$7500

[viva la]

5. I keep watching videos about retiring to SE Asia.

It is amazing how advanced and modern Vietnam is, when you think of the mess we left in 1975. And how did that communist country end up being this capitalist powerhouse?

What always amazes me is how somehow developing nations can afford near-universal health care, and our supposedly most advanced country on earth (LOL) just can't manage it. I'm on Medicare (and even that isn't anywhere close to free), and it's the first time in my life I've known my healthcare was going to be pretty reliable. I even had good insurance when I worked for a state university, though I only got health insurance access there because the ACA forced it in 2014. And then years later I was laid off and lost it... but then I was old enough to transition into Medicare.

Of course, few of the US options would usually cover what XanaDUer has been through. (Dental care IS medical care!!@!!!)