I wish somebody would tell what Romania has to offer. It's adult literacy rate ranks 45th in the world. Only 7% of the population speaks English as it's primary language. It's entire history is all about one war after another but today has an Army of only 75,000 facing down Putin. It's health care system is state run. Of it's 463 hospitals, 438 are state owned. It has only 6.1 hospital beds. for every 1000 of it's population. It's ObamaCare East. Cases of TB, STD and hepatitis are higher than the rest of Europe. Nearly 10% of it's doctors leave the country every year. 5 times greater than neighboring countries.It only has 41,000 miles of paved roads. In 2008 the IMF had to lend it billions inorder to keep it's econmy from collapsing. The average wage is about $850 a month U.S. equivalant . Some of it's banks are still state owned and 40% of it's total bank owned assets are foreign based. The government is trying hard to get all of the surrounding Balkan nations once part of the Warsaw Pact in with NATO and Putin simply will not sit back and watch NATO forces setting up shop in his back yard . Everyone wants a retirement utopia and I want to see van find his but the more you study the demographics of the place the worse it looks and history shows that every time a war breaks out in Europe it starts in the Balkans and Putin will continue to seek out every weakness in the NATO alliance and try to exploit it.
OK, let's explain some things to you. Romania's average pay is low, thus low costs. Rents are low, utilities low, groceries low. You see, in order for you to be happy you have to live where everything is expensive. Problem is when you retire everything will still be expensive, but most likely you won't have the income you have now. Romania is about half the size of Texas, and isn't nearly as developed, but the 41,000 miles of roads work for it. By the way, average salaries in Bucharest, the capital, are closer to $650 a month, lower in other cities. Speaking of which Romania has a group of 7 cities in Transylvania built centuries ago by Germans that are very beautiful. Romanians speak Romanian, a Latin based Romance language, but many also are bilingual, even trilingual. English is the most common 2nd language, about 35% of the population speak it. American movies are shown in modern multiplex theaters in English. Also every city has at least one peasant market that carries a huge amount of fresh produce at what would be considered giveaway prices here. Not bland supermarket produce, but fresh picked from the farm. Romania has Europe's fastest internet speeds. 9 of the world's top 15 cities for fastest internet are in Romania. That means I can watch American TV on USTVNOW.com with no buffering. Romania has Europe's largest wilderness area with the largest populations of brown bears and wolves left in Europe. The natural world, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Danube Delta, is very beautiful. The violent crime rate is only slightly worse than Canada, the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. As far as Putin is concerned, so what? What is the value of attacking Romania? Seriously, what is to be gained? Putin isn't Hitler or Stalin. There will be plenty of attention given to Russia by all the various monitoring bodies and if anything is worrisome we can always leave. As I've already pointed out Romania is far from perfect. Millions of Romanians have left seeking employment elsewhere. They have hot summers and seriously cold winters. It's no utopia. But I'll take it at 55 over working into my 70's to make rich guys richer. YMMV!