flea

In theorizing ahead of my data news, I have spent some more time looking up Singapore. (I did this for Cincinnati and Aarhus and Athens GA, too - it's just those were a lot less out of the realm of my experience than Singapore!)

It's at the equator - nearly always 80 degrees, 90% humidity in the am, 60% humidity in the pm. Historical recorded high: 100, low: 65. So, I would not be growing English peas in Singapore.

It sounds remarkably clean and non-corrupt and safe for a large city anywhere, and has excellent public transport. We'd probably sell our car and not get one there. As for the rest of our stuff, I guess we'd offload a lot and store a lot? I am sure, somehow, that they have Ikea in Singapore. (Yup, they do: http://www.ikea.com.sg/homepage/home_shoot.asp)

English is the primary language of education, and most children speak it starting in pre-school. There are public schools, including pre-schools for ages 3-6, and many international private schools. The big American one costs about $20,000 a year for kindergarten, though; Wikipedia notes that the corporations employing foreign nationals in Singapore tend to pay for private school for their employees' children. Somehow I doubt that extends to post-doc positions at MIT, though.

Casper and Dillo could learn Chinese! (I am almost certainly too old and stupid.)

Plane tickets roundtrip Singapore to Boston seem to start at about $1800 and take 24 hours. And it seems like we live far away from family NOW!

There's a lot to think about. The opportunities for overseas adventure don't come along all that often; on the other hand there is a lot of hassle and expense and sacrifice in overseas adventure. And we do have a strong yearning to settle down...

I've been having little email to-and-fro with my father - I sent him the realtor listing for the house two blocks down from where he grew up, and he pointed out (as I had already discovered) that it isn't in the Mariemont district, but in the city proper, and the local elementary is rated "emergency" by the state.

So he rambled on about school and real estate matters, and then dropped this:
"Our house is probably worth a little more than twice what we bought it for in 1993. We would not be
able to afford to buy it now, even were I still working."

Now, Zillow.com is placing his house at $282K right now. Which I think is overpriced - it is 2400 square feet, but poorly laid out and thoroughly lacking in charm. It gets a bump due to size and the school district.

But, people, my father is a 61 year old (retired) doctor! He was a family practice doctor, so a fairly low-paying specialty - median income for family practice doctors in 2002 was 'only' $150K a year. I would imagine that by the time he retired in 2004 he was making rather more than that, since he had many many years of experience. If your annual income is $200K a year - or even if it's only $150! - you can generally afford to buy a $280K house if you want to. I mean, right? A conservative mortgage is 3 times annual income, right?

To sum up: my father = totally out of touch with reality, financially-speaking (other ways also, but we don't have time for them tonight). It is probably not worth the effort of pointing this out to him. But if I am guilty of being cheap, at least I come by it honestly.