Yeah. I'm in the middle east right now working with soldiers from mostly the west slavic countries. I absolutely love these people. But they tell me they get paid like crap in their countries. It just doesn't seem like its worth it. If you move to any of those countries you're going to be on the front lines of war if it ever breaks out with Russia. And their languages are useless outside their own individual borders.
That's why I like Liechtenstein. You learn German, which is not only easier for English speakers to learn, but it also opens up the possibility of Switzerland or Austria, all three of which are neutral. You'll probably have to live in Switzerland first anyway if you want to get to Liechtenstein. None of these countries would stand in Russia's way. Liechtenstein doesn't even have a military, so unlike Switzerland the government will leave you and your sons alone.
I met a Norwegian here who was a great guy. Norway is one of the wealthiest countries. But he told me the cost of living there is out of control. Their taxes aren't even that bad, but I guess when the government pays for your school and retirement and healthcare nobody cares about saving money so they have no problem spending all of their pay check on overpriced goods.
At the end of the day I feel like the world sucks so bad that the only reason to leave your home country, barring the exceptional employment circumstances that some people are subject to, is to "rage quit." Basically you're just so filled with hatred of your country that you settle on an inferior option simply because it's not, in our case, America. And I don't think that's very healthy spiritually.
Going through this process right now with an interstate move process, investigating whether or not it's legitimately a value add to move out of Colorado, most likely to Oklahoma.
The more one investigates, the less simple it is. For example, Oklahoma is a state which taxes groceries across the board, rather than as in here in CO where only certain items are taxed. So, wondering what that might look like we set out to look into how to figure out the formula. My plan was to simply go "shopping" when we finally visit Oklahoma and tally up the difference without actually buying 2 weeks of food. My wife, being the ingenious little thing that she is, decided to use the Walmart grocery pickup app and do a typical cart but then change the zip code to the area we'd be going. Voila. $5 tax (CO) vs ~$9 (OK). So a $4 difference every two weeks = ~$100 more a year for groceries. However, OK has certain stores that are cheaper than Walmart (Aldi), and, we'd be shifting our method of purchase on certain items. For example, we'd likely buy a whole side of beef at once and we'd likely do our own chickens for eggs and meat. Why? Because one of the value adds is getting 5-10 acres as a real potential. I simply won't move to just live in another neighborhood. So those things could end up driving down the initial cost of things.
Gas is cheaper in OK, too. The best local price here, even with a member discount at Sam's club, was $2.13/gal yesterday. In Tulsa, gasbuddy.com indicates a local price of ~$1.88, Sperry is 1.81, Bartlesville is $1.78 at a Phillips 66 station (makes sense, since they are literally right there in town) etc.
Assuming 20mpg and 20000 miles/year, that's 1000 gallons of gas a year. CO, at current prices, = $2,130/year whereas OK = $1,880/year for a savings of $250/year in gas, which in consideration of the grocery tax increase nets at $150/year in our favor.
Once we are able to get these local particulars down on a spreadsheet from research and on the ground asset intelligence (looking at you James03), we can begin the process of setting up pay band validators. Anything in Payband A = thanks for the offer, Company X, but I need to decline. Payband B = ok, this is workable. Payband C = we just made money in comparison. etc.
That's the material consideration. Immaterial = things like a giant yard for the kids to run around in, space to shoot my bow without some HOA-loving, "I can't even"-Starbucks drinking soccer mom freaking out, etc.
