Che Banana
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I’ve had 3 cars the first was 10yo when i bought it, the second was 3yo when i got it, the last one was new. Each one lasted 5 years, 12 years and then 10 years respectively. Moved to a walkable/bikeable city & I don’t even have a driver’s license anymore. New cars are not bad as long as it doesn’t get changed out every other year, and you get one that is a reliable model.
We moved to Spain, and there are a couple things we had to our advantage:
Both of us have traveled (for work, school).
I have always been in the culinary industry (I figured I was going to work my ass off so I might as well do it in exotic locations)
The industry also taught us to be frugal (any hiccup in the economy and the highest paid in the kitchen get the boot.
There is a huge push RN for remote workers in Spain, Portugal & Ireland (that I know of), so we know a lot of remote employees.
Spain has a couple options to migrate: entrepreneurs is one where you need about 500k for investing (not us); the route we took was to get a 90 day visa, then apply for reafter 1 year we could work as "self employed ", we opened the restaurant. we were ineligible to work for other people during this time, and each renewal careies fees (less than 300€, fam of 4), renewals after years 1, 2, 4, 5 (after 5 we get a 10 yr permanent residence, and can apply for passport).
1st year was “non lucrativo” meaning you cannot work but must have means of support, we had family members submit their bank info to “support us” in case we needed money, and wé had to carry private insurance (50€ month for each of us) but after we dropped it for social insurance.
We sold our house and moved with about 175k, lived for a year, opened the restaurant with about 25k all in.
We have been able to maintain a good lifestyle with "very little "…IMO money has more value in EU than in the US, in the US there are a lot of hidden cost to living and you don’t realize it. We don’t own vehicles and let our licenses expire (ĺol), I have a “eurotrash bike” with cart and thats all i need to supply a 70 seat restaurant
as far as racism etc, yeah old school Spain is like “if you’re not from this town you are a foreigner”, but when you integrate yourself into the community & show that you respect the culture (speaking spanish helps in this regard) ,Our sons in Valencia go to the pride parades because they are fun, and regardless of anything else we fly the trans flag at our joint, because we are all out of shits to give.
We moved to Spain, and there are a couple things we had to our advantage:
Both of us have traveled (for work, school).
I have always been in the culinary industry (I figured I was going to work my ass off so I might as well do it in exotic locations)
The industry also taught us to be frugal (any hiccup in the economy and the highest paid in the kitchen get the boot.
There is a huge push RN for remote workers in Spain, Portugal & Ireland (that I know of), so we know a lot of remote employees.
Spain has a couple options to migrate: entrepreneurs is one where you need about 500k for investing (not us); the route we took was to get a 90 day visa, then apply for reafter 1 year we could work as "self employed ", we opened the restaurant. we were ineligible to work for other people during this time, and each renewal careies fees (less than 300€, fam of 4), renewals after years 1, 2, 4, 5 (after 5 we get a 10 yr permanent residence, and can apply for passport).
1st year was “non lucrativo” meaning you cannot work but must have means of support, we had family members submit their bank info to “support us” in case we needed money, and wé had to carry private insurance (50€ month for each of us) but after we dropped it for social insurance.
We sold our house and moved with about 175k, lived for a year, opened the restaurant with about 25k all in.
We have been able to maintain a good lifestyle with "very little "…IMO money has more value in EU than in the US, in the US there are a lot of hidden cost to living and you don’t realize it. We don’t own vehicles and let our licenses expire (ĺol), I have a “eurotrash bike” with cart and thats all i need to supply a 70 seat restaurant
as far as racism etc, yeah old school Spain is like “if you’re not from this town you are a foreigner”, but when you integrate yourself into the community & show that you respect the culture (speaking spanish helps in this regard) ,Our sons in Valencia go to the pride parades because they are fun, and regardless of anything else we fly the trans flag at our joint, because we are all out of shits to give.
We left the US for good in 2018 when our oldest graduated HS. We found a true melting pot community (52 registered nationalities in the town hall) in what is a very spanish town.
We found what we couldn’t achieve in the US, and it is actually feasible for us to retire in a few years, but we are enjoying what we do run a mom & pop bbq joint, and we enjoy where we are, 500M from the beach.
My siblings all live baçk home and have stable jobs/retire but my career as a chef wasn’t built to withstand the constant financial downturns.
Our children returned to the US- one to get work experience in a friends factory, the other to get a "US High School " experience.
Both returned in a year and now share a flat in a nearby city attending local college & US online school.
It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, even though covid (lol, we opened our restaurant 6 months before lockdown) but we cannot imagine going back.
Feel free to AMA.
Same, gave me some experience and set me on my career path.
Did my 4 years on bases with no flight lines (Like being in the navy and never stepping foot on a ship, lol) and only deployed to humanitarian missions even though the first gulf war was going on.
Still keep in touch with people i worked/lived with all those years ago.
Different world now and am glad my children didnt have to make that decision.