Having spent the most of the last 20 years as an engineer for U.S. manufacturers, I am shocked at just how much manufacturing has been shut down and moved to Asia in recent years. I wonder to what extent people are aware of this and the ramifications to this country's future? These jobs (including mine) aren't coming back, and there is no new technology or new industry I see on the horizen that will provide jobs for our unemployed.
I have a friend (born and raised in the midwest, former Marine, successful engineer) who bought a place in Thailand and is keeping his options open to move there. A number of other people I know have started to talk about maybe needing to move out of the country because of our economy being terminally wounded in their opinion. I feel pretty gloomy about our future, which is why I have started pondering leaving.
I am certainly open to training for a new career but not having a crystal ball, I worry about spending a lot of time and money on something that end up having no value in getting a decent job, like my engineering degree and airline transport pilot's license have turned out.
Fortunately I don't have any health issues or dependents to support, but I do need to find some sort of catastrophic health coverage in case I was to have a heart attack or develop cancer or something, I can't risk losing my life savings when I won't be able to find work in the future to rebuild my wealth!
I've inputted some of my info into the Blue Cross website and have come up with some options that don't seem too bad, like $150-$200/month. I am wondering what I should be looking out for though, from people who have had to buy their own insurance? I have been spoiled I guess, having had company paid insurance since the 80's, other than part of 2006 when I was out of work and gambled by not getting insurance. I don't feel safe gambling like that again!