"wearing a mask temporarily isn't going to keep me from being furious every single day about having to do something that I feel is not right."
I feel you on that!
So interesting to read this. I missed your other post about leaving USPS. For real- F-them, who needs it.
Not sure if this is feasable for you the flower girl but one thing that helped me emensly grow my wealth and maintain my freedom was travel and living in places that didn't suck my money dry. Give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Here in Thailand I spend 15 dollars month on gas for my scooter. I have a nice little house I rent all included for $270 a month. My phone bill is 7 dollars a month. Wifi is free comes with rent. Price of food has gone down cause dollar has gone up against local currency, and I can eat out 3 meals a day for less than 6 dollars.
Point is, taking a hit in income can be combated with lowering expenses. Now that you are free maybe it's in your best interest to come to Thailand! Or Mexico, or Colombia, Argentina, Georgia...and so on.
Main reason I spend very little time in the US is that it sucks me dry. Like you say, you are just getting by on 2,600 a week bring home. You can live very well for 1,000 or less in many places around the world. Now that you are a free man have you thought about relocating or is that not in your best interest at this point?
Of course, it is feasible, but leaving the country I have grown up in is even scarier than leaving a job that I've relied on. I've only traveled out of the USA once and it was on a cruise to the Bahamas. I don't count on going to Puerto Rico for a few weeks.
I have dreamed of traveling the world and experiencing new places, but jumping shit and moving somewhere that I've never even been and being impossibly far from my family sounds a bit less than ideal.
You make an excellent point about drastically lower costs of living. I was obsessed with Thailand at one point. I even started following @laddawan just to see what rentals were like over there. The prices are absurdly low and you get to be in such a beautiful place. So yes I have definitely fantasized about something like that before, but am not sure if now is the time for me.
Just wanted to make sure you are aware of your options. As you can probably tell, I'm all about it. Frankly it's almost all I know, I've been living outside of the US since age 20 for the most part. Now I'm 39. So you are 100% right. It's important to stay in your comfort zone and close to your family. But it can also be scary losing income you relied on, only reason I wrote that too you. You know what you are doing. That is cool that you are already aware this stuff......I'll have to have a look at @laddawan's page.
You are doing great as is! F- USPS
How easy is it to continue to live over there? Did you just get citizenship? Or what?
Also has USA tried to haunt you with taxes? Or are you detached from this place altogether?
Definitely not citizenship my friend. To get that in any country is usually a very long and extremely committed process, then you're just a servant to another master anyway if you catch my drift. But that's a complex whole other thing.
I just pay about 1,000 dollars a year to a company that handles everything and I get a year long volunteer visa. (which is just a strange name. No volunteering necessary) I can renew no problem, I just did actually. If you were to come out here now, they have this new tourist program, where you can stay for 9 months after a 2 week quarantine if you are not vaccinated, It's much less than the 1,000 I pay. Then you could roll that into a volunteer visa or something. But it's strange times, as rules change so often. But that's the idea behind it. Not too complicated.
So far no problems with taxes in the US.
I'm not entirely detached, I use my father's place in Florida for a mailing address. I have aUS passport and I'm a US citizen. But the one thing I really don't miss.....I haven't gotten junk mail or telemarketing calls in as long as I can remember! hahaha
I thought citizenship was pretty hard to achieve but wasn't sure what you had done.
$1,000/year isn't much when you factor in just how much you are saving by being there.
Thank you for the explantion. I know this is really only something I could learn from somebody who has actually lived through the process.
It's nice to share what I know. Since covid, people are not traveling anymore by comparison, so this is the first time I've been able to help somone with some travel info in a long long time. Feels good. My blog content is suffering since I'm not traveling anymore either, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna tour the country via motor bike come January or February so that should freshen things up a bit.
Here is to getting back out there and seeing/experiencing some more new things. For you, me, and everyone else who has been held back by all of this.