The Expat Retirement Thread (or expat thread)

Quote: AZDuffman

There does seem to be a huge eating out culture there. Takeaway, delivery, etc. !

The easiest business to start
(and fail at) is a restaurant.
90% of all new restaurants
fail in the first 2 years, most
in the first 6 months. Every
guy who can cook a steak
thinks he can open a
restaurant. NYC has lost
over 1000 restaurants so
far to the pandemic. It
has almost 27,000 so it's
not panic time yet.

The walking videos I watch,
they often stop and eat.
Yesterday one went to an
outdoor (indoor is closed)
joint and got a burger, fries,
and a mixed drink. The final
bill was $39+tax+tip for
a total of $55. The prices
there are totally insane. I
can feed myself well for
a week on $55. I don't get
the allure of NYC. Crowded,
$350 a month to park your car,
horrible traffic, rent is
thousands of dollars. Takes
forever to get where you're
going. I would hate it.

Quote: Evenbob

The easiest business to start
(and fail at) is a restaurant.
90% of all new restaurants
fail in the first 2 years, most
in the first 6 months. Every
guy who can cook a steak
thinks he can open a
restaurant. NYC has lost
over 1000 restaurants so
far to the pandemic. It
has almost 27,000 so it's
not panic time yet.

The walking videos I watch,
they often stop and eat.
Yesterday one went to an
outdoor (indoor is closed)
joint and got a burger, fries,
and a mixed drink. The final
bill was $39+tax+tip for
a total of $55. The prices
there are totally insane. I
can feed myself well for
a week on $55. I don't get
the allure of NYC. Crowded,
$350 a month to park your car,
horrible traffic, rent is
thousands of dollars. Takes
forever to get where you're
going. I would hate it.

$55 burger? Kobe Beef??

Quote: AZDuffman

$55 burger? Kobe Beef??

Burger was $20, fries $6, drink $13.
Tax was $4, tip was $13. Today he
got a Japanese wrap that looked
like a burrito, $21. Even he admitted
it was worth maybe half that. An
egg pancake with some veggies
inside for $21?

You can't buy any apartment in
Manhattan for under a million.
He saw a small 2 story house
from 1900 that was maybe
1200 sq ft. $9 million. No
wonder people are fleeing in
droves.

Quote: DRich

If you like BBQ, the restaurant Holy Smokin Butts in Tucson is one that I always go to when in Tucson. I don't know if it is anything special but I really like eating BBQ so I try it anywhere that I am at.

I saw the reviews
Best BBQ in Tucson
So I figure this will be the perfect take out for the super bowl
Wrong
As I read more reviews, noticed comments about weird hours
WTF. I checked.
They do have weird hours
Closed at night and closed weekends

Quote: Evenbob

Burger was $20, fries $6, drink $13.
Tax was $4, tip was $13. Today he
got a Japanese wrap that looked
like a burrito, $21. Even he admitted
it was worth maybe half that. An
egg pancake with some veggies
inside for $21?

You can't buy any apartment in
Manhattan for under a million.
He saw a small 2 story house
from 1900 that was maybe
1200 sq ft. $9 million. No
wonder people are fleeing in
droves.

That is one heck of a tip! Manhattan is a weird place. Dreamers go there for 90% of them to be chewed up and spit out. People think it is one of the many TV shows set there. I have to admit I would have loved to get the bank job where you went there for training for 8 months. But they paid your rent and you were out in 8 months. To live there? A bunch of serfs paying sky-high rent.

Quote: AZDuffman

That is one heck of a tip! Manhattan is a weird place. Dreamers go there for 90% of them to be chewed up and spit out. People think it is one of the many TV shows set there.

Funny thing is, most that are set here,
few film here. Shows like Seinfeld and
Friends were on a set in H-wood.

Quote: Evenbob

Funny thing is, most that are set here,
few film here. Shows like Seinfeld and
Friends were on a set in H-wood.

In the early days of TV it made sense to set there as 1/10 or so people lived in NYC. But funny thing was earlier shows just happened to be set there. There was no "Sex and the City mystique" about it. Of course it was unlivable about 1964-Rudy Era.

Quote: AZDuffman

In the early days of TV it made sense to set there as 1/10 or so people lived in NYC. But funny thing was earlier shows just happened to be set there. There was no "Sex and the City mystique" about it..

SITC was shot in NYC, but all the
interior scenes were done on a
set. Carries apt was exterior only,
the interior was on a set on Long
Island. Seinfeld had a 3 block
street built in Burbank that looked
just like NYC. Not a single scene
was shot in the city itself.

Quote: Evenbob

The walking videos I watch,
they often stop and eat.
Yesterday one went to an
outdoor (indoor is closed)
joint and got a burger, fries,
and a mixed drink.

Cuomo's ban on indoor dining and plastic bags has been hard on the rats.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-gave-up-citizenship-in-record-numbers-in-2020-up-triple-from-2019-reports-tax-specialists-americans-overseas-301222817.html

"A record 6,705 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2020
A 260% increase from 2019 when 2,577 Americans gave up their citizenship
Renunciations triple despite U.S. consulates being closed for large parts of the year due to COVID-19
This is the highest year on record; the previous record was 5,411 cases in 2016"