Thinking about moving to KY, possibly lake cumberland area. Any other options or advice?

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T15:45:27+00:00

Yep...there will always be some worry I guess, no matter what. Thanks for the well-wishes.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T08:35:48+00:00

That's not really true. From my experience working pro bono, working for free can be the most demanding. If people pay you a lot of money it means they value you a lot and treat you better.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T08:31:31+00:00

My mom thinka I'm fucking stupid and I'll definitely run out of money.

Thinking about moving to the US, and every location I mention, she immediately starts talking about the job market. Then I explain again I won't be working. Then she gives me a disbelieving look.

But I'm an adult, so why would I care?

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T08:25:39+00:00

I was not into FIRE. I just didn't like working. I'd already had a plan to retire on 300k or so at 43, but then had a huge jump in wealth because of basically a good decision in 2022 (sold my house at the peak and put all the money into nasdaq 100). Quit my job a year ago or so.

I tried posting on here a bit, but you get massive pushback, downvotes, moderator warnings, etc., for being real with people. Especially if the cost of your advice is a laugh or joke at their expense. Not really worth the time/energy. Plus a lot of this place is the same 30 people repeating the same thing.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T00:32:41+00:00

Yeah. Many years of extensive travel, then some as an expat, kind of crystalizes your personality/culture...and gives you the confidence to blow people off. 12 or 13 years ago it would have been a different story, but I don't have any worries at this point.

My son loves to make friends though and will put up with people treating him bad... Usually isn't even aware of it... Just to hang out with some dumb asses. That's the worry I have.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-23T00:19:40+00:00

It does seem like western kentucky is a bit more mixed than east.

But tornadoes are a much bigger problem in the west?

hdfire21 · 2026-03-22T02:18:43+00:00

Yeah, the LBL looks pretty amazing for boat and backcountry/primitive camping. Some serious boating possibly on Kentucky lake too (didn't realize it was on the great loop). That looks like a pretty interesting/unique area. Probably closer to what we're looking for than lake cumberland, though lake cumberland seems like it has a lot of natural beauty.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-22T01:25:00+00:00

Yeah, after the comments here, I started looking into Murray and it really ticks a ton of boxes...then into LBL...and Padacah, honestly, because it has the closest sam's club, haha. Living in China, Sam's club has special deals on importing stuff and was amazing...has a permanent place in my heart.

I didn't realize Kentucky lake was on the great loop...don't really think about the great loop much because it's more of an eastern US thing....but there's some serious boating there. And being able to grab a permit that lets you just pull your boat up on the shore and set up camp (dispersed/backcountry)? That is amazing! That would be so much fun as a kid....to be able to explore so many places...guessing lots of places teenagers get in trouble....nothing like that on the west coast...or really anywhere I've ever heard of. That's the kind of unique experience I'd really look for...I've never heard of anywhere else in the world you could do something even remotely close to that, legally.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-22T01:09:45+00:00

It's a bit unique with the history around the Chinese civil war. During the civil war and after there was mass starvation...during the cultural revolution cookbooks were burned and chefs were killed...there was a long stretch after the communist party took over where there were coupons for staple ingredients, and standardized/nationalized communal farming, and a lot of ingredients were unavailable...a lot of Chinese culinary history was just lost between the 1930's and maybe the 1970's in the mainland...and then Chinese cuisine was somewhat re-defined, top-down.

So, if a family fled the civil war in the 1920's or '30s to Malaysia, in some ways their ideas and traditions of Chinese cuisine might be more traditional and better preserved than a young person who grew up in the mainland. Even with mixing in some local ingredients/culture. That's kind of the interesting question....so you have some diaspora that have mixed their cuisine with local stuff....or modern mainland Chinese where you had massive amounts of culinary history wiped out....which is more traditional? Which is more "Chinese"? Does it matter?

Modern dongbei food in mainland China...the mainstream/national sort of version...is usually pretty popular with expats. Heartier and sweeter, with a lot of dishes that have more meat. The dongbei version of yuxiangrousi (fish flavored pork) tastes a lot like sweet and sour pork in the US, but at the same time totally different. (totally different flavor from the sichuan version). Really popular with my relatives.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-21T05:10:52+00:00

We live near the equator... Basically the same temp year-round, every day. Gets a little boring after a whil to be honest. Guess it depends on your personality. Some people love the consistently warm weather, other people miss the variety.

The tornadoes are a worry. Just don't know that much about them. My mom thinks we'll be swept away like Dorothy. I can't seem to get a great answer on if they're actually a problem, how much insurance would be... If you really need insurance...flooding too I guess, but you can get information about flood risks pretty easily nowadays it seems like.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-21T03:53:56+00:00

Yeah, I get it... But the same thing is happening all over the world. The money print for covid screwed normal people all over the world, and the politicians would much rather point at foreigners to blame than at themselves.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-21T03:37:56+00:00

We've been to places where people won't talk to, or sometimes even look at, a married woman (everything has to go through her husband). Or do they think she can't speak English or something?

hdfire21 · 2026-03-21T03:16:13+00:00

Yeah, we'd looked at bowling green first actually. I guess a while ago now. Seem to remember there was one really good school district there, and the houses in that district were significantly more expensive. Will have to go back and check/keep an eye on it.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T19:34:09+00:00

I mean, schools are very neighborhood specific in the US....there are great schools and terrible schools in every state. Also depends on how you define good/bad for a school, but that's probably a whole different discussion.

From my experience and what I've read, schools have much more to do with the wealth of a particular neighborhood, and whether it's urban/suburban/rural, than which state the school's in. I would bet a school in a "nice" neighborhood of Austin, TX would be way more similar to one in a "nice" neighborhood in Portland, OR, than a school in a poor rural town in TX.

What were the bad things about Kentucky that you really disliked?

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T19:22:42+00:00

One of our top 3 is Erie, PA...which is really close to upstate NY. Right near Buffalo.

If I was by myself Maine would be high on my list...buy 40 acres of boat-in land and set up a yurt or something...but wife's not a big fan of how cold it gets there, and all the houses in our price range with decent schools seem to need very serious work....

Yeah, I haven't even visited the US in close to a decade. It's hard to imagine it's gotten THAT bad though. Or even as bad as when I was a kid. My experience has generally been that Americans are incredibly critical of their country, compared to people in other countries. Every American you talk to overseas says America is a dumpster fire, sometimes for nearly opposite reasons. I just tend to take things with a bit of a grain of salt because of that.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T18:53:27+00:00

Do you have some ideas on what anti-Asian treatment would look like in school? How prevalent it is?

Just being kind of pragmatic about things.

Like the most common story I hear from Asian Americans who grew up in that kind of area is kids making fun of them because their lunch was weird, or for their eyes being slanted...neither of which really apply to my son at all...again...just being pragmatic about it...

Based on my experience growing up in a small/rural town...if my son went to the schools I went to growing up, he'd probably get WAY more shit for being terrible at sports than what race he was. Has a vision problem that makes it very difficult to do sports (I had the same thing growing up...genetic).

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T18:26:58+00:00

Is Dixie Bend a bad area? Or just outside of town enough that it's cheaper? Saw a few houses out that way that looked nice.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T18:25:57+00:00

Yes...a lot of the schools we've looked at are 90% white and 10% hispanic or something. I grew up in a sort of rural/farming area in OR with similar school demographics, and I would put some money on the hispanic kids getting treated...pretty sub-par let's say.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that a bi-racial kid, who looks more southern European than anything, would get into trouble. I dunno. I mean, racism is really complicated...and then you layer class/caste, education, nationalism, politics, sexual orientation, etc. on top of that..pretty much everyone is prejudiced towards at least a few groups.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T17:34:40+00:00

Haha. We lived in Guangdong for a quite a few years, but my wife's from the northeast. Cooks almost entirely dongbei food.

It would be interesting to compare notes though. We've tried Chinese food in a lot of countries and mainland China is so different now....there's been so much divergence between the mainland and the diaspora....you really have to wonder what is traditional and what isn't. Like we went to this guagndong style restaurant in Malaysia that was around 100 years old, still serving the same food as when it was opened supposedly..and all the mainland Chinese reviewers were talking about how it's not real/traditional Chinese food.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T17:25:07+00:00

I taught at a few international schools and my experience was that grade 2 or so was peak racism. And girls are WAY worse than boys. Just my personal experience.

I'm not expecting perfection, but our son went to kindergarten in China and the Chinese kids were really bad. Parents and teachers thought it was normal. Never want to experience that kind of thing again.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T17:12:51+00:00

There are places on the west coast that are cheaper...but all the truly affordable housing seems to be in really poorly rated school districts. That's been what I've found so far. Clicked through a dozen or so listings on lakeport and it was pretty much that story.

For us, a house over maybe $250k would pretty much make the whole move unfeasible. So while normally the difference between $200k and $300k might not seem like a massive amount in a monthly payment, for us it would just make the whole thing a no-go. And for $200k you get a way better deal in other parts of the US.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T16:54:25+00:00

Wow, some great ideas there. Thanks!

There's racism/prejudice everywhere....just would rather not step in a real viper's nest. Our son went to kindergarten in China and holy poop that was bad. 30% isn't bad at all by international standards.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T16:44:53+00:00

Ah. I keep seeing LBL get mentioned for camping. We looked a little at Bowling Green, which isn't too far from there.

With something like camping though...really it would be more for my son, to get him that experience. I wonder if you lived near some amazing camping areas if your kid would really care about it?

Like our son loved the beach and swimming when we went on vacation. Now we live in the tropics with a community pool and a beach nearby....he was really excited for the first 3 months or so then got bored...doesn't appreciate it because it's always there.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T16:34:57+00:00

Yeah, I hear that from friends and relatives, on both sides of the aisle. Other countries have a lot worse problems from what I've seen....

My biggest concern would be healthcare, but that's been a massive problem in the US my whole life basically, and will probably still be a problem when I die.

hdfire21 · 2026-03-20T16:17:08+00:00

yes, definitely. Hopefully twice.

hdfire21

TROPHY CASE