Should I live in Moldova?

[ArtMonkRules]

OK, here's my plan.... I want to save up about 15 or 20 grand and then buy a home in some poor European country where I can live like a king for a few months of the year, and then return to America and work (or just play poker while I'm there) Do any of you have experience with countries like Moldova and Romania? What kind of lifestyle could I live in places like these if I'm making $20,000 a year or so? Information on the internet seems sparse because whenever I look up Moldova or Romania real estate, It's all daily rental business stuff. I want to actually live there for signifigant periods of time during the year.

[Tappy Tibbons]

Any particular reason you want to buy a house there? If it's for a residency permit, you can obtain one in Bulgaria if you keep $3000 in a checking account there, and you should be able to live well there on poker earnings.

Moldova is very poor, and there may be crime issues as well as that minor civil war See Transnistria . I've never actually been to Moldova, so it may be just as safe as a big city in the US. Romania and Bulgaria are recent EU members and might be safer.

[T50_Omaha8]

[ QUOTE ]
like a king

[/ QUOTE ] You should realize that just because wages are much much lower doesn't necessarily mean a place is cheaper to live extravagantly. Traded goods will still be the same price, or often more expensive because logistics and distribution networks tend to be worse in less developed countries.

I've been thinking about looking for a job in insurance or investment banking in Africa (I have a few places in mind), but the fact that my cost of living will be comparable to what it is in Atlanta is a bit disconcerting.

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You should make a trip out there and develop some contacts and make sure you can stand the place before moving there. The Crimea is worth checking out too, although I assume tourism from soviet intelligensia types drives up prices and wages a bit.

[WhoIam]

Why not just rent a house for three months at a stretch? Other than McDonald's or those Alaskan fishing boats, what US job is going to let you take 1/4 of the year off?

[Dale Dough]

Yeah what T50 said. I've never actually been to Moldova, but I've been to similar places. Locally produced goods are going to be cheaper, but also crappier - or there'd be no reason for them to import Western brands. Most of the time, you really do get what you paid for.

That said, there definitely are things that have a significantly better quality/price ratio - bars and restaurants come to mind. Prostitutes, if you're into that. Booze.

But you have to consider why things are cheap - people don't have money. The world you plan on living in caters primarily to those people. And people that do have money want to go to the West. There's a reason for that.

Then there's the culture factor. You're from the US, right? Take a drive to the poorest neighborhood in your city. How well do you think you would fit in? Because this isn't exactly a tourist destination like Thailand. Unless Chisinau has a thriving expat scene (could be actually, like I said I haven't even been there), expect to be pretty much on your own.

I haven't even touched on the crime factor yet, because I simply never actually lived in a place like that, so I have no idea what it's like to be a rich resident. But when I visited a friend in his home city in Ukraine, he once told me not to talk on my cell phone, because we were in kind of a bad area of town. And I have a POS phone that almost falls apart. Expect to take that kind of precautions.

I strongly suggest that you take like a three-week trip there before you take this idea further.

[adi]

i'm romanian so here's my take on this...

first off don't even think about moldova, it's like a mini-version of russia. crime, corruption and the mafia dominate the whole scene, it is very poor and unstable(it has a breakaway territory withtin its borders). so it's a lot more like an asian or south american country than a european one.it used to be part of romania but the russians took it after WW2... 75% are still romanians [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

romania is better and a EU member but don't expect to live like a king or buy a house for 20k . i live in a [censored] area of the capital and my 2 bedroom flat is worth over 100k. and like others said western consumer goods are more expensive in most cases( i had to pay 2-3 times more for my 20" monitors). average income is about 400$/month but that doesn't buy you anything, you can barely pay your bills and eat with it... average income in the private sector has been growing fast though. i am moving out of here in the next few weeks but if i was to stay the only place would be transilvania(the western part of rom) - people are a lot more civil, towns are cleaner and nicer, better roads, it's cheaper than bucharest and the scenery is amazing.


you would be making a few times more than the average guy but don't expect to live like a king, this is a EU country not somalia. just as an example, i was looking to hire a maid a few months ago and here it would cost 400/mo while in the philippines the price was 40/mo or so.

[TheGame1020]

What can you all tell me about Bulgaria?