Author Topic: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)  (Read 51770 times)

nnls

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #100 on: September 13, 2016, 08:41:26 PM »
Thanks all for the feedback and comments!



Would it be possible to add a filter for weather, say to put in minimum or maximum temperatures you would be willing to live in? As that could be useful

There will surely be a search/filter for weather of some sort, but I'm not quite sure what form it will take yet. Max/min temps feels a bit like a rule editor, which I'm desperate for this not to become :)


Thanks for all the feedback, and please share with friends to help me keep it going!

maybe somehow have weather as options, like snow, extreme heat, moderate or something so that people can eliminate. Though I understand different people consider different things as too hot or too cold

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #101 on: September 14, 2016, 01:43:33 PM »
You should keep a changelog page on the site so people can see new features.

Changelog now present in the footer. I would mention the changelog in the changelog, but I'm worried about wiping out the universe accidentally.

https://www.theearthawaits.com/changelog/
« Last Edit: September 14, 2016, 01:47:18 PM by iamlindoro »

jacquespluto

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #102 on: September 14, 2016, 03:37:04 PM »
Sorry I am replying late.  And in case I it wasn't evident in my previous post, this is definitely meant to come across constructive as I really like your site!

Back to health insurance and healthcare, I guess my main point is that it would be good to at least include a baseline amount in the initial budget that comes up for each city.  Even if the baseline amount is a lower range per person amount that is the same for every city, at least it's included and not zero.  That way the amounts that are flashing without digging into the budget tab are more in line with reality.  It's easy to get excited when you see $1,500/mo for a cool city, but then you realize that is only a portion of your budget and doesn't include health insurance / healthcare which for a lot of us is a material amount.  The problem is that some people might miss this if they don't dig into the details behind the budget tab to see what is included and what isn't.

I think your site will get a lot of traffic and generate some fun articles and dreams of retiring abroad.  Good luck!

DavesNotHere

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #103 on: September 15, 2016, 05:34:20 PM »
Safety/crime is number one for my wife, she's too scared for us to go really.  Buying real estate laws, customs and "traps" are all important.  Number of flights to the u.s. is good too.  Best of luck with the site.

arebelspy

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #104 on: September 15, 2016, 08:30:25 PM »
Safety/crime is number one for my wife, she's too scared for us to go really.  Buying real estate laws, customs and "traps" are all important.  Number of flights to the u.s. is good too.  Best of luck with the site.

Better not live in the US then. It's way more dangerous in many parts of the States than it is outside of it!  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #105 on: September 17, 2016, 11:13:07 PM »
Additional things that could be helpful:

Primary Language

Though a flat list of languages spoken was there for the start, I reworked it to be able to identify primary language, and to search by primary language. You can now select, for example, "Spanish" as your language under advanced search options to limit results to countries where Spanish is the primary language.

A quick update to non-Americans that currency conversion is coming soon.

gerardc

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #106 on: September 18, 2016, 01:52:42 AM »
Quote from: iamlindoro
The Earth Awaits: The Internet's Best and Only Custom Budget-building Tool for World-Travelers

You're not aware of nomadlist.com?

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #107 on: September 18, 2016, 08:21:44 AM »
Quote from: iamlindoro
The Earth Awaits: The Internet's Best and Only Custom Budget-building Tool for World-Travelers

You're not aware of nomadlist.com?

Well aware. It's an awesome site. It's not a budget-building tool, though. The monthly cost of living amounts on NomadList are a fixed value that doesn't differ based on your input, lifestyle, housing, or anything else. It's also not clear how those numbers are derived.  The Earth Awaits builds the budgets dynamically for you (based on your lifestyle, family size, housing needs, etc), allows you to see all the line items that went into them, and edit them to suit your tastes.

So, to summarize, it's not intended to compete with or replace NomadList, because NomadList doesn't do the same things.

Cookie78

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #108 on: September 19, 2016, 09:28:15 AM »
Additional things that could be helpful:

Primary Language

Though a flat list of languages spoken was there for the start, I reworked it to be able to identify primary language, and to search by primary language. You can now select, for example, "Spanish" as your language under advanced search options to limit results to countries where Spanish is the primary language.

A quick update to non-Americans that currency conversion is coming soon.

You are amazing!

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #109 on: September 19, 2016, 09:48:35 AM »
You are amazing!

Ha, thanks! Not sure I deserve it, but I am super pumped that people seem to be enjoying it so far. I am also really excited about the stuff I'm planning to add in the next few months that I hope will make it an even more useful and fun tool for people. Please keep checking back, and share with friends-- that's the best way to help me out!

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #110 on: September 19, 2016, 09:58:50 AM »
Posting to follow. While living outside the US permanently isn't my goal at this time, I do plan to slow travel by living in various places thru out the world. Currently in North America and then overseas once dog is gone.

I sympathize with needing to be flexible around the pups.  We've got two- 9 and 5. I figure at least one will still be with us (though I would love it if it were both). We'll probably still go abroad, but then try to minimize the distance between slow travel destinations (ie, move within Europe for a few years) to make it easy on our old girl if she's still with us.

TVRodriguez

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #111 on: September 21, 2016, 08:10:33 AM »
I met someone last night who is "world schooling" her preschool aged child for the next year, spending a month (more or less) in one place and then moving again.  I told her about your site and she wrote it down.  So, that's one more visitor for you.  :)

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #112 on: September 21, 2016, 08:49:07 AM »
That's awesome, thank you! Every visit counts :)

MMM himself was also super kind and tweeted a link to the site:

https://twitter.com/mrmoneymustache/status/778582089486655488

That is definitely a huge high point for me. I have had some amazing help from PF bloggers, Redditors, etc., and it is very humbling and difficult to explain the gratitude. It all started with your help, feedback, and suggestions here, before the site was even "a thing." Thank you!

Hvillian

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #113 on: September 22, 2016, 11:51:11 AM »
I love the site and plan on spending a lot more time playing with it over the next days, months and hopefully years.  Sent it a couple friends and family members, too.  The first several results are places I had considered for slow traveling.

Only feedback I have so far is for the basic drop boxes on the home page for Crime Rate and Population.  I think they catch whatever you input, and "lower" results.  This is fine with crime (I assume if you okay with some, lower crime would still be okay), but some people might not want to consider lower population places if they input High for the desired population.

Great work.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #114 on: September 22, 2016, 11:55:43 AM »
Only feedback I have so far is for the basic drop boxes on the home page for Crime Rate and Population.  I think they catch whatever you input, and "lower" results.  This is fine with crime (I assume if you okay with some, lower crime would still be okay), but some people might not want to consider lower population places if they input High for the desired population.

Thanks for the feedback, and thank you so much for sharing! You are correct that those two are the selected value or lower. Note, though that the second dropdown you're talking about is *pollution*, not population. Most people want less of that :)

I'm adding tooltips in the next couple of weeks so that I can explain the nuances without cluttering up the UI. The "or lower" aspect will definitely be on there!

usoverseas

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #115 on: September 22, 2016, 11:07:29 PM »
First of all, I have to say I love, love, love your site.  Awesome! Seriously.  Our plan is in OMY to buy a small campervan and travel around with our pup abroad. This is the type of site that helps me dream about all of the fun places we can visit, but also have a better idea of what our RE budget should be.

A couple of suggestions for things for inclusion:
1. Someone mentioned "stickyness" before.  What I would love to do is be able to right click and open some of these in new tabs.  That way I can look at them side by side with the other places, save some of the places, share the link with my husband, etc.  That would also help with stickiness I suspect.
2. Along the same lines as the first one, how about a compare button?  Be able to pick one or two places and look at them side by side.
3. Since pets came into the subject, what about pets import rules?  Even if you just linked to the page to one of the pet importers that listed the requirements, that would be an easy start.

A couple of other suggestions - these are constructive, so hopefully you don't take offense:
1. Suggest on the home page, in the header image, maybe an image that is more appealing - having it scroll through some amazing travel destination and have the monthly price shown in the corner or something like that.  As someone who doesn't have children, while I think the image is really cute, it doesn't capture my travelers attention, it makes me think this is a site about kids adventures. 
2. Along the same lines as above,  under all of the search stuff, maybe have a few pre-populated suggestions to capture people's attention?  I love the uncluttered look right now, but having some more visual teasers might grab people's attention.

Hope you don't mind the suggestions, I love the site, and think you have done an amazing job.  I definitely will use to help plan some fun adventures in the future! Thanks again, and good luck with it!


iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #116 on: September 22, 2016, 11:23:41 PM »
First of all, I have to say I love, love, love your site.  Awesome! Seriously.  Our plan is in OMY to buy a small campervan and travel around with our pup abroad. This is the type of site that helps me dream about all of the fun places we can visit, but also have a better idea of what our RE budget should be.

A couple of suggestions for things for inclusion:
1. Someone mentioned "stickyness" before.  What I would love to do is be able to right click and open some of these in new tabs.  That way I can look at them side by side with the other places, save some of the places, share the link with my husband, etc.  That would also help with stickiness I suspect.
2. Along the same lines as the first one, how about a compare button?  Be able to pick one or two places and look at them side by side.
3. Since pets came into the subject, what about pets import rules?  Even if you just linked to the page to one of the pet importers that listed the requirements, that would be an easy start.

A couple of other suggestions - these are constructive, so hopefully you don't take offense:
1. Suggest on the home page, in the header image, maybe an image that is more appealing - having it scroll through some amazing travel destination and have the monthly price shown in the corner or something like that.  As someone who doesn't have children, while I think the image is really cute, it doesn't capture my travelers attention, it makes me think this is a site about kids adventures. 
2. Along the same lines as above,  under all of the search stuff, maybe have a few pre-populated suggestions to capture people's attention?  I love the uncluttered look right now, but having some more visual teasers might grab people's attention.

Hope you don't mind the suggestions, I love the site, and think you have done an amazing job.  I definitely will use to help plan some fun adventures in the future! Thanks again, and good luck with it!

Thanks for all the feedback and the kind words! I don't take any offense-- believe me, there has been some nasty stuff in at least one place I can think of, so your constructive feedback is extremely pleasant by comparison!

Suggestions:

1) This may be possible, but it'll probably have to be done with a slightly non-standard way of doing it since the cities open in a modal dialog, rather than on a completely new page.  That said, for the moment if you open a city, you can copy and paste the url there and paste it into a new tab, which will load the full site and open the appropriate city in a modal. Not perfect, but a stopgap for now.

2) Compare is something I've definitely got on the to-do list, but it will be a little bit further down the road-- probably late this year at the earliest, because my high priority tasks (multi-currency support, user accounts, favorites, stored budgets) have to come first, and that will eat up the next couple of months. I have some ideas on how to implement it, though, so keep checking back!

3) Maybe a little further down the road, but a definite possibility. I made myself a bit of a promise that I wouldn't try to add *too* much more data for every city/country until I tackled the features mentioned above.

Suggestions Part II:

1) I kind of like the current photo, and I don't have kids :) I think a slider with prices would make the site look a little too much like I'm selling something.  I would be open to a photo change, but I don't think the slider/prices is the way I want to go.

2) I think I differ a bit on this one too. It doesn't take much effort to get actual results (really, at a minimum you can just click search with the defaults and see some awesome stuff) but it's something to think about.

Thanks! thanks also for thinking about coming back when you have adventures to plan in the future. With any luck, it will have even more to offer by the time you're ready.

iamlindoro

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I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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usoverseas

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #119 on: September 24, 2016, 09:00:08 AM »
Congrats on Lifehacker!  Sounds like things are moving in a really positive direction!

Thanks for your tip on how to open them in new tabs, I will definitely use that.

Regarding my previous suggestions below:

Quote
Suggestions Part II:

1) I kind of like the current photo, and I don't have kids :) I think a slider with prices would make the site look a little too much like I'm selling something.  I would be open to a photo change, but I don't think the slider/prices is the way I want to go.

I do agree with you about the prices, good point, it will look like a real estate site....so maybe just some pictures to immediately grab people's attention.



Quote
2) I think I differ a bit on this one too. It doesn't take much effort to get actual results (really, at a minimum you can just click search with the defaults and see some awesome stuff) but it's something to think about.

I just took a look at the nomadlist site, and if you added what I was suggesting, it would look way too much like what they have done, so I agree stick with what you have, nice and clean...

Anyways, just wanted to say great job, definitely will keep an eye on it!  Good luck!

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #120 on: September 27, 2016, 10:48:31 PM »
Congrats on Lifehacker!  Sounds like things are moving in a really positive direction!

Thanks for your tip on how to open them in new tabs, I will definitely use that.

Thanks for being flexible up to this point-- tonight I added some code to handle the right-click event on the Details button for each city so that you can open them directly in a new tab. Enjoy, this one's for you :)

Also recently added population sort, and if you're a non-USA-person, currency conversion is hopefully going to be done early next week sometime.

Zoot

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #121 on: September 28, 2016, 08:19:39 AM »
Super, super amazing site, which has already set off several light-bulb moments for me.

One thought for revenue generation:  partner with some other site to provide links to housing options.  This will serve to confirm the claimed budget numbers, give users a way to see what kind of housing they can get for that budget, and probably attract more return visits.

Can't wait to dig in more deeply!  Well done!

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #122 on: September 28, 2016, 09:47:32 AM »
I love the current photo!  While I do have kids, my first thought was actually of the kid in all of us who loves adventures rather than of traveling with my own kids. 

That might say something about me as a parent . . .

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #123 on: September 28, 2016, 12:32:49 PM »
I shared your site with a colleague.  Now he wants to quit his job and move to Cuenca--like this week.  I am his boss (department chair), so I am telling him that he must at least teach the rest of the semester before he moves!!  :)

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #124 on: September 28, 2016, 12:38:07 PM »
I shared your site with a colleague.  Now he wants to quit his job and move to Cuenca--like this week.  I am his boss (department chair), so I am telling him that he must at least teach the rest of the semester before he moves!!  :)

Ha, I love it!  Thank you for sharing, and apologies in advance for all the bosses I hope to inconvenience in the future ;)

One thought for revenue generation:  partner with some other site to provide links to housing options.  This will serve to confirm the claimed budget numbers, give users a way to see what kind of housing they can get for that budget, and probably attract more return visits.

Thanks! I'd like to add this as well. The tasks ahead to add data points are roughly split into "can be aggregated automatically" and "require human research/interaction." Having links to housing, communications, health care, etc. are in the latter basket, but I really hope to get the site self-sustaining so that I can start to add that kind of thing.

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #125 on: September 28, 2016, 12:57:12 PM »
Safety/crime is number one for my wife, she's too scared for us to go really.  Buying real estate laws, customs and "traps" are all important.  Number of flights to the u.s. is good too.  Best of luck with the site.

Better not live in the US then. It's way more dangerous in many parts of the States than it is outside of it!  :)

That is so true.  I think for many people it is familiarity.  Parts of your city may be dangerous but you know where they are and what to do.  In a foreign country that requires some adaptation.  People are probably also afraid of being ripped off.  You know, the gringo prices!

The other difference is petty crime.  You have to really watch your belongings in many places.  We are not used to that.  Watching all your stuff constantly, while another reason to be minimalist, can be quite tiring.  Simply leave the jewelry at home and don't bring anything you cannot afford to lose.  Then again, losing something from your backpack is less serious than losing your life in a drive by shooting in Chicago.

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #126 on: September 28, 2016, 08:56:50 PM »
Man. I just stumbled upon this thread, and am posting to follow and bookmarking this website. Awesome project! Thanks for doing it!

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #127 on: September 29, 2016, 09:24:16 AM »
Man. I just stumbled upon this thread, and am posting to follow and bookmarking this website. Awesome project! Thanks for doing it!

Awesome, thank you for checking it out!

This is a shot in the dark, but I have a request: does anyone reading this have submit/voting access over at Product Hunt? I really want to get the site on there to get more eyes on it/hopefully get it upvoted, but I don't know anyone who has product submission access. If you are reading this, have the ability to submit products at Product Hunt, and might be willing to do it, please reach out to me.

rob in cal

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #128 on: September 29, 2016, 09:29:54 AM »
  Awesome site, love the photos by each city.  So I guess we could move to Ukraine and even some parts of Germany now.
  In terms of calculating trips from the US to Europe (not sure if this applies to any of the site) don't forget to factor in Wow or Norwegian air flights to many parts of Europe from the US. They are bringing costs down in a big way.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #129 on: September 29, 2016, 09:34:21 AM »
  Awesome site, love the photos by each city.  So I guess we could move to Ukraine and even some parts of Germany now.
  In terms of calculating trips from the US to Europe (not sure if this applies to any of the site) don't forget to factor in Wow or Norwegian air flights to many parts of Europe from the US. They are bringing costs down in a big way.

I don't do the flight cost calculation directly, but when you open a city, I determine your approximate city by your IP address, and query SkyScanner for the cheapest flight costs they have seen from the nearest airports to you to that city's airports. They're not definitively the cheapest flights available (for that, you have to click through to SkyScanner and do a "real" search, the values I get are cached) but they should be pretty close, and should take into account Norwegian/WOW and others.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2016, 09:39:37 AM by iamlindoro »

rob in cal

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #130 on: September 29, 2016, 09:35:30 AM »
  Sounds good.  Also, just noticed the photo for Sumy Ukraine (Europe's low cost leader) is probably some Greek island.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #131 on: September 29, 2016, 09:40:17 AM »
  Sounds good.  Also, just noticed the photo for Sumy Ukraine (Europe's low cost leader) is probably some Greek island.

Thanks! Will fix.

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #132 on: September 29, 2016, 09:41:00 AM »
Something else I would consider is ease of travel to and from this location.  If I were to RE to the location (or stay for a long while), I would want my family/ friends to be able to come see me.  Does it take 3 days of travel on donkeys to get there?  Does it take 6 months to get a visa?  I certainly wouldn't go anywhere for an extended time if my parents couldn't make it out to see me.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #133 on: September 29, 2016, 05:16:26 PM »
Good news for non-US folks: You can use the site in the following currencies: USD, CHF, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD. Just select the currency you want in the upper right of the menu bar.  Currency units are also reflected in the budget slider and elsewhere.

More currencies to come, but these required the least layout changes. Have fun :)

neophyte

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #134 on: September 29, 2016, 07:14:22 PM »
Really awesome site!

I'm having fun exploring it!

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #135 on: September 29, 2016, 09:21:04 PM »
Could there be an option to convert all of the temperatures to Fahrenheit for those of us who aren't accustomed to reading # degrees in Celsius? Maybe allow a "default" setting just like with the currency?

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #136 on: September 29, 2016, 09:45:20 PM »
Could there be an option to convert all of the temperatures to Fahrenheit for those of us who aren't accustomed to reading # degrees in Celsius? Maybe allow a "default" setting just like with the currency?

Try it now-- easier this way than having a new setting for everything, I think.

ETA: You're gonna have to live with kilos in the budget for a little while, though :D

usoverseas

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #137 on: September 30, 2016, 01:36:54 AM »
Quote
Thanks for being flexible up to this point-- tonight I added some code to handle the right-click event on the Details button for each city so that you can open them directly in a new tab. Enjoy, this one's for you :)

Brilliant, thank you!  I see you got the currency conversion in there, nice job! 

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #138 on: September 30, 2016, 04:40:59 AM »
Sweet site! Following.


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Bourbon

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #139 on: September 30, 2016, 09:03:17 AM »
Would be nice to see an option to specify a home city to be invluded in the results  for comparison purposes.

MonkeyJenga

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #140 on: September 30, 2016, 09:36:19 PM »
I'm going down a few rabbit holes here. Is there a way to create a profile and save favorite cities (including customized budgets), or a plan to build this functionality? I think if you're looking to make the site more sticky, that could help.

For now I'm bookmarking Cordoba, Bergamo, and Heidelberg.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #141 on: September 30, 2016, 09:40:46 PM »
I'm going down a few rabbit holes here. Is there a way to create a profile and save favorite cities (including customized budgets), or a plan to build this functionality? I think if you're looking to make the site more sticky, that could help.

Yes, this is the biggest piece of functionality I plan to add in the next few months. Hopefully it will all be in before the end of the year, but it's a large undertaking so it will take a little time. Believe me, I definitely want this in there worse than anyone!

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #142 on: September 30, 2016, 09:46:50 PM »
MoneyBoss -- JD Roth.  He will be a natural fan.  MMM knows him.

The Art of Non-Conformity -- will overlap well with Chris G's big international travel following. MMM was a keynote speaker at WDS and may be able to facilitate an intro

...

Those are just some off the top of the head suggestions.  I think you will find this picks up steam quickly.  Good luck!

Thank you, these are great suggestions! I had reached out to about half of these folks, and your suggestions got me to reach out to the other half (well, I still need to hit up Nords).  No responses yet (I started about 4-5 days ago with Farnoosh, Paula, and a bunch of others). It's tough because I don't feel like I have a right to ask MMM to reach out to any of these guys on my behalf. On the other hand, I am sure all of these folks get a mountain of unsolicited contacts, and in their shoes I would probably just round-file most of them too.

I'm persistent, though, so if I don't get any response, I might see if I can find someone to do an intro. I'm excited about the site, and it's not often something truly new comes to the FIRE community, so I'm hopeful if people will just check it out, they'll feel like it's something special too.

Thank you for your help! I hope I start to see some responses soon.

sjlp

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #143 on: October 01, 2016, 12:31:57 AM »
I love this site! I would use it for finding places to live, but also places to go on a long vacation.

The interface is pleasing. I like how it has the very simple search and then you can dial it down a bit further from there. Beyond weather, I wouldn't need too many more options for granularity because it would be overwhelming. After you have a list of 10 or so destinations, you can look for all the other random things you are interested in. I did like how some places (perhaps more of the popular destinations?) have descriptions about the city's culture and life. I don't know if you wrote these yourself or if they are pulled from Wikipedia or another site, but it made it much more enjoyable to think about what it would be like to live there.

I would also use a feature that linked to real estate and rentals in the selected city.

Captain Cactus

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #144 on: October 01, 2016, 06:09:05 AM »
Would be great to see a sub-section for military retirees.  You could include countries/cities where Tricare is accepted for health insurance, places where space-A flights go.  What are your thoughts?

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #145 on: October 01, 2016, 08:31:38 AM »
I love this site! I would use it for finding places to live, but also places to go on a long vacation.

The interface is pleasing. I like how it has the very simple search and then you can dial it down a bit further from there. Beyond weather, I wouldn't need too many more options for granularity because it would be overwhelming. After you have a list of 10 or so destinations, you can look for all the other random things you are interested in. I did like how some places (perhaps more of the popular destinations?) have descriptions about the city's culture and life. I don't know if you wrote these yourself or if they are pulled from Wikipedia or another site, but it made it much more enjoyable to think about what it would be like to live there.

I would also use a feature that linked to real estate and rentals in the selected city.

Thanks! The editorial articles are written by me. There are probably about 30 so far, so it's relatively low coverage yet, but I'd like to expand to as many as possible. In my wild, crazy fantasy where the site is ridiculously successful, I'd love to hire a small group of freelance writers to write blurbs for all the cities.

Real estate/rental links are almost definitely coming, though I don't have a firm timeline on that just yet.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #146 on: October 01, 2016, 08:33:36 AM »
Would be great to see a sub-section for military retirees.  You could include countries/cities where Tricare is accepted for health insurance, places where space-A flights go.  What are your thoughts?

Interesting idea, and one I hadn't thought of before. It's something I could consider in the future for sure. I've added it to the list of things to investigate.

Nords

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #147 on: October 01, 2016, 02:19:44 PM »
MoneyBoss -- JD Roth.  He will be a natural fan.  MMM knows him.

The Art of Non-Conformity -- will overlap well with Chris G's big international travel following. MMM was a keynote speaker at WDS and may be able to facilitate an intro

...

Those are just some off the top of the head suggestions.  I think you will find this picks up steam quickly.  Good luck!

Thank you, these are great suggestions! I had reached out to about half of these folks, and your suggestions got me to reach out to the other half (well, I still need to hit up Nords).  No responses yet (I started about 4-5 days ago with Farnoosh, Paula, and a bunch of others). It's tough because I don't feel like I have a right to ask MMM to reach out to any of these guys on my behalf. On the other hand, I am sure all of these folks get a mountain of unsolicited contacts, and in their shoes I would probably just round-file most of them too.

I'm persistent, though, so if I don't get any response, I might see if I can find someone to do an intro. I'm excited about the site, and it's not often something truly new comes to the FIRE community, so I'm hopeful if people will just check it out, they'll feel like it's something special too.

Thank you for your help! I hope I start to see some responses soon.
I heard my name! 

Your site looks good, and I suspect that a lot of personal-finance bloggers would love to give it a workout.  I can tweet about it and post about it to a couple of FB groups.  I have a big backlog on my editorial calendar but I can add a paragraph of TheEarthAwaits to my next post on "slow travel lessons learned".  Well, I can do that as soon as I write that post.

You absolutely should reach out to Billy & Akaisha Kaderli.  (TheGuide@RetireEarlyLifestyle.com)  They get a ton of questions about their expenses and how to live overseas on Social Security.  The reason their site parties like it's 1999 is because its rugged simplicity is extremely low-bandwidth and highly reliable for the places where they're lucky to be able to use an Internet cafe (remember those?) or even tether a cell phone.  They update their landing page once in a while but they also send out frequent e-mails to their list.  They'll also be able to quickly validate (or critique) just about every town in Mexico, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Most of the people you've contacted are probably still recovering from FinCon (especially Joshua & JD), with the usual followup flurry of social media and freelancing and corporate talks.  I'm a week behind yet I'm not dealing with anywhere near the volume that those folks get.

Rumor is that Paula is in Asia for at least a few weeks.  I'm pretty sure that MadFIentist and his spouse are starting their global round trip any minute now.  Farnoosh has been busy with TV appearances and her other column gigs (as well as growing her daughter) but as far as I can tell she responds to every e-mail.  If you don't hear from people in the next 2-3 weeks then I could do a round of e-mail introductions.

Would be great to see a sub-section for military retirees.  You could include countries/cities where Tricare is accepted for health insurance, places where space-A flights go.  What are your thoughts?
http://www.tricare-overseas.com/ , sure, but keep in mind that many routine doctor visits (and even some surgeries) are cheaper out of pocket than with U.S. insurance. 

SpaceA.net is my preferred site for looking up rules and breaking news.  Most of the Air Force passenger terminals (and some Navy terminals) are on Facebook.  There's also the Take-A-Hop MilSpaceA app-- definitely for Apple mobile devices and perhaps for Android too.  It automates the process of signing up by e-mail, and that alone justifies its existence.  It's also a treasure trove of information on bases, including not just flight info but also ground accommodations, local transportation, and nearby commercial airports.  I hardly ever pay for an app but I shoveled out the $8 for this one.  It's saved us hours of research (and hundreds of dollars) on travel logistics.

iamlindoro

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #148 on: October 01, 2016, 03:37:16 PM »
I heard my name! 

Your site looks good, and I suspect that a lot of personal-finance bloggers would love to give it a workout.  I can tweet about it and post about it to a couple of FB groups.  I have a big backlog on my editorial calendar but I can add a paragraph of TheEarthAwaits to my next post on "slow travel lessons learned".  Well, I can do that as soon as I write that post.

Nords! Thanks for turning up, and thanks for the offer to share it. However you feel comfortable doing it, I would sincerely appreciate it. If you tweet, the site's Twitter is @theearthawaits and I can make sure to retweet from there and my blog's Twitter.

You absolutely should reach out to Billy & Akaisha Kaderli.  (TheGuide@RetireEarlyLifestyle.com)  They get a ton of questions about their expenses and how to live overseas on Social Security.  The reason their site parties like it's 1999 is because its rugged simplicity is extremely low-bandwidth and highly reliable for the places where they're lucky to be able to use an Internet cafe (remember those?) or even tether a cell phone.  They update their landing page once in a while but they also send out frequent e-mails to their list.  They'll also be able to quickly validate (or critique) just about every town in Mexico, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

I reached out, and got a response from Akaisha, who mentioned that she would add the site to their resource page. She had some issues viewing the site that may have been related to using a pretty old browser, so I'm trying to make sure I at least warn people properly when they're using a browser that the site shouldn't be expected to work on. That was helpful feedback!

Most of the people you've contacted are probably still recovering from FinCon (especially Joshua & JD), with the usual followup flurry of social media and freelancing and corporate talks.  I'm a week behind yet I'm not dealing with anywhere near the volume that those folks get.

Rumor is that Paula is in Asia for at least a few weeks.  I'm pretty sure that MadFIentist and his spouse are starting their global round trip any minute now.  Farnoosh has been busy with TV appearances and her other column gigs (as well as growing her daughter) but as far as I can tell she responds to every e-mail.  If you don't hear from people in the next 2-3 weeks then I could do a round of e-mail introductions.

Thanks! I am sure you're right. I don't want to presume I deserve a response from anyone, but I still want to be appropriately persistent. :) If I haven't heard from anyone in a few weeks, I'll definitely reach out.

I really, sincerely appreciate the feedback and especially the guidance on how to promote it-- the self-promotion is not something I've had to do much of before, so it's a bit of a black art to me (not to mention feeling more than a little uncomfortable).

Dee

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Re: Mustachians Interested in Retiring Abroad (or Slow Travel)
« Reply #149 on: October 01, 2016, 07:49:14 PM »
Excellent site! I'm having fun looking at it. And, of course, learning things.

Are Caribbean/Central American locales included in North America? I didn't see many show up in my searches (just Puerto Rico, that I can recall)... If there were places in, say, Panama, they would be in the North America section?

Is there a world map showing all the cities that are included on the site?