Sorry I have been neglecting my blog, recently. But, I must reblog Anita’s post on a rant-a-thon on bureaucratic contortions. Instead of adding my rants as a U.S. expat, I will write another post about them. Thanks, Anita for inspiring me to pick up my blogging again. Instead, I have been agonizing over the state of my beloved country. š¦
Sagres, Portugal
A few weeks ago my Canadian blogger friend, Frank, at The Travels of BbqBoy and SpankyĀ reached out to me with an idea he had for a collaborative post called, āThe Absolute Worst Thing About Being a Fulltime Traveler,ā comparing our different perspectives.Ā What made his idea intriguing was that our worst experiences actually have nothing to do with traveling full time or with being an expat, he in Croatia and myself in Portugal.Ā This turned into a rather fun and enlightening rant-a-thon by both of us, so I thought Iād reprint parts of Frankās post here with his permission.Ā
The US PerspectiveĀ By Anita @ noparticularplacetogo.net
Six years ago I decided that I wanted the life my husband had: early retirement. Weād worked hard over the years and, lucky for us, werenāt hit too hard by the great recession. We had savings, our homeā¦
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Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua 
Thanks for the reblog Debbie! I totally understand the lag in writing and publishing your blog due to DT and the widespread chaos that is coming from the White House. We too are still experiencing “Trump Trauma” and spend at least a couple of hours a day reading the online news (Washington Post, New York Times, Vox, The Daily Beast, Huff Post) and feeling the angst and anxiety in our guts. The papers say this might have been #45’s worst week yet but it’s also the worst week for so many US citizens as well. The atmosphere is toxic and the apathy from the GOP is staggering! And on and on … But, I have the feeling I’m preaching to the choir, right? To be totally selfish, we thank whoever the master of the universe is that we’re out of the country and can carry on with some semblance of normality in our oasis. Looking forward to your rants post (the car story is great) and reading your blog soon. And I’m also looking forward to our paths crossing one of these days! Anita
Yes, you are preaching to the choir, Anita. I had to stop posting #45 articles on Facebook recently because we are in the process of renewing our residency. ( The timing is a little off because we aren’t sure how much longer we will be in Nicaragua, but we hate crossing the border.)
Anyway, friends of ours who recently renewed their residency peeked inside their residency folders at the immigration office. They had copied some of their Facebook pages!! I couldn’t believe it! My settings are really tight, and I don’t think they can see anything without a court order, but still…to be on the safe side I deleted all of my political rants about # 45. Hope they don’t check my twitter acct. lol
It is interesting that expats and full time RV’s are presented with the same issues! the federal gov’t considers an RV a residence (upheld in court). So it qualifies for all the tax credits ans such…but how do get a house that moves around the country (and even out of the country) to be an address?!? Turns out one state has it figured out!!! South Dakota!!! to be considered a resident of SD you are only required to spend one night every five years within the state! There are mail forwarding services that have capitalized on this and offer ‘real’ addresses (PO boxes don’t count). Some will even scan it and you can tell them to shred/hold/forward for each and every piece of mail!
There are solutions…. did I mention that SD does not have personal income tax? And no Capital gains tax either?!? Sounds like my place to ‘live’!
Very interesting, Stephen! Who knew S. Dakota catered to the RV crowd! Incredible. Sounds like my place to live, too.