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[Owlbread]

Defect to North Korea and live like a king.

if you live there the government would take your 100k and put it towards "Food efforts"*



_{*military expenditure.}

That isn't how defectors live. I would be a celebrity.

Based on NK's GDP, I'd estimate you'd need ~$15 billion USD to buy the country out.

To live there like a king, you must kick out the current king.

You misunderstand me, sir. I mean I would be treated like a king AKA how Joe Dreznok lives. I would have no intention of buying out the country or being the next dictator.

[Ameablable]

Ohhhhh. i just read the wiki article and now i know what that means.
i thought it meant like becoming a citizen under their laws.

[Gervassen]

the more westerners, the worst the place becomes. Heh.

With some experience, who does this usually consist of, and why?

If you force me to point fingers, then... the old pensioners. It's one thing to have a place known among backpackers and gap-year bohemians, but those with steady pensions can absolutely ruin it. Usually a certain cottage industry gradually builds up among the locals, gouging and cheating the expats far above local prices, after the place has gathered a concentration of old pensioners doling out money like its going out of style. Then again, with the way the world economy is headed, maybe it is going out of style. Regardless, OP will have trouble living anywhere the pensioners have flocked toward en masse--and ironically they are originally drawn by "How cheap it is!" until they ruin it.

There are a number of other reasons that they destroy local ambiance, but the primary concern of OP is that his savings are nothing compared to the monthly manna from heaven that pensions basically are.

[Scoops Novel]

the more westerners, the worst the place becomes. Heh.

With some experience, who does this usually consist of, and why?

If you force me to point fingers, then... the old pensioners. It's one thing to have a place known among backpackers and gap-year bohemians, but those with steady pensions can absolutely ruin it. Usually a certain cottage industry gradually builds up among the locals, gouging and cheating the expats far above local prices, after the place has gathered a concentration of old pensioners doling out money like its going out of style. Then again, with the way the world economy is headed, maybe it is going out of style. Regardless, OP will have trouble living anywhere the pensioners have flocked toward en masse--and ironically they are originally drawn by "How cheap it is!" until they ruin it.

There are a number of other reasons that they destroy local ambiance, but the primary concern of OP is that his savings are nothing compared to the monthly manna from heaven that pensions basically are.

Thanks for the answer. However, i meant who the ex-pats themselves (you can throw in tourists a bit if you like) normally consist of, and why they're there.

[LordBucket]

Would still like to see some answers on the "what do you do" portion of the question instead of just the finance part. Frumple and Maniac both suggested that sums in the 300-350 range would be a more realistic, so let's go with that. Try the same scenario as described in the OP, but you have $350,000 instead.

What would you do?

Personally I'm guessing that a lot of people will give the same answer: they'd invest and keep working. Which...at some point...there has to be a point at which the "I just keep working" mindset becomes silly and pointless. Wasn't really intending this thread to determine where exactly that point is...it's likely to be different for different people. But if the median american has a net worth of  $232,000 by age 65...then for purposes of this discussion, I was hoping to stay away from arbitrarily high expectations of having millions of dollars available.

[Frumple]

Yeah... like I mentioned, I totes wouldn't mind working, especially volunteer or part-time/reduced pay work, for the right causes. Find somewhere comfortably weather and social wise, stick to the kind of subdued entertainment consumption I've been doing for a while, and then find something genuinely useful/beneficial to do. I'd be set and damn happy -- double-bonus points if it's somewhere aesthetically pleasing, too. Honestly, it's money issues (with a sideline of figuring out how to convince people to let me, ha.) that are primarily stopping me from doing that good works bit now.

And I'd much rather be doing that than just bumming around. Bumming around is great, and while it never exactly gets old for me, it does kinda' get a little stale after a couple months. S'like... I like stale bread too, sometimes, but variety is better than stale bread forever. People like to work nearly as much as they like to play, so long as they're working towards something that has some sort of meaning for 'em, yeah. Fairly sure there's some degree of psych studies along those lines, if I'm not misremembering...