How many of us are still here?

[Redpossum]

Man, oh man, but this thread is depressing, and really discouraging.

But hey, at least the Blue went back up a little bit today, from 1150 to 1185. I have no idea why, but it did. Maybe it's just dead cat bounce.

 

[Quilombo]

Its utterly horrible, really unsettling and a constant stress feeling poorer every day, and not knowing if I will be able to afford my current lifestyle over the coming years, especially with how hard I’ve worked to achieve it.

Makes me even more angry that it’s all because of Milei’s lies. They’ve achieved nothing, the average Argentine is no better off, and all this “super peso” is nothing more than black magic and debt from the FMI.
But oh well, what did I expect living in Argentina

I sympathize, this has been our experience as well.

We walked away from a 0KM car, a lot, and now it increasingly looks like we'll be walking away from the country. We have lowered all our expectations, and our latest hope was to buy a meh house outside of GBA for 50K, but since mortgages are very difficult to get as monotributistas we'd have to buy it in cash, and we don't have that kind of money.

Sure, now we can buy dollars for saving easier/from home banking, but there are less pesos to buy said dollars because everything has gotten so expensive so it's basically a wash.

 

[chris]

I live on a farm, a half hour from town. No public transportation to speak of.
MY Sube card is useless.

But one son lives in NYC with no car, he takes subways and citibikes, but his daily expenses are high. studio apartments are 2 grand in NYC. and thats rare and hard to find.
The other lives in Seattle, and, no, you cant really live there without a car. He works 2 jobs, one he can take light rail to, the other you must drive.

If you lived on a farm in Argentina you would need a car. There are quite a few urban areas in the USA with good transport where you can live without a car -- and if you're a senior public transport is either free or half price. From what you say, Seattle's public transport is not as extensive as in big East Coast cities.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Man, oh man, but this thread is depressing, and really discouraging.

But hey, at least the Blue went back up a little bit today, from 1150 to 1185. I have no idea why, but it did. Maybe it's just dead cat bounce.

Not to kick you while you're down, but while oficial and blue are pegged it will be a lose-lose situation for expats regardless of the movements. If the combined peso/dollar rate goes up, it means you have a temporary relief on your current expenses by getting a more favorable dollar rate....that is until all domestic producers increase their prices to adjust to the new peso rate (erasing any favorable advantage you had).

As if this doesn't sound depressing enough...it will get even worse. You will stay ahead of the domestic price market ("maintaining" your COL) until the peso/dollar hits $1400. Once the peso/dollar hits $1400 you will no longer have any way to adjust to the peso inflation occurring. This means your COL will gradually rise more as it loses ground to domestic inflation.

We're about to enter a really miserable time for anyone (Argentines included) earning in USD.

I only see 3 ways out:

1) Increase your USD income to maintain your COL
2) Earn a sueldo in pesos that can increase with the IPC or some portion of it.
3) Live off of investments tied to UVA (plazo fijo), or passive income tied to the IPC or ICL (e.g. rents)
4) Move to another country where the dollar can appreciate freely.

 

[Ries]

If you lived on a farm in Argentina you would need a car. There are quite a few urban areas in the USA with good transport where you can live without a car -- and if you're a senior public transport is either free or half price. From what you say, Seattle's public transport is not as extensive as in big East Coast cities.

obvio. Thats why I dont live on a farm in Argentina.
But there is decent bus service in most of rural argentina. And you can buy scooters for a few hundred dollars. Or a horse.
Bus service in rural USA is horrible, expensive, and infrequent.
I have taken buses to Rosario, La Plata, Mar De Plata, Tandil, and other towns in the provincia, and they serve many small towns as well.
Public transport in the USA is usually 4 to 10 times the price of Argentina.
But my main point remains- for equivalent lifestyles in the US vs Argentina, if you live like I do, (no gated communities, no brand new 60,000 dollar cars, no rolex watches) Argentina is still significantly cheaper for day to day living.