The Expat Retirement Thread (or expat thread)

More on Panama City. I really like this guy's channel.

Quote: AZDuffman

More on Panama City. I really like this guy's channel.

Just watched a video on Panama
and it's just as I thought. You better
love, number one, humidity.
Because it's a sweat thru your clothes
country. And you better love bugs.
One guy said anytime you go outside
your going to get bit by something.
Or find a live scorpion in your bed.
And expect to pay more for everything
than a local would, because 'gringo
gouging' is the national pastime.
If a local pays $1 for a bag of tomatoes,
you're going to pay $5. They even do it
on real estate.

I remember years ago reading about the
Panama canal and how the bugs drove
the white people insane, they were
relentless.

Quote: Evenbob

I remember years ago reading about the
Panama canal and how the bugs drove
the white people insane, they were
relentless.

Living in Alaska, everyone talks about the bugs, Mosquitos, biting fly's etc. being awful. And at times in the right places they can almost blot out light from the sun and stories are told of killing caribou. They are bad when they are bad. But living there, after the second or third hard freeze, the bugs die and the sun comes out on cool/cold days and it's pretty and there are no bugs. There is respite from the dam bugs.

Visited my kid in Florida, and it really creeped me out, the ground moves with crawling insects that never hibernate or die off. And the place is humid, I don't like warm humid at all, sweating for no good reason. Heck with free sweat and never sleeping bugs.

Quote: petroglyph

Visited my kid in Florida, and it really creeped me out, the ground moves with crawling insects that never hibernate or die off. And the place is humid, I don't like warm humid at all, sweating for no good reason. Heck with free sweat and never sleeping bugs.

There are exterminators in FL
that are millionaires. It only
gets worse the farther south
you go. Central America is
a bug paradise.

I remember the exterminator
show on cable. The guy was
always soaked thru in sweat
and said if he didn't have to
be there for the business he
would leave. He actually said
'why would anybody live here
on purpose.' I have a friend
that was transferred to FL for
2 years. He said it was like a
prison sentence, they spent
90% of their time indoors.

Quote: Evenbob

There are exterminators in FL
that are millionaires. It only
gets worse the farther south
you go. Central America is
a bug paradise.

That business is one of the top millionaire makers in the USA. Was in it 7 years. Met a guy who went on his own, just wanted a retirement job. Was complaining to me he was doing so well he needed to take an assistant on. Unsexiest industry out there.

Well, there's one good thing about forty below, no bugs.

Quote: petroglyph

Visited my kid in Florida, and it really creeped me out, the ground moves with crawling insects

Humidity and bugs are deal breakers
for me. Being irritated every day
is not my idea of retirement, I don't
care if everything is dirt cheap it's
just not worth it. Babs lives in FL
and she posted here once she
had to get all her errands done
by 8am because after that it
sweat thru your clothes time
outdoors. No thanks. She only
lives there because her mom is
there and won't leave.

Quote: AZDuffman

That business is one of the top millionaire makers in the USA. Was in it 7 years. Met a guy who went on his own, just wanted a retirement job. Was complaining to me he was doing so well he needed to take an assistant on. Unsexiest industry out there.

That's a heck of a stat there. I like to read classifieds. It seems there is always an add to hire techs.


Pretty brutal out here in the desert in the summer, as you know.

Quote: Evenbob

Humidity and bugs are deal breakers
for me. Being irritated every day
is not my idea of retirement, I don't
care if everything is dirt cheap it's
just not worth it. Babs lives in FL
and she posted here once she
had to get all her errands done
by 8am because after that it
sweat thru your clothes time
outdoors. No thanks. She only
lives there because her mom is
there and won't leave.

If I sweat, I want to earn it.

Quote: petroglyph

That's a heck of a stat there. I like to read classifieds. It seems there is always an add to hire techs.


Pretty brutal out here in the desert in the summer, as you know.

The problem is techs don't stay on because it grinds you to death in the season. But as an owner, oh my.

On an annual basis a tech would produce revenue on $120000 a year when I was in and that was 20 years ago.

Sears had a killer pest control division for years.

You could have 4-5 employees draw off a salary for a manager and still have $10000 a month in profit. That was then.