered to be Eastern Europe?

Ekhm, definitely not.

[ertyu]

Mongolia: not eastern europe, yes "second world" -- in that it was part of the USSR's direct sphere of influence. Mongolia kicks ass.

On the languages: for the past 30 years, schools have taught English as second language. You will find people who will be able to talk to you in English. A very common expat trick: get a local gf and have her essentially manage your life, communicating with authorities, contractors, and medical staff on your behalf.You'll be fine. The languages thing is less of an issue than people assume it would be, regardless of where you move to. Besides, after a while, you will start picking up common phrases e.g. when the cashier sounds out your total, "can I have a kilo of tomatoes," etc. As a career expat, I can vouch this happens at any age.

On the "real estate marriage": this turned out to be oddly appropriate. I spent the whole of today carrying out bags and bags and bags of garbage -- am still only partially done -- but among the bric-a-brac, I found a large golden ring that used to belong to the dead guy's mother (he used to live with her, being a "bachelor.") So, now I have his mother's heirloom golden ring. Nearby, there were also two gold coins with arabic writing on them. I believe them to be Turkish Lira of old. Also 180 USD in cash. I did not take many pictures today and am rather knackered, but will do better tomorrow. The place looks like an episode of one of those extreme cleaning youtube channels, with the exception that the toilet bowl is not the same degree of biohazard. The guy smoked inside throughout his life and didn't really clean after his mother died. The dirt on the furniture has acquired the consistency of soil, all is cobwebs and grime, the ceilings are black and brown with dust and cigarette smoke, etcetera.

[Alphaville]

ah, wow! suggesting here to set aside some of those funds towards the required exorcism.

srsly, something to clean out the “vibes.”

i’m not superstitious... but just in case!

[ertyu]

[sky]

Treasure!

[guitarplayer]

woah man, what treasures!

[Alphaville]

call me a kook, but here’s an idea for exorcism/good karma: pay for a religious service of their persuasion in their name, and thank your lucky stars

(can you tell i was raised religious? i’m branded forever)

[Crusader]

On the topic of Eastern Europe, I don't know where ertyu is from, but I often think about the difference between Serbia (where I am originaly from and visit often) and Canada (where I have lived for a long time).

In Canada, the average person can have a better absolute quality of life (get a good job, not live day by day, afford vacations, a car, restaurants, etc). In Toronto, specifically, you have a lot of different cultures/peoples, which is interesting.

In Serbia (and I guess most of Eastern Europe), you can have anything you want and more if you are rich, but not many people are (many people are frugal by necessity). There is a big divide between the rich and the poor (that started in the 90s after the fall of Yugoslavia), so the rich people are really rich, and the poor people have to think about how they will pay the bills each month. Also, corruption is engrained in the culture (e.g. bribing a cop is completely normal). Another thing that I hate is that religion and conspiracy theories are mainstream. Oh, and while it is true that there are business opportunities, if you become successful, you will have to deal with racketeering and stuff like that.

However, I would say that when I go to Serbia, I have a sense of belonging and communal spirit that I don't get in Canada (where everyone is more individualistic, and maybe the lack of multiculturalism helps here) and people place more importance on socializing, friendships and family (less emphasis on money). This, ultimately, makes us happy as humans, I think. But, this wouldn't apply to a non-Serbian expat, so your mileage may vary. The women are indeed beautiful, but gender norms are more pronounced, especially in rural areas (the man is the provider and the woman's place is in the kitchen... although this is changing), so this might or might not appeal to you (it generally doesn't to me).

[ertyu]

Out of curiosity, can anyone give me an eyeball estimate on the value of the coins and the ring? They're unlikely to be liquid so I won't really count them in net worth or anything. I'm just curious.

[Crusader]

Surely you can go to a few jeweler's shops and they'll tell you.

[Ama]

Out of curiosity, can anyone give me an eyeball estimate on the value of the coins and the ring?

Just eyeballing - the ring looks like $250 in gold, if its not super thin. A simple band in 18k is about $100. If you know someone with a scale in oz or dwt you could weigh them - also yes a jeweler would give you an estimate

[Mister Imperceptible]

If you are an outsider you could very well get a poor offer. Those look like one ounce coins.

[sky]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1327-10-SULTAN ... Sw8DNfsosI