[quote=deadzone]All valid points zzz. These are the main reasons that I personally would never choose to live in Mexico, nothing to do with the real or perceived crime rate.
If I had to choose one 3rd world country to live, it would definitely be Thailand. Distant 2nd is Brazil. Alot of bad perceptions towards Brazil too, by the way. But outside of Sao Paula and Rio, I don’t think crime rate is that bad. When I travled to Brazil, I felt a lot more comfortable than Mexico or any other Latin American country I have visited.[/quote]
I know several people who have retired to Thailand, including family. Its quite the life. Personally I love Asia, so I enjoy traveling in that part of the world. I think people need to distinguish between enjoying traveling somewhere, and living there. Its night and day. You get to come home at the end of a vacation – its like a honeymoon. You can LOVE a place when you visit, but you really need to look at the practicalities of day to day living. And do you have enough money to get back and forth to the US if staying in touch with friends and family is important to you?
Money goes a lot further there, and living in beachfront property is completely within reach. Theres a lot of medical tourism in Asia, so the quality of care can be quite high. However, people still come back to the US or Europe for cancer treatment. If you live long enough – cancer will likely be a factor- its a disease of age as our bodies are less able to deal with cell mutation and free radicals.
For people who are still working and looking for growth regions, Asia is such an opportunity for growth – I think people should be learning Chinese and considering living in Asia. Its getting very expensive to live well in many places in Asia however. Or learn Portuguese and move to Brazil – one of the fastest growing countries economically. Despite the growth opps- people from both regions are still trying to come to the US, so it makes you think what we have so good here- we really do take a lot of our civil liberties and daily living conveniences for living. Very dependable trash pickup, mail service, relative lack of corruption, ease of doing biz. If we find dealing with cable providers or phone service difficult here, should try going to some 2nd and 3rd world countries!
