He has a vacation home in Belize that is well-equipped for that hobby. He’s getting old enough that maintaining the property, or even making regular trips to Belize, is getting to be too much for him, so he’s trying to sell the property to someone else within the hobby, before he has to go through the headache of de-equipping it and selling it in the broader market.
My wife hates living in Connecticut, so in theory we’ve been looking at places to move to. (I doubt it’s going to happen because…reasons.)
The property itself is in a nicer, more tourist/expat-oriented part of Belize. I’d be tempted if it weren’t for my/my wife’s health considerations, my extreme dislike of heat/humidity, and the fact that Belize isn’t one of the countries I’m allowed to WFH from at my current employer.
Fair enough. I’ve spent about 8 or maybe 10 hours in Belize… when my cruise ship stopped there. It’s safe to say that I was only in the touristy areas.
Still, being able to read and write and talk to others is a big advantage over a country where you couldn’t do those things. And over time I think you’d be able to understand better.
That said, I’m not sure I’d want to live in Belize.
All I know about Belize is that you cannot fly directly there from the UK, and Group Security has it red listed for work abroad. This likely means its probably super dodgy when it comes to governance (political and business wise).
I sort of follow some folks who write about living abroad. Belize and Nicaragua are somewhat popular, but if I was looking south, I think Uruguay might be my first pick. Healthcare is good, not great (but affordable), English is sorta common but you’d want to pick up Spanish. Government is stable, internet works well enough, and it’s really affordable so long as you avoid the bits around Maldonado and Punta del Este where the really rich folks are setting up shop.
Paraguay also seems to have some pretty nice spots. Peru is interesting, it seems a little less ideal in some ways but they have a lot of fresh water, so if you’re worried about climate change putting pressure on water supplies it’s a decent spot.
All of the countries are failing. Different degrees and specialties, but still failing.
Many are familiar with the “Our Father” or “Lord’s Prayer” and have prayed “thy kingdom come”, perhaps not realizing that portion is praying for a government. One of my favorite scriptures about the kingdom is Isaiah 9:6-7.
The Woking indebtedness is mind blowing given that it is a small city of maybe 100,000? How do you recover from that without a bailout from Westminster? Gross financial mismanagement by their council.
They are selling everything they can and cutting services to the bone.
This was clearly gross financial mismanagement, and the scale of it is off the charts, but quite a few councils are in the same position (took speculative bets on property that have now blown up in their face)
Its the poor and vulnerable that end up paying the price as the wealthier folks will probably leave the area.
Interesting article on a family that splits its year between Indianapolis and Nice to give their four children a broader exposure. I had seriously been considering splitting the year between Canada and the UK but am now cautious about getting a second place there.
Probably. We lived about 20 minutes SE of Woking when we lived in the UK and I had the impression Woking was not as affluent as other parts of Surrey. However there are still wealthier folks there who might decamp. It becomes a bit of a spiral possibly.
We’re doing something similar right now but it gets complicated going back and forth. Its good to get exposure to two countries (UK included), but you can still avoid the problems the UK has right now on the ground.
I think I will probably pull the trigger on my British Passport (qualify for one now) before I leave abroad just for insurance, as I do see us returning for school at a later age (I dont think the UKs top tier private schools will lose their global ranking in the interim).