Trip Overseas

Well I'm really excited that I will be leaving in a week for Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Taipei! Should be a great trip. We have a wedding to attend in HK so that will be interesting. We are really looking forward to Chiang Mai because we haven't been there before. Actually we may be speculating on some real estate on our visit. Hope everything works out on that front. We've also never been to Taipei, Taiwan. That should be a great visit too. Many places to see there and all the great food of course.
It will be good to get away from my job for 3 weeks. Only a few more years and I will be able to travel at will, rather than whenever I can get off work. The job is stressful and any time off is great!
More news later...

Coming Back for More

Wow!
I haven't posted for a longggg time and I've only got 955 days left until my retirement. Well even that number may be a bit higher than what actually happens. My current job is quite demanding and I may just decide to retire early if the job pushes me "over the edge". I've got a good pension and a decidedly decreased cost of living once I leave my job thanks to the things I won't be seeing taken out of my paycheck!
A lot has happened since I last posted. While the US Economic Downturn had wrecked the estimated worth of my home, the latest real estate upswing has really made our equity situation improve greatly. That of course adds to the bottom line of retirement. We don't plan on keeping our US home once I retire, instead choosing to rent until we leave the US for other lands and opportunities.
Much more research has expanded our options down the road. We are looking at traveling for a while, but at the same time thinking of financial diversity by purchasing real estate for rental purposes. It would be nice to have assets outside the US that can bring in extra income.
One country we are looking at is Thailand, probably Chiang Mai, but other areas are nice too. My wife has family in Bangkok which is nice also. Ecuador is another possibility for investment. Cuenca has shown to be an expanding market for retirees and tourists. Between now and when retirement happens, I'm sure a few other opportunities will present themselves so I welcome other ideas!

In the meantime for all who are interested, here is some good information about exactly what I'm interested in:

Live and Invest Overseas website

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Well more to come. Enough for tonight!