A month and a half later ... I'm feeling more complacent about the driving situation. And find that I drive less than earlier (apart from the gas-cost issue!). I've been working on my substantial garden, recently ... but have pretty well run out of space, with quite a few seeds let over - but the corn's sort of spotty, so unless some of the laggards come up pretty soon, I'll be putting more corn seeds into those blank spots. And no potatoes planted, either: no room. Planning on some major travelling this summer - to Mom's family's reunion at my retired brother's farm near Regina, capital of Saskatchewan, north of ND-Montana border, with possibly visiting with some KT people en route. Plus travel to a reunion of former Korea missionaries at Methodist Conference centre at Lake Junaluska, NC, at the end of July, with a visit with my niece and family in nw GA ... and possibly a visit with a KT person or two (visited Pooh Bear, near Chattanooga, three years ago). Plus ... daughter, who recently bought home near Phoenix, tells me that I'm to visit her for 80th birthday, next Jan. Who knows ... maybe I'll stay on till spring?? I've been looking for someone who'd share two houses with me - here in Ontario in winter ... and in FL or AZ in summer ... but it seems that folks willing to agree to such an arrangement are about as scarce as ... hen's teeth (as Dad used to say). Just some more musings as I make my way through the interesting experience called "retirement" (or something). ple joyful

Update on my advice above to actually visit the country(ies) you are thinking of moving to, and our friends' advice that establishing foreign bank accounts BEFORE moving was something they should have done to avoid six months' worth of delays: The IRS is cracking down hard on ALL foreign investments, whether real estate, investment accounts, checking/savings. The penalties are huge, and although you can try to wrangle them down, it is a fact that taxpayers with smaller balance accounts are proportionately paying LARGER penalty fees than multi-millionaires who are deliberately hiding assets. The WSJournal had an article on this issue June 2014, but as it's subscriber only, I'll just post some excerpts: Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Sam to Escape Tax Rules Record Numbers Living Abroad Renounce U.S. Citizenship over IRS Reporting Requirements WSJournal June 2014 U.S. offices abroad reported that 1,001 U.S. citizens and green-card holders had renounced their allegiance in the first three months of the year, according to Andrew Mitchel, a lawyer in Centerbrook, Conn., who analyzes Treasury Department data. That figure puts 2014 on track to top last year's total of 2,999 renunciations, he said, which was the most since the government began disclosing the data. Helping boost the exodus, experts say, is a five-year-old U.S. campaign to hunt for undeclared accounts held by Americans abroad….The tax dragnet has also swept up many middle-income Americans living abroad, prompting some to give up their U.S. citizenship. While people who renounce are NOT freed of taxes due for past years, they don't want to risk sizable taxes and penalties for them and their children in the years ahead, experts say. Nearly 8,000 taxpayers have renounced U.S. citizenship in the past five years, Mr. Mitchel found, compared with fewer than 5,000 in the preceding decade. ….U.S. officials launched their campaign after Swiss banking giant UBS AG admitted in 2009 that it helped wealthy American taxpayers hide money overseas. To avoid criminal charges, the bank paid $780 million to the U.S. and turned over information on more than 4,400 accounts, ending decades of Swiss bank secrecy. In May, Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty to similar charges and agreed to pay $2.6 billion. Dozens of other Swiss banks are currently negotiating penalties with the U.S. Department of Justice, officials said. Following the UBS revelations, U.S. officials announced they would begin vigorously enforcing both new and long-dormant tax rules. Unlike other developed nations, the U.S. government taxes citizens on income they earn anywhere in the world. … The most common mistakes usually involved Americans failing to submit a form called the Foreign Bank Account Report, or Fbar. Since 1970, U.S. taxpayers have been required to file if they held one or more foreign accounts totaling more than $10,000 over the course of a year. Until the enforcement push, many Americans never filed an Fbar. The law is more than 40 years old, but "no one ever heard of it" before the crackdown, said Edward Kleinbard, a former chief of staff on Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, and an expert in international tax law at the University of Southern California. Fbar penalties are as steep as 50% of the highest value of the account for each year no report was filed. The IRS fined one taxpayer for Fbar violations in four separate years, and a settlement reached this month in the case yielded $1.7 million in penalties, which was more than the account held at the time. …The typical taxpayer with less than $45,000 in undeclared accounts paid nearly six times the back taxes owed, while the typical taxpayer with more than $7 million in such accounts paid closer to three times their back taxes, Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, an IRS ombudsman, found. … Scrutiny of Americans abroad will intensify, however, under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, which Congress passed in 2010. The law's main provisions, which take effect in July, will require foreign financial institutions to report income of their U.S. customers to the IRS, much as U.S. banks and brokers file 1099 forms. Middle-class Americans "face overwhelming problems when they try to engage in standard financial practices, such as having a small business, saving for retirement, investing, buying life insurance, and making wills and trusts," because of the laws governing assets abroad, said David Kuenzi, a financial planner with Thun Financial Advisors in Madison, Wis., who works with expatriates. The U.S. tax code, for example, doesn't recognize Australia's version of an individual retirement account, Mr. Kuenzi said. American taxpayers with these accounts must file at least two forms a year declaring the account a "foreign trust," and paying taxes on annual appreciation. The penalty for failing to file can be as much as 35% of both contributions and withdrawals each year, plus 5% of the assets, said Mr. Hodgen, the Pasadena tax lawyer. *********** Hope this info is of use to others.

Great post! Wish I had met you years ago!....but luckily I ended up just fine (secure and comfortable), and retiring early (48) anyway.....could have been earlier, more secure, and more comfortable I guess. Now if I could just retire from this little bit of housework I quit putting off, I'd really have it made. Sue...who would rather play on the computer than 'work'

You probably already have an idea of what type of house you like: Farmhouse, bungalow, modern, whatever. Keeping that preference in mind, search for a location that suits your needs and will work well with the type of house you like (for example, I'm in a rural area; an ultra-modern design would look out of place here in my county). While you're searching, consider what services are nearby: Public transit, doctor's offices, etc. Once you have secured your location and you know whether your land is flat or whatever else, which direction has the best sunshine and views, etc., then you're ready to think about a house plan. Do not rush yourself in putting together your plan; a year or more isn't too much to allot to this process. Start now studying plans and educating yourself about what you like and don't like (we started out with a list of "must haves", but after going through X number of plans, we've determined that three of them were always iron-clad necessities, while we're more flexible on the others). Likely you won't be able to fit EVERYTHING you want into one plan; compromises will be necessary. Most people here are enamored of the Not So Big House series, and it's a good place to start, but you'll find other books too. As a part of that studying, be sure to pay attention to the things that'll make your life easy as you age; for example pay particular attention to the bathroom design -- what's popular isn't necessarily what's useful to an elderly person. Yes, you should consider budget, but only you know whether that's a big deal or not. Speaking only for myself, we are building a house far beneath our means, so we're not really thinking about it much. Rather, we are choosing to build a modest-sized house that will be easy to maintain (both in terms of cost and effort).