Shrinking Canadian dollar

It looks like in a month or two we will be wishing the Loonie was at Today's rate. I am wondering if it will surpass that 65 cent range and hit 50 cents! Without getting political the only intervention from the Feds has caused even more problems! At this rate Yuma will not be very crowded! Nut not to worry as we are being told that Canada is NOT in a recession.

Moisheh

silversand wrote:
Fins després !

Vraiment ? Tu parle Catalan ? Wow. :) Que bueno. :)

Fins després !

silversand wrote:
John & Angela:

We always consult the "health care index" for potential new long-term travel destinations, and Canada (being 68.87 as of this year) is our benchmark. Spain is 74.21 (SUBSTANTIALLY better than Canada); France is 80.99; Italy is 66.27. Compare Romania at 48.51 and Greece at 55.96 .
The average hospital stay in Spain costs in the $1800 range. In the US, $16,000. An angiogram scan/imaging in Spain is in the $45 range; in Canada $35; in the US in the $2000+ range.

Much of Africa does not even make the Index at all (zero.zero except for South Africa 58); Argentina and Colombia are extremely high Index ratings: over 70. Venezuela is a dismal 36 (a failed State). Health care costs in Chile are shockingly high...one country where foreigner health insurance would be brutally high.

The index factors in:

Skill and competency of medical staff
Speed in completing examination and reports
Equipment for modern diagnosis and treatment
Accuracy and completeness in filling out reports
Friendliness and courtesy of the staff
Responsiveness (waitings) in medical institutions
Convenience of location for you

Yah. I have a couple shortcuts in the bookmarks that point to those sites. We did the math at an 85 cent dollar a couple years ago and a 19 day hospital stay couple with major bypass surgery in Spain was around 11000 Canadian mas o menos. Close to what it would be in Canada. So in other words pretty much free as Health Canada covers you anywhere in the world up to what it would cost in Canada. Of course you have to have the cash to pay for it up front. Its the medically assisted plane ride home that can get expensive. I recommend insurance for that. We will also be getting insurance during our Morocco stays. Love the country but the healthcare is still coming along. See you on the malecón in Málaga. :)

....we find food costs to be a mixed bag in Florida. A few fruits and vegetables are marginally cheaper (northern Florida), even driving into the "interior", the fruit was quite expensive. Since we cook almost every meal (we rarely go out to eat), the food in general (canned, veggies, meats, fish: we really don't eat deserts) were marginally cheaper than Quebec. Not enough to factor into our cost of living compare. The gas on the other hand was so cheap compared with Quebec, we always think we are on another planet. We don't buy many clothes. We perhaps go out to a paid entrance place 2 or 3 times over a month (museum, to visit a 16th Centure Spanish galleon, visit interior of a lighthouse, the odd National Sheashore). Reading around the pool on a lounge chair, trekking the beaches (10s of miles a day), visiting, walking through old St Augustine, etc, etc, don't cost anything.

Our biggest costs are: rental of condo (or, long term campsite); then food; then fuel and vehicle run costs; then health insurance. We have very little expenses after these. Beer and wine cost very little in the South, so these are a small ratio of total expenses (maybe $30 a week).

joebedford wrote:

pawatt wrote:
Do not forget to factor in the significantly lower cost of food, fuel, campgrounds, booze, entertainment and dining out and many other things in the USA. Once you get to south Texas most costs should be about 30% to 40+% lower than Canada so your biggest costs will be travel insurance and getting there.

Booze is definitely cheaper but I think there is no longer any price differential on most of the other things.

We were asked by friends, this year, "where is the savings on food here in the RGV that you have been bragging about?" The lot rental on the KOA in Sault Ste. Marie was $2.50 a month more than the one on Padre Island. The only big savings is on booze and gas. To insure you come ahead, you would have to drive drunk a lot. LOL

John & Angela:

We always consult the "health care index" for potential new long-term travel destinations, and Canada (being 68.87 as of this year) is our benchmark. Spain is 74.21 (SUBSTANTIALLY better than Canada); France is 80.99; Italy is 66.27. Compare Romania at 48.51 and Greece at 55.96 .
The average hospital stay in Spain costs in the $1800 range. In the US, $16,000. An angiogram scan/imaging in Spain is in the $45 range; in Canada $35; in the US in the $2000+ range.

Much of Africa does not even make the Index at all (zero.zero except for South Africa 58); Argentina and Colombia are extremely high Index ratings: over 70. Venezuela is a dismal 36 (a failed State). Health care costs in Chile are shockingly high...one country where foreigner health insurance would be brutally high.

The index factors in:

Skill and competency of medical staff
Speed in completing examination and reports
Equipment for modern diagnosis and treatment
Accuracy and completeness in filling out reports
Friendliness and courtesy of the staff
Responsiveness (waitings) in medical institutions
Convenience of location for you

The talk about low priced US campgrounds is rather misleading.
We are presently in a park in Michigan.
The cost for two nights, with Good Sam discount is
$109.80.
Add twenty five percent for exchange, sort of pricy!

silversand wrote:

When we fully retire at 60 we will give up our US RV snowbird lifestyle and probably adapt to a Southern European RV snowbird lifestyle. Just the savings in health insurance cover the cost of the plane tickets to europe

....this is a huge trend here in our region. MANY near retirees and retirees (many former RVers) have discovered southern Europe that we personally know, and spend 3, 4, 6 months in Spain, southern France, Morocco, and numerous other locales. Most of our friends don't even bother to book long-term digs before going! They just fly over, and shop for the cheapest/best long-term rental (very easy to do in South Europe, because our "winter" season is their "low" season, so TONS of super deals are there for the taking). Also, many of our friends rent a small car in Southern Europe long term (really cheap, if you shop around).

Eg. we looked into it last month with our neighbor who does the same: we could get excellent long-term travel insurance fly to Spain, rent a nice 2 balcony apartment in a stunningly-beautiful mountain village overlooking the sea, eat fish/seafood and drive all over the country exploring for a fraction of the cost of RVing for the same time-frame in Florida or Arizona.

We've been camping a lot this summer......in our truck camper on our mountain property! I have to get that last year's gas out of our truck soon (fuel stabilizer only lasts about 12 months) LOL !

Yepir. We are heading back to Andalucia region of Spain this year (March) Re the health insurance. Technically their calendar of costs for medical procedures and surgeries is very similar to that of Canada so really there is very little need for medical insurance other than maybe repatriation insurance etc. Put twenty grand in an account and that pretty much covers you for anything that can go wrong.

We have enjoyed the US for our semi retirement phase of retirement and it has been reasonably close as well. But once we are completely off the leash in a few years the cultural diversity, history, architecture and multiple languages of europe and Morocco are very attractive to us. An RVers dream.

One step at a time. :)

pawatt wrote:
Do not forget to factor in the significantly lower cost of food, fuel, campgrounds, booze, entertainment and dining out and many other things in the USA. Once you get to south Texas most costs should be about 30% to 40+% lower than Canada so your biggest costs will be travel insurance and getting there.

Booze is definitely cheaper but I think there is no longer any price differential on most of the other things.