Seppia's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
theanimal
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by theanimal »

Sorry to hear that you haven't been able to spend time with DW and your little man. 3 more days..

Have you been able to explore more in country or are you generally pretty restricted to home and work?

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Seppia
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Seppia »

Some friends and family who have more or less an idea about my income sometimes ask me
"why don't you guys live a little larger? you certainly can afford it"
Well, let me tell you a story.

I wasn't exactly happy about the HK government ultra-strict COVID restrictions, but then came a watershed moment for me.
Omicron finally breached the Hong Kong bubble, with cases going from a zero to 10 in late January 2022, then exploding by a factor of 10 every week.
On Tuesday February 22nd, on a day that logged 8000 or so positives, with a backlog of 27.000 positive cases stuck at home awaiting admission into hospitals (all covid cases have to be hospitalised regardless of the severity) and the healthcare system already in clear collapse with sick people waiting outside of the hospitals in the streets in the cold, Carrie Lam went to the press and doubled down on "dynamic zero covid".
She announced:
a) They would build another 30.000 isolation beds for positive cases "within one month".
b) A mass testing of the whole populace of Hong Kong would take place in march, with the kind help of mainland officials. This would not need a full lockdown (of course this is a lie).
c) They would anticipate summer school holidays to march so that they could use schools as an isolation facility for the sick.

I think of all the absurdities, the disregard for basic math was the thing that I found the most disconcerting.

I am typing this from my small apartment in northern Italy, bought in cash a few years ago. We bought one-way flights for the family 10 sleepless hours after the press conference, and one week later we were at the airport after having packed everything, given up the apartment and said bye to friends.

More details to follow, but score one for the power of ERE.

J_
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by J_ »

Yes Seppia, having a refuge for difficult times and spare money is a bless, well done!

theanimal
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by theanimal »

Glad you were able to return to Italy! What's next? Are you still working for the same company?

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Glad you're back safely. Now if we can only avoid WWIII

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Seppia
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Seppia »

theanimal wrote:
Sat Mar 05, 2022 1:17 pm
Glad you were able to return to Italy! What's next? Are you still working for the same company?
Yes, I had been sending them signals that we should start exploring a plan B for our Asia branch since late last year.
I had proposed them to move temporarily to another base country with easier access to travel, so that by end 2022 we would have been able to assess whether to stay in HK or flip the switch.
When the above mentioned press conference happened I just sent an email and said basically “I’m coming back to Italy temporarily to see how this plays out from a safe distance, if you want I can keep the apartment or give it up to save money (they’re paying)”.

To answer your earlier question (sorry I didn’t respond but has been a tough time), no travel outside of HK for me, I’m happy I was able to spend the last months hiking.
People don’t know HK for its trails, but it’s pretty great (not the level of impossible greatness we see in your pics of course)

Frugalchicos
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Glad you are safe! viva ERE!!

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jennypenny
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by jennypenny »

That stinks. I'm glad you're all ok and settled.

DD left Nanjing as Covid was heating up. She kept talking about getting back to Asia but she's finally given up on that idea and settled down in the states. She's happy here, but also sad because she spent so much time studying Mandarin and setting up her life in China and then POOF.

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Seppia
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Seppia »

So, time for an update, as many things have changed since March.

We now have been back in Italy for almost four months, living in our small apartment we had bought a while ago in case SHTF.
I had to buy a small car (in true ERE fashion, I got a second hand Panda), and consequentially a garage downtown, which is now being used for storage.
We don't own a lot of stuff, but we're 3 in 500sqf and came home with our HK possessions.
The garage is also an "investment": they get rented out super easy for good amounts (yearly, 8% of the value), they are very easily flipped and track inflation well.

I am also buying for a song a storage room (with a window) on the same floor of our apartment, where I'll likely put an extra bed/shower for eventual guests. I like the idea of adding a bit more real estate to our NW, as in my area inflation hasn't really manifested yet in housing.

This time here has been awesome as we got to reconnect with friends and family, plus it doubled as a "FIRE test drive".
We are surprised by how easily we can live in Italy on so little money. We kinda had the impression we were almost FI already, it was nice to get a confirmation.
We could easily get by on dividends alone + me taking a part time job if needed.

The other big news is that I'm changing jobs, as I got a great opportunity I could not pass on.
We will be going back to the States, based outside Miami (are there any FL ERErs? Please reach out!), and depending on the visa approval timing we should relocate somewhere around the end of this year.
We are really excited to be back in the USA, we missed it a lot.
The plan is to at least get to a green card (company is sponsoring, I'm paying), which should take 2.5 years. Then we'll see from there, we don't rule out EREing in Utah/Colorado, and we know that giving our son a US passport would be a great advantage for him in life (that would add another 5-6 years after the green card).

I can't wait to scuba dive the Caribbean again

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Awesome update man! DW and I will be in Florida from this upcoming November till April, would be great to meet up.

jacob
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by jacob »

Heads up on Salt Lake City. This sounds worse than west coast wildfire smoke.
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2022/6/ ... dust-strom

PS: Keep in mind that a green card comes with a certain amount of capture. You can't leave the US for more than 6 months in a 12 month period (IIRC) w/o losing it again. You have to file US taxes no matter where you live (just like a citizen)---the previous rule kinda guarantees that anyway. And you have to renew it every 10 years. More interestingly, if you get wealthy enough, certain exit taxes may apply. I forget the numbers.

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Seppia
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Seppia »

Thanks Jacob
Yes I’ve studied the GC implications fairly in depth, I was 99% of the way of getting one the last time I was there.
US citizens do have to pay taxes no matter where they live, BUT the first 95k or so are “free” if you live abroad (EDIT it seems like it’s around 108k today).
Yes, while you’re waiting for the passport you should live in the USA a minimum of 6 months and pay taxes there.
You also get a shot at citizenship after 5 years of being a GC holder, de facto negating the need to renew it past the 10 year period.
Last edited by Seppia on Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

sky
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by sky »

Good luck on the future job and Florida residence.

Despite all the craziness here in the USA, I still really like to live here. It is a high energy, interesting place with a lot of personal freedom.

macg
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by macg »

I just left South Florida due to the massive increase in rent - for me it was a 50% hike over last year. I think Miami is averaging somewhere in the mid-40% increase range over last year. I hope you are able to find some living arrangements that are reasonably priced!

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Ego
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Ego »

Wonderful news all around. It sounds like your escape hatch apartment worked out well and now you have a new adventure on the horizon. Congratulations!

theanimal
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by theanimal »

How great! Miami will be quite the contrast to the end of your time in Hong Kong.

CS
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by CS »

Seppia wrote:
Sat Mar 05, 2022 10:41 am

I am typing this from my small apartment in northern Italy, bought in cash a few years ago. We bought one-way flights for the family 10 sleepless hours after the press conference, and one week later we were at the airport after having packed everything, given up the apartment and said bye to friends.
I dug up my password just to post "I told you so." Going to Hong Kong at that time was not going to end any other way...

10 points for my futuristic.

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Seppia
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by Seppia »

Reading back a couple posts I realized that the tone gave away the impression that we were in a dark place.
We were not!
We stayed in HK for as long as we had, all things considered, a good quality of life.
Then, once the watershed moment I mentioned above happened, we moved decisively (“don’t panic, but if you do, panic first”).
Both DW and I are blessed with being very pragmatic: we agonized over the decision for one night, but then moved on both mentally and literally.

Yes CS was right, in retrospect I hadn’t considered that HK already IS China, and that the “one country, two systems” was gone with the 2019 protests (covid was an accelerator).
Looking back though I am happy we have lived the last good moments of what once was a great place to be.
It really is a beautiful place with lots of culture, nature and interesting people.
We certainly are richer (not monetary term) now than we were two years ago.

ertyu
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by ertyu »

Read back over the last couple of pages -- very interesting. Thank you with sharing your thinking on leaving HK. I think you are very correct in how you made the decision - if you wait to panic, opportunities to leave would disappear. You must act fast. I observed the same play out in the Ukraine war.

horsewoman
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Re: Seppia's journal

Post by horsewoman »

Gotta love a Panda, right? Best European ERE car ever.
We call ours the "silver arrow" :)
I'm super bummed that there is no electric Panda so far! The 500 is not nearly as cool as the Panda. You can load in a huge amount of stuff into the Panda, even though it's so tiny.

Is your region affected by the drought?
The situation around the Po has been a kick in the rear for me in terms of collecting water. That's only 350 km as the bird flies, so we better step up our game with catching rainwater as long as it still rains at all. Terrifying!

All the best for your move. Your little man is quite the globe trotter already.

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