I have been in my Blloku apartment for over six months. I love Blloku, the cafes, boutiques and boho chic ambience. The climate is very pleasant and wonderful beaches are just a 40 minute drive away. I can shelter up to $270K of offshore income from Albanian tax and since it spends like a salary of $1.5 million per year in the U.S., it is more than enough. In other words, I doubt that I will ever find that provision an annoying constraint.
Winters in Alanya, Cyprus, Malta and Marbella (Costa del Sol) are hover in the mid 60s. That is obviously nicer but not by so much that it is really worth the expense. Next year we will probably go to Dubai for a few weeks in the Winter and I suspect that my wife will visit her daughter who will be living in Costa del Sol. While Southeast Asia has officially opened up, the flights are still limited. Because of this, it takes a couple of days and two or three connecting flights to get there. So, we will wait until things are closer to normal before traveling there.
Now that my stepdaughter has moved to Spain, the apartment in Minsk is empty. I suspect that my wife will spend a good part of the summer there and at her girlfriend's dacha. I'm in favor of ultimately buying a dacha of our own. Right now, I can't go to Belarus because of the war. However, when it opens back up to me, I will probably spend about a month there in the summer - maybe two. There is no beach, but I'm confident that we will get beach time elsewhere.
My wife's schedule for this summer has gotten pretty full, but it looks like we will probably go to Krakow for about ten days in August. As I've stated before, Krakow is just super romantic. Most people go there to visit Auschwitz. It is an important historical site, but those who miss the charming restaurants and cafes surrounding the largest medieval square in Europe, are really missing the most important site - assuming that you are a couple.
Next summer we will likely add trips to places like Milan, Vienna, Prague and St. Petersburg. These will be one to two week trips. In spring or autumn, Alanya, Turkey, Cyprus and the Greek islands are obvious attractants. So, while I am committing to Albania as my European 'base of operations', we will be traveling.
I have a one year extension on my lease if I want it, but I have decided to get a bigger apartment. That is because, while my wife hasn't been to Tirana since Sept. 2021, we are expecting that she will spend four or five months (minus excursions) in Tirana in 2023. We have no way of knowing if the EUR will stay as low against USD as it is now, but there is no reason to think otherwise. People have all sorts of crazy theories on why USD has gotten so strong against other currencies, but the primary reason (remember, everything is multivariate) is that oil has almost tripled in price since 2020 and that all requires dollars. It is unlikely that oil will fall very far until Trump or someone like him enters the White House in 2025.
As I've discussed before, the majority of our income is derived from Social Security. In 2022, the COLA was 5.9% and after taking into account currency conversion and local inflation, our Social Security portion of income increased by over 10%. 2023 looks like it will be even better. Additionally, I just can't effuse about Substack enough. My subscribers are increasing at the rate of 18% per week and they are appearing as if through some kind of magic. At this rate, my subscriber base could be as high as 3,000 by the end of 2022, which will justify a salary in 2023. In combination, I do not have any concern about increasing our Tirana rent budget to as much as 800 EUR.
There are just a whole lot of 2BR and 3BR modern, furnished apartments for lease in Blloku for 6oo to 8oo EUR. These apartments are easily up to Western standards and I provide a link to an example. Also, right now, I have a maid come in one time per week to clean. I will likely up that to three times per week because of the larger size apartment and the presence of my wife. .
My residency permit costs $300 per year which is about the same as my residency permit in Belarus cost. There is a non-trivial amount of paperwork, but nothing onerous. Apparently, Albania accepts a clean police report from the U.S. Embassy and the Embassy is very 'pro forma' on issuing it. You must have health insurance, but it is very inexpensive. My wife got bitten by a dog last summer and we went to the emergency room. There was no charge. The doctor said, 'Ah, we were here, anyway'. An acquaintance of mine runs a hostel and he told me that one of his guests needed an emergency appendectomy. The hospital charged him nothing. Interesting country.
While our life is starting to come together, it is still hardly a settled situation. Things will become clarified when we have an acceptable winter home. But, this one piece is settled. I will probably be a resident of Albania for the rest of my life. But, in the best of all worlds, I will probably not spend more than five months here, which means that I won't be subject to tax under any circumstance.
This winter we will stay in Tirana. Last winter I bought a heavier, zip up hoodie that served as my winter coat. There are some deciduous trees, but, mostly, Tirana stays green throughout the winter. The winter highs are in the mid 50s F, so it is not awful by any measure. On a clear January day, with a hoodie on, one can stay in parks and alfresco cafes all day, if you want. Even on cold days, just put on light gloves and a hat and everything is just fine.
Still, we need a winter base of operations and choices are not clear unless I can get my paid subscribers up to at least 2,000. That is hardly impossible, but it is also not guaranteed. At that level, we can easily winter in Dubai.
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