Notes

A View From Spain

I've been fortunate to have spent much of the winter of 2019-2020 residing across the southern coast of Spain. Occupying a leased casa near the middle of an old city for an extended time, which inevitably involved participating with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and so on, gave me a great chance to see how daily financial life is lived in a location far in my New Hampshire home.


To be clear, I really do have a life outside of financial monitoring, but for purposes of the piece that I 'll concentrate on a tiny anecdotal contrast between the way folks run commercial trade in a corner of Spain and in NH. To further set this up, notice that I deliberately lived with no car and had no data plan for 3 weeks, relying rather on public transport and WiFi (or wee-fee since they cutely say there).


These near-monastic practices aside, let me tell you a bit about my provisional Spanish hometown. Fuengirola, a small city of about 75K inhabitants, lies across the southern coast about 25 miles west of Malaga, the huge city in those parts. business growth is in the autonomous region of Andalusia (such as a US state), that's the largest of those self-governing regions in Spain. Given that it was commanded from the Islamic Moors for about seven centuries the architecture and culture is a unique mix of Christian and Muslim influences never seen everywhere in Europe. Andalusians have a reputation for being psychological and fun-loving. I agree.


What's most evident is how old-fashioned things seem, at least to a guy in his late sixties. In networking to say we get in our cars and drive to big supermarkets and big box stores to buy our things, or as is increasingly the casewe order things online and have them shipped to our homes. But the small "Mom & Pop" stores are alive and apparently well. The sidewalks every day, except Sunday, are teeming with people doing their daily promotion of fruits, vegetables, medicines, clothing, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really large here).


get more information have to admit that despite a clear inefficiency with going to one shop for the bread, to another to your veggies, and to another for meat I enjoyed the quaintness and private touch of having to know the men and women who worked those establishments. Levels of private service always seemed high and that I never felt rushed. Sure Amazon.es and big box stores such as El Corte Ingles exist, but small brick & mortar retail is hanging here fairly well.

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People sit with family and friends for what seems like hours chatting over coffee and beer during workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and pubs are everywhere spilling onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and boisterous and leaves a Yank with the belief that life really needs to be fun and lived with gusto. I must admit I've wondered more than once, &quot;How can any work get done ? &quot; But it does. web site is minimal.


advertising is the money. And right now its value is only about 10% greater than the US dollar. However, prices for most commodities seem lower here. I'm frequently struck by how much value I'm getting for this little money. Granted, gas is more than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the prices of energy and big-ticket things, but overall costs seem cheaper in Spain. Also, hop over to here -based society. their website is weighed down with these thick coins (a First World problem, I know). Sure people use credit cards and phone pay programs, but money is still quite prevalent.


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