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Semi retired lifestyles
- Thread starter bigpoppa
- Start date
Speaking of Africa....I used to winter in the Western Cape which is just wonderful. I'm sure some costs have gone up but still worth considering.
www.expatica.com
11 rand to 1 cdn dollar.
Retiring in South Africa
South Africa is a popular destination for expats, especially for those retiring due to a favorable climate and affordable living costs.
www.expatica.com
11 rand to 1 cdn dollar.
The Western Cape and Winelands Photo Gallery
Browse images of The Western Cape and Winelands in this photo gallery from Fodor's Travel.
www.fodors.com
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I don’t know about that. When your working with locals deploying a network, you eat sleep and play together for weeks at a time, you don’t need to be there without a return ticket to integrate.
I don’t criticize immigrants who choose to retain and preserve their culture, and language by settling into their little country communities. Thats part of what makes Canada diverse and tolerant. The Melting pot culture has limited success, in fact countries lithe the UK and USA who promote such suffer more racism and racial tension because of it.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Had to be brave to relo there during the latter part of Apartheid. I spent time there in 1988, the only place I’ve ever been in constant fear.
plutoz
Well-known member
Loved reading this thread and the breadth of experiences & perspectives. I've been giving a lot of thought to 'retirement' and the future. I've been semi-retired for the past 1.5-2 years now. Started out by taking a leave of absence from my job of ~10 years to pursue something I wanted to do, which for better or worse didn't work out. I spent the remainder of my leave travelling the continent. In the time I was gone attitudes of management towards me changed, I guess I wasn't considered a loyal servant anymore. I was only back for a few months when I got out for good. For the past year and a bit I've been working on an occasional basis / when I felt like it. Probably would have taken more time off for travel if it wasn't for CoVID.
Wife and I are in our early 40s with no kids. She has a great job that she can and has done entirely remotely, remains to be seen if that will stay in place post-CoVID. We own a paid-for house in the GTA suburbs. Been watching the reports of the crazy house sale prices in our area as people flee Toronto-proper and giving a lot of thought to selling and using part of our cash to move to a less populous (and cheaper) part of the province and use the rest to fund our lifestyle & travel once we decide to quit working completely, or even just working less. We aren't into fancy stuff and don't mind living on the cheap especially when we travel. Motorcycles are by far the biggest drain on expenses.
Only downside is my entire family is all currently less than a 10 minute drive away, so I'd definitely see much less of them. Not that we see them a lot, especially this past year.
Wife and I are in our early 40s with no kids. She has a great job that she can and has done entirely remotely, remains to be seen if that will stay in place post-CoVID. We own a paid-for house in the GTA suburbs. Been watching the reports of the crazy house sale prices in our area as people flee Toronto-proper and giving a lot of thought to selling and using part of our cash to move to a less populous (and cheaper) part of the province and use the rest to fund our lifestyle & travel once we decide to quit working completely, or even just working less. We aren't into fancy stuff and don't mind living on the cheap especially when we travel. Motorcycles are by far the biggest drain on expenses.
Only downside is my entire family is all currently less than a 10 minute drive away, so I'd definitely see much less of them. Not that we see them a lot, especially this past year.
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from youuuuuuuuI hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
bigpoppa
Well-known member
Yeah I would just rent out the house, the housing in southern ontario aint going anywhere but up, in 10 years it might double in value.
40 is still relatively early
plutoz
Well-known member
That's definitely an option we've considered. I'm genuinely conflicted because I can't see how it can just keep going up when it's already unaffordable such a large swath of the population. Young people (Gen Z) are leaving our community in droves, I've seen it with my own eyes. I just don't see how it's sustainable.
Not to mention we'd have to go deep into debt to buy another property in order to be able to rent this one out, meaning we'd need the income to service that debt. Yes interest rates are low, for now.
I had similar plans in my younger days , but now baby sitting our grand children. It's good to dream
bigpoppa
Well-known member
#facts
Mikedezo44
Well-known member
speaking of babysitting grandchildren...must be a new thing. Noticing a couple friends parents retired only to transition into their second career of babysitting. My best friends kids spend more time at the grandparents house than his house. To the point that I question who is raising them. Talk about being taken advantage of. He's always leaving them there all day only to sleepover at night as well so he can go do whatever else he wants to do. Runs his own business and makes his own hours yet the grandparents are the ones who take them to school everyday and pick them up feed them dinner etc etc. Now the one grandparent is even sleeping over at his house so his wife can work the night shift. And that's just one side of the family, his wifes parents watch the kids just as much.
Same with the next door neighbor, elderly lady watching 4 of her grandchildren day in day out its like a revolving door at her house with one being picked up and one being dropped off at all hours. In and out Their cars on the driveway 5 times a day. No slow down from Covid either even though they now work from home and are fully capable of watching their own kids. I don't know how they get any work done when they spend more time shuttling the kids back and forth.
I saw my grandparents MAYBE once a week, on sundays for an hour or two visit when I was growing up.
Same with the next door neighbor, elderly lady watching 4 of her grandchildren day in day out its like a revolving door at her house with one being picked up and one being dropped off at all hours. In and out Their cars on the driveway 5 times a day. No slow down from Covid either even though they now work from home and are fully capable of watching their own kids. I don't know how they get any work done when they spend more time shuttling the kids back and forth.
I saw my grandparents MAYBE once a week, on sundays for an hour or two visit when I was growing up.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
depends on the culture and economics as well
baby sitting is cray expensive, housing is too, a young family is gonna have a real hard time keeping things running smoothly without an extended family or a large bank account
This is usually the norm with asian families etc
Its a weird thing to look at spending time with grandkids as being taking advantage of
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My grandparents had the farm next door and I saw them daily. And they ALWAYS had a chore that needed done, but you got cookies.
My mom was thrilled to be a grandma and spent a lot of time with my kids at her insistence. She put a lot of work into my kids and always volunteered .
What I did not appreciate was when she would regale them with tales of my complete stupidity and my kids would use it as leverage in conversations. But that again was largely my fault..
My mom was thrilled to be a grandma and spent a lot of time with my kids at her insistence. She put a lot of work into my kids and always volunteered .
What I did not appreciate was when she would regale them with tales of my complete stupidity and my kids would use it as leverage in conversations. But that again was largely my fault..
It's a fine line. My parents are in their 80's and when my brother, wife, & nephews visited from out-of-town a couple of years ago and the 2 kids aged like 6 & 8 or so needed looking after for a couple of days I volunteered to look after them.
My mother thanked me later as they just don't have the energy & health to look after 2 high energy kids ... heck, I was pooped after 2 days - it's unbelievable how they can just go-go-go at 100% all the time!
as said above, there is a big swing in the last 30yrs for many folks, in the age of grandma, people are waiting longer to have families so the age gap just gets bigger. My mom was early fifties when she became a grandma, still lots of gas in the tank, now at 86? no bueno
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