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Who hasn’t thought of chucking it all and moving overseas to some cheap little beach villa or living in some exotic country? When I saw this at the library, I figured I’d pick it up:

International Living Guide to Retiring Overseas on a Budget: How to Live Well on $25,000 a Year

First off, this book was written by people who lived what they’re writing about – which makes it highly credible. It is an easy and fast read written like a good buddy chatting about his life over coffee. It is clearly geared for people who are thinking about retiring abroad for the first time as opposed to an in-depth or technical guide. Its main strengths are that it gives you a great broad overview sufficient for you to begin your deeper dives elsewhere, and for the realities/questions to ask yourself to see if retiring abroad is really right for you. Its biggest weaknesses are that it lacks depth in legal/technical/financial matters and definitely paints an overly rosy/optimistic picture on most of its topics.

Good points/advice:

• The book is very easy and quick to read. Covers a lot of ground and give a great broad overview.
• He has sample real-world budgets of his own living expenses along with discussions about what that buys you (at least in the author’s country).
• Probably the best part of the book is the chapter on if life abroad will mesh with you or not. He tells you to really dig deep and be brutally honest with yourself. I wish he’d gone into this more, but it was a great eye opener. I believe he correctly asserts that the more brutally honest you are with yourself, the better your decision will be. He breaks his points down into about 10 questions and refers you back to them again and again. They boil down to these points:
  • Are you ok with change and living as your new country lives? This isn’t a retirement community, it is a lifestyle change to live more as a traveler. Do you love at least a little adventure every day doing even common things like getting around, buying toothpaste, etc – or do you want to ‘nest’ in US comforts?
  • You cannot afford to ‘take it with you’ nor will you likely want to. Living abroad on these budgets means you will live and eat as that country lives. Cosmetics, medication, deodorant, snack foods, tv shows, furniture, etc – all will be different. In many cases, you simply can’t live as you did. Electronics here might make no sense in a country with no internet fast enough to stream Netflix – or will not work at all on ‘dirty’ 3rd world power or the country’s 220/50hz power grid. That heirloom cloth pattern chair will do nothing but mold in humid tropical beach climates. That fancy washing machine will not work with local hookups or water/electrical quality. You will also need to eat local foods to live cheaply. Are you ok with that, or need your steak dinners each night?
  • Be honest about the weather you like. Are you really a beach person or would mountains suit you better? Are you ready for sand all the time and 100% humidity every day for 6-8 months? Are you ok with rainy seasons? Have you traveled to your country of choice during the ‘worst’ season?
  • Are you ready to live, recreate, eat, and pattern your life after how your target country lives? How attached are you to watching US football or sports? How do you spend free time and are you able to get supplies for hobbies there? Are you ok with neighborhood roosters crowing at 6am every day (with no noise ordinances)? Are you ok with the slower, possibly more corrupt pace of business and government services? Poverty, food safety, and animal treatment in your new country may shock you. Will you be ok with building new local friends/connections on relationship and spending time rather than business/utility?
  • Are you really ready to leave natural support nets with your grandkids, family, friends, communities, and lifestyle here in favor of skyping/visits? Flying home is one of the biggest costs you’ll have – are you cool with only 1-3 visits a year? Are you ok leaving business associates and other professional contacts behind?
  • If you have a spouse, are you evaluating these questions with them and both onboard 100%
• Great common-sense advice like:
  • Take at least one long trip, and hopefully several/yearly trips, to your destination before moving. Preferably at least once during the ‘worst’ season (hottest/rainiest/etc).
  • Don’t decide to buy a home there while drinking a margarita by the beach. Contact a local lawyer and ask yourself the deep soul-searching questions he had above.
  • What we would have done differently from those that went there.
  • Getting a reputable local lawyer for real estate purchases and protecting surviving spouses by writing contracts properly.
  • Don’t expect to make any extra income by working there. The pay will not be sufficient to make up gaps.
  • You may not need to become fluent, but if US tax laws confuse you, imagine doing legal documents and taxes in a foreign language. You’re going to need to hire a few lawyers at the beginning for sure.
  • Be prepared/able to return if this doesn’t work for you. Some people find it very difficult and give up. Others do great for years, but ultimately decide to return for family.
  • The US is based on Common Law, while most of the rest of the Americas are Civil Law. This makes getting a good lawyer for things like buying a home essential.
• He has information about individual countries in the book. The best communities in that country for ex-pats on a budget and interesting social/financial/cultural notes. It’s a great place to get started to dig deeper.
• Basic overview of how medical insurance works in other countries – especially private/public coverage and important key questions/differences to ask to make sure you’re getting the coverage you need.
• Basic information and common issues with buying a house abroad and the fact you will absolutely want a local lawyer for this type of transaction.
• Some basic differences between Common Law and Civil Law:
  • You must codify transferral of your home/property to surviving spouses after your death or they might have to go fight for their own home.
  • You must do very thorough ownership history checks or you could end up in a legal fight with a great grandchild that never signed a release on property that you purchased.

Shortcomings:

• The book simply is not sufficient to actually plan a move abroad. It gives a great starting point, but you will need to do a lot more homework. Especially financial and legal homework.
• Big sections read like just common sense since it doesn’t give enough specifics on many topics. This, however, might be what some romantic types need.
• Focuses primarily on Central and South America, even though none of those (except Mexico) are in the top 10 countries of expats. However, some of the top 10 are likely not livable on $25k/year.
• I feel he paints too rosy a picture of living aboard when it comes to personal safety and health care.
  • He makes many valid points about several countries on his list having tentatively ‘better’ healthcare – but that was as defined in an old study he quotes by the UN. Without specifics of their metrics used, I’m tempted to believe a country might get great marks for maternity care and treating common ailments but may not do well at all for what the average 65 year old (til death) will deal with. His budget numbers/livability also assumes you are a ‘relatively healthy 65 year old person’. He has no data on cancer treatment, heart condition treatment, etc. These are all things to consider since, not to be morbid, this is where you are going to likely pass away. You could find yourself passing away much earlier if the quality of care is bad for the treatment you need.
  • Missing altogether is an honest discussion about inevitable end-of-life care you will receive there (terminal cancer, organ failure, etc). There is no discussion about handling or treatment of those permanently disabled by stroke, dementia, etc.
  • He asserts things are much more safe than I believe is wise. While traveling abroad is usually safe, there are real concerns. A good example is how he talks about how great his own Ecuador is, yet never talks once about the real security threats that a personal friend who was in the Peace Corps encountered. During an uprising, they were evacuated from their mountain towns to the capital, protected under armed guards in a compound, then flown home as things deteriorated. Brazil has serious safety issues in their big cities with paid executions in broad daylight. He doesn’t mention the growing dangers of kidnapping, car jacking, etc in Mexico. At best, he mentions that ‘he has stories’ and that one lady was fleeced in a real estate purchase, but doesn’t give sufficient details for my tastes.
• Not enough really detailed financial advice. I can’t fault the book on this since you could write a whole book on that, but this book simply doesn’t give you enough information on the financial planning steps you should go through. How to handle taxes, considerations of where/how to generally arrange finance, keeping money in-country vs out of country, etc.

Penpal is a book by Dahan Auerbach – but it didn’t start as a book. It is a terrific story and it’s also a fascinating example of how new kinds of stories and budding authors can come out of nowhere in our new internet world.  (note: this is a no spoiler review)

Penpal started as a couple of ‘creepypasta‘ short stories posted in the user-contributed, scary story ‘No Sleep’ area of Reddit.  It’s since been turned into illustrations, audio recordings, and even short films made by fans.  There’s even a rumor of a movie deal.

The book is a collection of several interconnected/overlapping short stories about a young boy trying to put together some strange events from his childhood.  As he goes over his memories, a very strange and terrifying tale begins to emerge from the pieces.

The book itself isn’t terribly long, but really draws you in.  I found myself reading at bedtime and next thing I know it’s 1am.  By the time I’d finished I felt like I’d had gone on a hair-raising roller-coaster ride and twisted around like a towel getting wrung out – but in a good way.  It left me thinking back on my own childhood and wondering about the things that I experienced as a kid and just how right/wrong I had understood them.

Told from the narrator (who is now an adult), the book is an adventure in watching what he as a kid experienced.  He does a masterful job capturing what he was feeling and the confusion while describing an unfolding story that would even terrify most adults.  You patch together what is going on via his own half-understood descriptions – and your own imagination patches together the rest – often much more terrifyingly than if you actually knew what was going on.

What makes Auerbach’s writing really unique is his ability to capture and communicate the feelings and experiences we had as kids.  His simple descriptions bring back a flood of your own memories of hanging out with your childhood best friend(s).  I found myself realizing I had the same feelings/fears such as staying back in the woods behind our house a little too late, going into a dark basement, or the little games we play with ourselves like trying to get back into our house before the street lights come on or not breathing while driving through a tunnel.  Auerbach also really hits the head on how kids misunderstand adult interactions and the ways we seek out parental love. Indirectly, he also captures the gut-wrenching moral/ethical decisions that adults make to protect their children from the harsh realities of a sometimes frightening world. If you ever had to explain to a kid why grandpa at the nursing home doesn’t remember you between visits – you’ll get an idea of these types of decisions.  Auerbach does a masterful job capturing these interactions with simple, approachable style.

Is it scary?  I would say that it is.  Not a jump-out-of-the-closet kind of scary – but the kind of scary you get because he’s nailing the emotions of childhood but telling them with the full knowledge of an adult.  The fact his descriptions are so real makes it even doubly impactful.

Sure, there are a few small plot holes and problems.  The biggest is the fact the individual chapters were actually separate clips that were written separately is a little apparent.  The flow and overlap are a little messy.  Part of the final resolution left me feeling a bit perplexed as well. But it doesn’t matter.  All that is easily overlooked by the great experience it is of reading this story.

Overall, I give this a solid A-.  It’s a great read.  It’s also scary. It won’t win any literary awards or upset any kings of horror, but it describes the experience of kids growing up so well that it’s worth the read alone.  It’s also a fascinating snapshot of how publishing is working now – much like how game development is working.  People work on a snippet of something, publish it on a forum, and see if it sticks.  If it does, they keep at it.  If not, it dies.

Regardless of how it was written/found – it’s a great read.  At the end, I found myself sitting there and re-visiting my own childhood, friends, and memories and feeling very thankful.  That alone is worth the time spent for the read.

Often considered one of Agatha Christie’s best mystery/murder books – this is the story of 10 strangers lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host. Once his guests have arrived, an unknown host accuses each one of a murder from their past. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to die one by one and they struggle to figure out who is killing them before it’s too late.

This is a great classic of murder-mystery storytelling.   So classic in fact that it has been converted to several movies and a wildly popular play.  Currently it’s the world’s best-selling mystery novel and one of the top 10 best-selling books of all time.  Its various plot devices have been copied so often that many say that it actually create a genre of its own.

The story (no big spoilers):
Ten people are invited via letter to a mysterious island.  Upon arriving, they find a beautiful mansion fully stocked with all modern conveniences and comforts – but no host.  As the settle in after dinner, a mysterious recorded voice accuses each one of a murder from their past.  As they argue over the accusations and struggle to figure out what is going on; the guests start dying.  Trapped on the island by a storm, they die one by one as they try frantically to figure out who is the murderer and why.  To add to the terror, they die in the order and method specified by a child’s nursery rhyme tacked in each of their rooms.  As the guest numbers dwindle, the levels of suspicion and hysteria rise dramatically until a crashing finale.

Review (no spoilers):
It’s a very different kind of murder mystery.  There is no master sleuth – no Hercule Poirot or Ms Marple.  There is simply you the reader and 10 ‘ordinary’ guests trapped on an island – as an unknown murderer slowly removes them one by one.  You feel as if you struggle right along with the characters trying to sort it all out.  Christie’s handling and revealing of their internal emotional states is dated but very well done.  With a few exceptions, the characters all tend to act in accordance to their very different natures – which really adds spice to the story considering you have such different folks as a war hero, a judge, a governess, two servants, a private gun, and a prim spinster.

I would suggest this is a must-read for anyone who loves the genre and for those that love house mysteries or isolated party type of spooky affairs.  As a lover of all these genres, this is the standard by which almost everything since is compared to as it rises above all the rest.  I give it a solid A for it’s enjoyable read (I listened to it via audiobook and found myself several times sitting in the driveway just to get to the next chapter), relatively quick story, and for the fact it is the canon for this type of genre.  Highly recommend

Read an interesting book How Would You Move Mount Fuji.  The author does a little critique of the modern approach of puzzle interviews.  His take-away – since an employer can legally no longer ask questions about age/gender/orientation/etc – we have moved to a new realm of interviewing.  This method of interviewing attempts to ascertain the raw ability and behavior of the candidate devoid of these contexts.  This is both for good and ill – as it can have a very dehumanizing effect.  Interestingly enough, while this method of interviewing is still popular (and was the RAGE in the late 90’s early 2000’s) there have been more recent articles written about the problems of this style and possibly better ways of hiring.

For instance, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell says this method would likely not find the next Steve Jobs – and that he would not likely be hired by anyone today using similar methods.  For creative jobs, he believes in finding the person’s passion is more important.  Others have suggested that we actually get more narrow and hire by their knowledge of an important algorithm a company needs vs more general principles.

Either way, the fun part for me were the questions themselves.  There was a list of Google interview puzzles that I liked too.  Here’s a collection of some of the more interesting ones in his book, and from other sources.  I find they break down into three categories – Fermi problems, hypothetical problem solving, and deducible problems:

Deducible problems:  These are designed to see how good your raw deductive skills are:

1. A country that only wants boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
2. How many times in a day do a clock’s hands overlap?
3. Explain the meaning and relevance of the term ‘dead beef’ as it relates to programming/debugging.
4. You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number but you cannot ask him directly. You must write the question on a card which and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?
5. How many places on the earth can you walk 1 mile north, 1 mile west, and 1 mile south and end up at the same place? (hint, its far more than just 1 place)

Problem solving:  These are designed to see how you would attack a problem and your thought process:

1. Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco
2. You’re the captain of a pirate ship and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?
3. You have eight balls all of the same size 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?
4. You are given 2 identical eggs. You have access to a 100-story building. The eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100th floor. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-story building an egg can be dropped without breaking. The question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process.