How old is too old?

[JeffG]

I was asked by someone the other day how old I felt would be too old to move to another country. For example if a forienger in Taiwan goes back to his/her country and of course takes the spouse with him/her would there be an age at which point it would be too difficult for the spouse to adapt to the new environment? We had a fairly long and detialed discussion about this. An interesting topic I think.

What about the spouses family members, etc. Would they move or stay? We had a good discussion about this. Some issues related to this topic that we talked about were:

Is there a different how men and women think about this?
What about medical costs in Taiwan compared to a western country? If you are older the medical costs may be hirer.
What about the rest of the family? Would they move? Are they too old to adapt to a new environment?
What about the language, could they adapt and learn if they were too old?

For the spouse and other family members who immigrate:
Getting around
Interests, what to do - Boredom may set in.
Working?
Family togetherness, family lives together or apart?
Etc. Etc. Etc.

What do you guys think about this?

[Tomas]

I can tell you that the U.S. health care system is entirely out of control. I pay $250 a month for health care here. I paid the same in the US, only the currency was US dollars. If you want to go bankrupt quickly, be a sickly person in the United States. Yeah, health care in Taiwan has a few drawbacks, but at least you won't go broke here.

I think adaptation has much to do with English ability, and even more to do with guts. My old boss, Mr. Chou, had a "nanny" living with him and his kids in the U.S. She had weak English skills and a small dandz, so she was pretty damned miserable. They lived in a nice city, but just driving to get the kids terrified her.

[Mr He]

All a mental game. If you feel too old, you are too old. I wouldn't mind trying a new country when I retire.

[chainsmoker]

Why are some threads like this one "head threads". What are the requirements. It obviously has nothing to do with the topic being interesting. Could someone please make the three head threads at the top of this section become headless so it's not so clunky? Why not keep things orderly? Also, while I'm on the subject, does anyone actually participate in polls or read the results? I don't really see the point.

[SuperS54]

Why don't you start a poll about it, Chainsmoker?

[JeffG]

chainsmoker

This has nothing to do with this topic, just send me an email next time or hell yeah start a poll about it!!!

To answer your question, this was my decision to put it on the top (as a head thread) for a few days as I posted it on Friday, stupid me I know, so it got pushed down quite a bit. I have removed the head thread status as people have replied to it now and it is back on the top where people can see it at least for a couple of days. 8-)

There are no requirements it's simply what the moderators feel should be head threads.

I am not removing the head status of the other two because they are polls, after awhile I will indeed remove the head threadstatus. I hope to do this with all the polls so long as there is not a full page of them.. hock:

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread topic!!! "How old is too old!"

[chainsmoker]

I vote for 72

[JeffG]

72? Any reason?

[chainsmoker]

Well, I once got beat in a 10km race by a dude who was 72 years old so I think that he could probably negotiate a McDonalds and find the telly remote in a foreign country, but 73?, cmon man, that's a little much, (that includes you, Mr. running man). I'm pretty sure you're not even allowed to fly international flights at that age. You're pretty susceptible to economy class syndrome (yes, even if you run a lot). Even if it is allowed, I don't want to say anything to encourage the 73+ crowd to fly, because, judging from past experience, I will end up sitting next to half of them getting rousted from valium-induced slumber to help them open their peanuts and figure out the tray table.

[Lord Lucan]

Thanks, CS, you've just reminded me to add vitamin V to my pre-Taiwan flight list. Never get on a plane without it.