Flyguy

Please tell me where I can get 10% a year? I'll beat their door down tomorrow!
errr...don't suggest Bitcoin, thanks.

Flyguy

Yes, I used to watch a lot of Nomad Capitalists videos - but with this trash he really blew his credibility. I wouldn't trust ANY of his recommendations now, having seen how he spins stuff.

RobSg

Couple things from your message struck me.
I agree that eventually we all gravitate toward a sedentary lifestyle. When I had the MM2H, I was in my mid 60's and relatively adventurous. You tend to slow a down a bit in your 70's, and I'm not sure if I would be in Malaysia today even if I remained part of the MM2H program back then. However, traveling keeps you active, and I coax myself to travel, but when you have a Labrador Retriever that needs 5 miles of hiking daily, you have to pick and choose where to go. That's probably the main reason I decided not to continue with MM2H- I love dogs. On my trips to Central America, he comes with me, or stays with my extended family.

As for living out of a suitcase, this is what I have experienced. I go online to look at apartment or home rentals by the month, and $1500-$2500/month gives me a nice furnished apartment. There are plenty of them in Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico. You unpack your suitcase, pit it away, and enjoy. It's warm year round, and you might have to do some light shopping, but living out of a suitcase? No.

A quick comment about American healthcare. You are correct in saying that there are many that are not yet on Medicare but have no health insurance. However, it depends on the State you ;live in. For example, I'm in Washington state, and the state will subsidize those who do not have sufficient income to get health insurance to the point that it's free for some. Yet, we have a long way to go. Health care was the reason I decided to return to the States, because of Medicare. It concerned me that health insurance becomes almost impossible at the age of 76 in Malaysia, which I will be soon.

Anyway, sorry to poke into your forum, as I am not part of the program anymore. I miss that part of the world still and enjoy reading about experiences you have all had.

StillSearching

Hi. This is how we do this 10%+.
1) Find a stable company which pays good dividend.

2) Sell a put at a lower price than it currently has. You will get payed immediately for this put.

3) If you may end up owning this stock at this lower price, immediately sell a call at a higher price. You will get payed immediately for this call.

Puts and calls are rarely getting resolved. But you always get paid for puts and calls.

Just be careful: never buy a put or a call! This is how you can lose all the money. Always sell.

This strategy may earn you even more then 10% annually. On some deals we earn 30%. We like it because it is a safe strategy without gambling.
The only risk here is that a company may reduce dividend or cancel it temporary and you may own a stock for sometime until it goes up so that you can sell it with profit after the inflation. This is why you need to look for dividend aristocrats.

When looking for a good dividend, always check for inflation rate. If you find 8% dividend but inflation is 12% it is still better than losing 12% but still sucks.
Official data: https://tradingeconomics.com/countries
Click on Inflation Rate there and you can see data by months. E.g. there was deflation in Malaysia last year, but inflation in 2021.
There is one useful inflation chart for the US only:
Alternate Inflation Charts
It shows graphs with real inflation over the period from 1980-s. It tells you what inflation should be if the government didn't change the rules for measuring it. Basically, real inflation in the US currently is 14% though the official inflation is 5%. Lets say you bought a house 30 years ago and sold it at a profit now. This profit is an illusion if to adjust for inflation. But you still pay capital gain tax.

StillSearching

There are plenty of other useful activities than traveling. Traveling became very stressful and risky activity. If you follow the new movement in EU, it shames flying for fun because flying is the worst traveling option for the heating planet.

It is a definition of "living out of suitcase". Some people need more than that from their own stuff and not what they can find in a rental.

Yes, thanks to Obamacare, many states still subsidize health care, but not for those whose income is more than a certain amount. Basically only poor people can be enrolled in this program. And not in all the states after Trump came to power. These poor people who can get into Obamacare, can't afford to live in Malaysia or other countries. Many with low income people prefer to drive abroad for health care in Mexico than to buy a subsidized insurance.

ssoomro

I think the correct word is Hare-brained .. oh well.
Yes, i have read Mark's story before ..

Epicurious: I hear ya.. but the van culture and technology has changed a lot.. in last two years #VanLife has gone through the roof.. cuz ofcovid related restrictions on travel .. ppl have taken to living and travelling in vans etc.. and this interest has spark innovation and solutions... now they have very efficient and powerful energy sources and low consumption appliances etc. Actually I am not into RVs at all and mostly detest camp sites .. to me VanLife represents freedom to travel (kindda like what RA said .. take ur home with u ) .. in a low impact, simpler (can park it anywhere type) and cost friendly way to travel.

I am thinking about small utility van .. like a Toyota Hiace .. converting it into comfortable, practical ...not luxurious space and going boondocking (I am not keen on campsite ... )

Yes, environmental awareness and knowledge of impact of trashing their backyard is still evolving in Asia .. but also some of it is wholesale transfer of western lifestyles (one word....Plastics) on people not yet ready for modern style consumers etc ..
Anyways . lets hope some better news re: MM2H program come out after new PM/Govt selection...

Epicurious

Link pinched from another forum:

Quite a few anti-foreigner comments below the video.

SushiFan

S&P500 stock index average annual return over the last 5 years is 13%.
https://www.macrotrends.net/2324/sp-...cal-chart-data

StillSearching

and if it crashes like it was in 2008?

Flyguy

Yep - it's just a casino, stacked against the little guys. The big players control the game, and they manipulate it constantly. Tons of insider trading and back scratching.
When they make millions where does the money come from?
From the dumb little retail bagholders, like you and me......At current prices you need to be a brave man to buy into it. We're all just waiting for the crash now.

Flyguy

Sounds interesting - but outside my knowledge. I'd need to study it.

RedApe

Regarding Medicare re. Americans. I'm admittedly in a rather odd circumstance but one which there are likely hndreds of thousands are in if they really dug deep into their insurance plans. I worked for State of California (as a university professor). They have a Blue Cross plan option, When I retired I kept that as I was "living abroad- ineligible for Medicare services" and they had a travel plan good for 3 months, but also a side benefit for those that lived abroad. It covers 90% of my Health Care services (over the deductible), from surgeries, pharma, treatments, ad even some exotic therapies (acupuncture), and about 3 months of home care (which I think can be extended further if that is halftime and below their cap). It's as good, if not better, than Medicare because there is minimal amount paid on the premium (monthly premium on Medicare is now about US$150/month) WHICH I COULD PAY TO REMAIN ENROLLED IF I EVER RETURN TO THE US. But I can't get any coverage with Medicare abroad (unless I fly to Guam). I'd be better off using that premium money getting local insurance (@ max of US$500/year) or creating a Healthcare security fund for paying over the table. So I elected to deny Medicare coverage. I will have to pay a stupid penalty each year (for lost premium payments for years that I could NOT use at all) if I return to the US. If I do go it'll only be when I'm "in extremis" and the likelihood is that I'll only pay one year of penalty for very expensive end-of-life treatment. It's all insane and only helps the Corporate Health Care system in the USA.

What's incredible is that with the cost of Medical care in the US that Medicare doesn't encourage Medical Tourism. Example Cost of Knee Replacement Surgery in US is $60K, in Thailand $6K. Medicare will cover 80% of that US Cost (you pay $12K) but only at a point when it is so excruciating that it is no longer regarded as elective surgery. You'll pay deductibles, and visitation fees at higher percentages before that point. So it's cheaper in a specialist clinic in Thailand and recuperation and post-surgery orthopedic coverage is included. As the US population ages, and as seniors are more athletically active, there's well over 2 million hip and knee replacement surgeries a year. That's $120 billion dollars a year. No wonder Medicare is going bankrupt. Throw in heart surgeries, urinary tract, GI, cancer, etc etc. But if they could get a good chunk of those people to use health tourism....subsidize them at 80% of the cost of the treatment plus free airfare and you'd still cut the cost by an order of magnitude (if everyone did it, which they won't).

Most Americans don't realize that Medicare is not free after 67 and that they will continue to pay through the nose. And they have this sense of "I already paid all my working life for this benefit- I'm not giving it up" even when it would be cheaper to pay for the treatment abroad at walk-up prices.

ssoomro

RA.... Admittedly, This takes us a little off the topic.. A number of Magnum Opi can be written on utter absurdity, deliberate complexity and mind boggling intricacies of Healthcare and Taxation System in USA... The real puzzler to me is how the population in general has bought this whole scam.. hook, line and sinker ... lack of support for a single payer system, or streamlined tax code is mind boggling to anyone outside the cocoon itself.

I found some understanding (not solace) in "Mass psychosis of "American Exceptionalism", American Optimism (Hence the lovefest with "Trickle Down Economics") and finally in Noam Chomsky' "Manufacturing Consent"...(before some of you throw me in your "Liberal A'holes" box and throw away the key.. I am also a huge fan of "Goldwater Conservatism" and Rationality and Libertinism..in other words .. work in progress) .IMHO. root of it all is .. "There is money to be made (healthcare) and taxes to be avoided (Tax code) "..hence all the complexity .. opacity and shafting of the masses.. while they cry ... at the top of their lungs.. we da best .. may I have another ...

*** with apologies for coarser language

StillSearching

The Blue Cross Blue Shield raised our policy payment from USD 9K/year plus 7K out off pocket deductible per person to USD 18K/year for the same Bronze plan, the cheapest plan we could find.
At the same time "the top 10 executives in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurer cumulatively earned $56.7 million in 2015, which is 57% higher than the $36.1 million that the same 10 executives earned in 2014."
That year we decided to move out of the country. It is simply humiliating to pay that much money.

Here, we've got an international plan which covers every country in the world except of the US at USD 4K/year for both. In general just by our experience, we like quality of health care here more than in the US.
"63% of U.S. adults say the government has the responsibility to provide healthcarecoverage for all". But health care insurance lobbyists are very powerful- it may never happen.

britishbull

I almost did this but it would have been ruined by Covid, being either locked in or locked out of countries and possibly being hammered by tax if you stay more than 180 days in a tax year because you can't leave (with potential property confiscation if you do not pay). Quite likely to get worse with deviant strains of Covid causing international lockdowns.