Madrid, Spain with Renato Padilla
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Where Do Gays Retire
[00:00:04] Intro: podcast, where we help you in the LGBTQ plus community find a safe and affordable
[00:00:10] Intro: retirement place.
[00:00:11] Intro: Join Mark Goldstein as he interviews others who live in gay friendly places around the globe. Learn about the climate, cost of living, health care,
[00:00:20] Intro: crime and safety, and more.
[00:00:22] Intro: Now, here's your host, Mark Goldstein.
[00:00:31] Intro: Have you ever wondered what it's like to live and retire in Madrid, Spain? Well, I always wanted to know. And today we're going to find that answer out. We have our guest, Renato Padilla. Renato is a Bolivian. entrepreneur who currently resides in Madrid. He has a passion for languages and has found a way to make money from it.
[00:00:58] Intro: In addition to be [00:01:00] multilingual, he also has a fondness for the arts, particularly pottery and music. He played in the orchestra of his city in Bolivia and Spain for approximately five years. Renato was born in Japan. then moved to Bolivia where he studied until he was 16 years old. He finished his high school education in Longorona, Spain, and in 2022 he moved to Madrid to start his own Spanish school.
[00:01:30] Intro: Unfortunately, he was scammed and the business failed. But instead of giving up, he kept trying, and now he is the principal of his own school in the center of Madrid. Renato enjoys traveling around the world and is planning to retire at the young age of 25, if everything goes according to plan. Yes, I said 25.
[00:01:56] Intro: So let me tell you a little, a little short story. [00:02:00] When I originally met Renato online I kind of like looked at him and said are you sure that you know the topic of this conversation, of this podcast? This is where do gays retire? And his response to me was. Well, I'm going to retire, you know, it's and I, but I said, Renato, you're not like you're in your 60s.
[00:02:27] Intro: He goes, what do I have to wait for my 60s? Why can't I retire when I was 25? And I was like, Oh, my God, you have a, you have a point. So anyway Renato, in my opinion, is brilliant. And he comes here with quite a bit of knowledge about Madrid. We're going to take it away. Renato, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
[00:02:51] Intro: And tell us, tell the audience. Why you chose Madrid as a city in Spain, and tell us a little bit about your [00:03:00] background. It's kind of, yeah, so it's so interesting. First
[00:03:04] Renato Padilla: of all hello, mark and hello, the audience. And I think you already said a lot about my background. I define myself as the, as the result of globalization.
[00:03:18] Renato Padilla: My parents decided to move to Japan when they were in their 20s, they were 22, 23. And as soon as they got married, they knew that Bolivia was not for them. So they went to Japan, they didn't know the language, they didn't know anything. And my mother, fortunately, spoke English because she did high school in the U.
[00:03:39] Renato Padilla: S. Thanks to the English she knew, they could, you know, get a job and They did well for 20 years that they were living in Japan, and at that time I was born there. But the more they were in Japan, the more they realized they didn't want me to be in Japan. So they sent me to live in [00:04:00] Bolivia with my grandmother.
[00:04:01] Renato Padilla: So I grew up with my grandma and my nanny. Then my sister came, and it was the both of us. While my parents were still in Japan, until I was 11, 12, and then they moved back to
[00:04:15] Mark Goldstein: Bolivia. Okay, so they joined you in Bolivia. Yeah, so
[00:04:21] Renato Padilla: in that period, in that period during my childhood, I was only with my grandma, my sister, my nanny.
[00:04:28] Renato Padilla: And they arrived, they arrived to Bolivia again to be part of my life until I was 16. And at that time I did principally school and music. With the Philharmonic, the symphony, I played clarinet, flute, I also did some opera. So I like art.
[00:04:54] Mark Goldstein: Wow. You're amazing. So how did you get from [00:05:00] Bolivia and what age, how did you get from Bolivia to Spain?
[00:05:05] Mark Goldstein: So I was,
[00:05:07] Renato Padilla: yeah, I was 16. I, I was about to do my junior and senior in the American system, but saying it's called which are my last three years of high school education before university. So I arrived just in that point of my life. It was kind of different than what I expected because I think we tend to idealize the first world coming from Bolivia.
[00:05:40] Renato Padilla: Then I realized that we were not doing that bad in the third world. Because I studied in a religious school, a private religious school, so the level was kind of high for the Bolivian standards. And when I came here, I realized that it was [00:06:00] high even in Spain. So I did the law of the minimum effort. So if I can get a nine without studying, and I can use my time to do something, More interested.
[00:06:14] Renato Padilla: Why should I aim to have a pain out of 10? It's just one point of difference. I lived like that. I still live like that. Yeah. And I like it. I, I cannot say that it disappointed me.
[00:06:33] Mark Goldstein: So did you go to university?
[00:06:36] Renato Padilla: And no, in my case, I did something very specific. It's called Spanish as a foreign language. So in the Spanish system, you can do something that is called un grado, university, and it takes about four years.
[00:06:53] Renato Padilla: And then you can do a master, which takes another one to two years. And that's like the [00:07:00] minimum people expect from you to have. The degree plus the master. In my case, I knew for sure that I wanted to be a Spanish teacher. I already spoke eight
[00:07:14] Mark Goldstein: languages. Eight, you said. Eight languages. Can you tell us, can you tell us what languages?
[00:07:21] Renato Padilla: Yeah I was born in Japan, I was born in Japan and my parents spoke to me in Japanese, fortunately, on Skype and then when I, when they arrived in Bolivia, we all speak Spanish, but we also have some native languages in the country. Okay. I speak only one of the three that are the most spoken, it's called Guarani.
[00:07:47] Renato Padilla: It's also the official language of Paraguay, like 96 percent of Paraguay population are bilingual in this language, so it's quite an important language in South America. [00:08:00]
[00:08:00] Mark Goldstein: Paraguay, not Uruguay, right? No, Paraguay, yeah. Paraguay, okay.
[00:08:05] Renato Padilla: Yeah I come also from a city. Santa Cruz de la Sierra is next to, next to Brazil, so we have a huge amount of Brazilian people living among us, and I've also been to Brazil quite a few times, and that's why I speak Portuguese.
[00:08:26] Renato Padilla: My husband is French, he's actually a French teacher. And he speaks also quite a few languages. And that's why I speak French because not because of him, because he speaks Spanish perfectly, but because of his family, because they don't speak any language. So I had to learn French to communicate with them.
[00:08:47] Renato Padilla: And German, I was dating a German guy for a period, and then I learned German with him. Then I was dating this [00:09:00] English guy when I was living in Bologna at the beginning. And I learned. English with him. Way, way better. I spoke before because before I spoke English, but then it got better and I speak Italian because I love Italy and quite easy for me to learn languages.
[00:09:17] Renato Padilla: So why not another Italian? And then in high school, I also studied ancient Greek and Latin. Extremely important for etymology and everything related to the Latin languages. So Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, all of them are related thanks to Latin and Greek.
[00:09:39] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That's incredible. I have trouble learning English.
[00:09:44] Mark Goldstein: And I'm from the U. S. and here you are, 22 years old and knows eight languages. It's pretty incredible. So let's, that's, that's definitely incredible. [00:10:00] Let's talk about Madrid. Why did you choose Madrid as a city in Spain to settle down and live?
[00:10:10] Renato Padilla: So the languages is actually the answer to that question because Madrid has an amazing It's full of people from all around the world, and there is a characteristic in Madrid that is quite beneficial for me, that is that Spaniards don't speak English.
[00:10:36] Renato Padilla: If you in the audience want to move to Madrid, don't expect them to speak English. They won't. Half of the world speaks Spanish. They think like, what, what, why if half of the world speak my language, should I learn anything else? So yeah, the same that probably American people think like half of the world speaks English.
[00:10:59] Renato Padilla: Why should I [00:11:00] learn the same, same thing, same thing. And yeah.
[00:11:06] Mark Goldstein: So you saw like in the back of your mind at that time, you saw an opportunity. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And oh, I can, I can teach Spanish. Spanish. Yeah.
[00:11:17] Renato Padilla: Spanish. Spanish. Yeah,
[00:11:19] Mark Goldstein: Spanish to English people.
[00:11:21] Renato Padilla: Yeah, actually, not only English, like any language they speak, I
[00:11:26] Mark Goldstein: don't really mind.
[00:11:26] Mark Goldstein: Any language. I have
[00:11:28] Renato Padilla: students from Korea, from Turkey, from Vietnam, so many countries, even from Kazakhstan, countries that you might never spoke, never heard about, or even took many stats, this kind of very few mentioned countries, like you barely hear about it. Azerbaijan, It's very
[00:11:53] Mark Goldstein: nice. So that means, so people from all these countries are, you know, [00:12:00] that decide to move to Madrid, you have to know, well, you know, Spanish, but you kind of have to know their language too, to get them to understand what you're talking about.
[00:12:14] Mark Goldstein: And I'm sure you have, now you have people working for you. Right. The teach.
[00:12:20] Renato Padilla: Now, now I'm not teaching anymore. I'm just managing the business. I recently went to Bolivia for a whole month and I managed everything online. So that's part of my retirement plan. And yeah, I mean, my first day one of them is from Costa Rica.
[00:12:40] Renato Padilla: He speaks Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, the other one from Madrid, she speaks Spanish and English. The other one from Bolivia, actually, he speaks Spanish, English and Arab, he's bilingual in Arab, which is quite interesting for the business. Then I have another [00:13:00] one who is bilingual in Spanish Italian, but she also speaks English and Arabic.
[00:13:05] Renato Padilla: French. So yeah, I have a good stuff.
[00:13:09] Mark Goldstein: That's incredible. Okay. So tell us geographically, where is Madrid located within Spain? And where is the center city? And so Madrid is not on the coast. It's kind of like in the middle. Tell us a little bit about the geography.
[00:13:31] Renato Padilla: Yeah. So Madrid is Right in the middle we have something called kilometer.
[00:13:40] Renato Padilla: The the kilometer zero in, in which all the, all the roads of Madrid converge. And it is a hundred meters from my business, which is nice because it's the center of the city. So the center, the [00:14:00] center, you can divide it in a few area. One of them is Sol, which is the center of the center. Then you have, according to what you like, you have, for example, Chueca, which is the gay neighborhood.
[00:14:15] Renato Padilla: You have Salamanca and Malasaña, Malasaña especially, which is the posh neighborhood. Then you have Retiro, nearby to the Retiro Park, which is also very expensive, very posh, and one of the most expensive areas of the city, actually. Then you have other areas, like La Latina, that are more alternative, so you like this alternative scene, like the second hand.
[00:14:52] Renato Padilla: Market, restaurants from Latin America, restaurants from [00:15:00] Africa. That's a nice neighborhood for that and that's it. So that's like the dilemma of the center.
[00:15:09] Mark Goldstein: Okay. And so there's no beaches around Madrid. So you would have to travel hours. to get to a beach, right? I mean,
[00:15:19] Renato Padilla: ah, where is the end? You can go to Valencia.
[00:15:22] Renato Padilla: You are, you could be there in like an hour and a half, maybe.
[00:15:26] Mark Goldstein: Oh, really? Oh, bullet train or speed train. Yeah.
[00:15:29] Renato Padilla: The fast
[00:15:31] Mark Goldstein: train. Oh, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that too. Yeah. Okay. So tell us about the climate. What's the climate like in Madrid? I know now Madrid, would it be on the same latitude, longitude as like, I'm trying to think.
[00:15:53] Mark Goldstein: Is it Canada or New York? I'm not sure. But because they [00:16:00] have seasons. Might
[00:16:01] Renato Padilla: be New York.
[00:16:02] Mark Goldstein: Might be New York.
[00:16:04] Renato Padilla: I, I'm not totally sure, but it is for sure something different than what I'm used to. Because I come literally from next to the Amazon. If I drive from my house in Bolivia, I can just arrive to the Amazon in like 10 hours, maybe 12.
[00:16:24] Renato Padilla: But Madrid is the opposite. If I'm used to the humidity, Madrid is extremely
[00:16:30] Mark Goldstein: dry. Okay, but Madrid also has four seasons, correct?
[00:16:36] Renato Padilla: Yes, you have the four seasons.
[00:16:39] Mark Goldstein: So it does get cold. And they are very
[00:16:41] Renato Padilla: well marked. Like, you feel
[00:16:43] Mark Goldstein: them. That's nice. I like four seasons. So the trees change the color of the leaves in the fall.
[00:16:55] Mark Goldstein: Yes. The spring, everything is growing.
[00:16:59] Renato Padilla: [00:17:00] Yeah, that's exactly
[00:17:01] Mark Goldstein: it. And the winter is freezing. Does it snow? It's
[00:17:07] Renato Padilla: freezing and last the last snow, snow storm we had was like two or three years ago. It. Paralyzed the city, people didn't go to work, they go to school, they stopped working, living. It was awful.
[00:17:26] Renato Padilla: I think Madrid was not prepared for that snowstorm. It was called Filomena.
[00:17:34] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, it was different a phenomena. Huh. Do you have a rainy season? Does it get in the spring, maybe? Does it? Rain? Actually,
[00:17:42] Renato Padilla: no, it's kind of rain.
[00:17:44] Mark Goldstein: In the winter? Yeah. Okay. If it doesn't snow, which usually it doesn't snow, but it rains.
[00:17:52] Mark Goldstein: Now it's not snowing.
[00:17:54] Renato Padilla: But it rains. This year, this current year, it hasn't been snowing, but it
[00:17:58] Mark Goldstein: rains. [00:18:00] Okay. Okay. How cold do you think, do you know, I don't know if you know Fahrenheit as far as Centigrade or Celsius? Yes. I don't know this Celsius. Do you know how cold does it get in the winter?
[00:18:19] Renato Padilla: Okay. So I'll tell you now in in Fahrenheit.
[00:18:29] Renato Padilla: So in Fahrenheit. Oh, no, this is still Celsius. It could be. Minus five degrees like the most freezing minus five, but usually it stays in zero degrees.
[00:18:49] Mark Goldstein: It's still
[00:18:50] Renato Padilla: cold. Yeah, but during the winter. And as I said, Because of how how dry the sea is, I feel it [00:19:00] way less cold than I would feel it probably in my country.
[00:19:04] Renato Padilla: My country is 20 degrees. I am dying. I am freezing. Freezing. In here, in here, 20 degrees is perfect. Not that bad. No, no, really. Okay.
[00:19:16] Mark Goldstein: Okay. It's like here in the desert. I live in Phoenix, Arizona. It's in the desert, so it's very dry. Okay. The winter, when it gets down to, at night, either 40s or 30s Fahrenheit, it's freezing.
[00:19:33] Mark Goldstein: To me, it's freezing. But, to anyone else Yeah, but the
[00:19:36] Renato Padilla: problem, I think the problem in Madrid is The summer, because there is no beach, there is no nothing. So it gets hot. Because of how dry it is that you're in a sauna. Even if it's like 35 degrees, you feel it like 45 because it's so dry. [00:20:00] It's so dry.
[00:20:03] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, you just want to, like, go into a swimming pool.
[00:20:06] Renato Padilla: Yeah, yeah, and the swimming pools are full during
[00:20:11] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, I bet. I bet. Okay, is living in an LGBTQ neighborhood important to you? And does Madrid have those type of neighborhoods, or gayborhoods, as we call it in the U. S.?
[00:20:26] Renato Padilla: Yes. Actually, I think the whole Madrid is very gay, starting from that. You see the LGBT representation everywhere, and the gay neighborhood by excellence is Chueca.
[00:20:42] Renato Padilla: And me personally, I wouldn't live there. It's even way too much for me. And also because of the gentrification, there's just few people that could afford living in Chueca. Oh,
[00:20:59] Mark Goldstein: so [00:21:00] the gays came in and gentrified the neighborhood and drove all the prices up. I,
[00:21:06] Renato Padilla: I think, yeah, I think that's because the the landlords realized, okay, we have these gay men that are in their 40s.
[00:21:14] Renato Padilla: They have no children, but if they are in their forties, it means that they are professionally well developed. Good salaries, no children because they are gay, and they have nothing better to spend their money than. paying these landlords stupid quantities of money for their very old flats that don't, that are not worth what they asked for.
[00:21:39] Renato Padilla: But as people keep paying, they keep rising
[00:21:42] Mark Goldstein: the price. Right. Exactly. I hear you. Okay. So there, the gayborhoods exist, but you wouldn't particularly like to live there. That's fine. Do they have lots of gay bars? Oh, for [00:22:00] sure. Yeah. And restaurants, are there gay restaurants?
[00:22:05] Renato Padilla: They, they're, they're
[00:22:07] Mark Goldstein: Or just gay bars that have food?
[00:22:09] Renato Padilla: Gay bars. Yeah, exactly. Gay bars that there's some food. That's
[00:22:13] Mark Goldstein: exactly how it is. Okay. And are they in, usually in one area or are they spread out within Madrid all over?
[00:22:22] Renato Padilla: No, they are in Chueca.
[00:22:26] Mark Goldstein: In the gay neighborhood? They are in the gay neighborhood. Okay, all right. So how, how easy or difficult would it be to make friends in the gay community, in the queer community?
[00:22:41] Renato Padilla: I think it depends on how extrovert you are and how well you connect with other people. In my case, I am extremely extrovert and I have lots of friends and they gave friends. I have, I didn't [00:23:00] even know that they were gay because I am very of the views. I mean, we are not friends because we are gay.
[00:23:05] Renato Padilla: We are friends because we are nice people that like other nice people. In my case, especially, I don't really need or feel much contact with the gay community. I do participate in some activities or I try to, for example, have in my space to let people know some gay flag or something like it's an LGBT friendly space.
[00:23:37] Renato Padilla: I actively Actively, but also under the table, like, I do my stuff, help the gay community in my way, in what I can do, but I don't actively go to a gay space to look for friends because it's kind of, it's kind of difficult [00:24:00] because they usually are here for a period or most of them are here just for Erasmus, visiting.
[00:24:10] Renato Padilla: So it doesn't really make a lot of sense for me to invest a lot of time and energy making friends that I know that will be back in their countries within a year, within two years, because I cannot see these long term friendships going on. So I want my relationships, friendship, any kind of human relationship to be long term.
[00:24:34] Renato Padilla: And if I cannot do it, then it's like
[00:24:37] Mark Goldstein: meh. Yeah, yeah, I, I tend to agree. Friendships. I agree. You invest time in friendships. I think that they should be intended for long term and not short term. So I totally agree. And the thing is probably in Spain and just thinking about it. That it may not make a difference [00:25:00] like it may in the United States, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff going on in the United States, let's say, that makes one uncomfortable sometimes being around non queer folk or gay folk, LGBT folk.
[00:25:20] Mark Goldstein: Whereas in Spain, It doesn't really matter that much. Yeah,
[00:25:25] Renato Padilla: yeah, yeah, I think you expressed my point perfectly, like, maybe in, in the States, you have the extremely religious fanaticism which probably if, if it's not a gay bar, it may happen that if I, It's my husband, there is this crazy Karen yelling at me, like, why do you do that in front of a child?
[00:25:51] Renato Padilla: Exactly. And in Madrid, it doesn't happen. So I, I don't need to, to seek for a safe [00:26:00] space because Madrid is itself a safe space. So maybe that's, that's why I don't, I don't feel the need to, to be in Madrid. In the gay community as I see Madrid as an extremely gay
[00:26:16] Mark Goldstein: friendly. Wow, that is refreshing. It totally is.
[00:26:21] Mark Goldstein: It makes such a big difference too in the way you live day to day. So
[00:26:27] Renato Padilla: yeah, because even the fact that I don't need to think about where I'm going or, or what should I do? Right. Just
[00:26:36] Mark Goldstein: be yourself. And it doesn't matter. One
[00:26:39] Renato Padilla: less thing to think about.
[00:26:42] Mark Goldstein: You're right. You're right. Well, you're a smart guy. So let's talk a little bit about is speaking Spanish a must since this is your.
[00:26:54] Mark Goldstein: You know, this is your field. If I wanted to live [00:27:00] or retire in Madrid, would I find it difficult? Let's say I didn't know Spanish, or I had minimal Spanish, because I would think, before even leaving for Spain, I would try my best to learn a little bit. But that's where your, your teaching comes in. If I, do I need Spanish?
[00:27:25] Mark Goldstein: So in other words, if I speak English, is, are there other English speaking people that I can get by a little bit? Or do I really need to take your
[00:27:36] Renato Padilla: class? I mean, the international community is huge, but then I think there's this, Decisive. This is a factor, which is do you only do you only want to belong to this apart expats community living another life in Madrid?
[00:27:57] Renato Padilla: So you put yourself [00:28:00] in this kind of expat apartheid. Or do you want to live the real experience, living in Spain, having contact with other Spaniards, visiting little villages in the middle of nowhere, and having a chat with this 90 year old grandma that could tell you how she Yay! Yay! survived the dictatorship of frankism in Spain.
[00:28:24] Renato Padilla: So I think there would be like so many things that you would be missing. The, I think it's worth it to learn the language at your own pace. I mean, I have students that they speak Fluently after three months, some others after six, some others take maybe a year to speak fluently. So each person is totally different and our background is totally different.
[00:28:52] Mark Goldstein: So do you get people older like me?
[00:28:56] Renato Padilla: Yes, I, I, as, as I had students in there. [00:29:00] 68, 72 62, 58, 55.
[00:29:06] Mark Goldstein: Do you find it's more difficult for them to pick up the language at an older age?
[00:29:11] Renato Padilla: Actually they were all European or Middle Eastern. Which means that they speak at least two or three languages.
[00:29:20] Mark Goldstein: Okay. So it's not that hard.
[00:29:22] Mark Goldstein: They were not American. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think the Americans would have a problem.
[00:29:27] Renato Padilla: So there was an American one. He was from New York. I don't say the name. That's where I was from. Yeah. I don't say names or anything, but it was about 77, 72. And not that old. He was still in shape and he spoke also Turkish because he was the first generation, his parents moved from Turkey to, from Istanbul specific to.
[00:29:58] Renato Padilla: New York to start [00:30:00] the, to start this American dream thing. And they spoke to him in Turkish. So this guy was bilingual in English and Turkish. And even if he was American, I think he had a huge advantage. But by the fact of being able to think in a different way linguistically.
[00:30:25] Mark Goldstein: That's, that's impressive. I envy you.
[00:30:28] Mark Goldstein: My God, eight languages. Oof, I'm telling you, I can't even get my English down, Pat. Okay, so I can get by. Most people don't really speak English. And knowing the language really helps. And it also helps because Without learning Spanish, you're really missing out on a lot of the culture and society.
[00:30:56] Mark Goldstein: You're limiting yourself. You just want to, you know, if you just [00:31:00] want to know English and just live with the expats, that's fine. But you really
[00:31:04] Renato Padilla: want to define, I have some students in my school that have joined the lessons from a one, the basic level. And I'm like why did you decide to start Spanish?
[00:31:15] Renato Padilla: And they were like, Oh, because one of our close friends who is one of your students and I was like who and then this guy was like, Oh, nice. And we saw that in two years now he speaks amazingly well, like in upper intermediate, and he's 55, 56. So he's almost 60 and within two years he learned extremely fast and, and they are like, and we have been living here for seven years and we don't speak Spanish like barely.
[00:31:54] Renato Padilla: Ola and Pepe, something [00:32:00] like that. As they saw that, someone closer to their age, from the same city, from the same country, from the same background, learned the language. They are like, okay, it encourages us to stay behind, because this is, you know, this is not a competition. They're like, yes, but if he can't, then I
[00:32:24] Mark Goldstein: can.
[00:32:24] Mark Goldstein: I can. Cool. Cool. That's great. So tell us, Renato, what's the local economy like? Like if, if people want to buy a two bedroom, two bath house or condo or something like that, what would they be paying? And what would they be paying to rent also like a two bedroom?
[00:32:50] Renato Padilla: To rent? I don't think it's, I don't think it's even worth it to rent because if you calculate how much you're going to.
[00:32:57] Renato Padilla: It's high. It's very high [00:33:00] and all the prices I can give you are in the center of Madrid, but a two bedroom apartment would be around 1, 800 to 2, 000 euros, which is a lot. 1. 1 point 10, I think with, with dollar, so dollars, it would be like 20 to 2, 200.
[00:33:29] Mark Goldstein: And that's for two bedroom or one bedroom? Two bedroom, two bedroom.
[00:33:33] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, and we're, we're talking US prices.
[00:33:38] Renato Padilla: Yeah, you're talking US prices in a country which the minimum salary. Right. Per month. Per month. Is. Is much lower. There is 1300. So now you need to take into account that you're speaking with people that are making 15k a year.
[00:33:58] Mark Goldstein: So how do they do it? How do [00:34:00] they live there?
[00:34:00] Mark Goldstein: They don't live there. I don't know. They can't live there.
[00:34:03] Renato Padilla: They live with their parents until they are 35, maybe 40.
[00:34:09] Mark Goldstein: That's, yeah, that's kind of sad the way. Yeah, because you know what? All the expats come in, drive the prices up. Or buy, or they buy and rent them out as Airbnbs.
[00:34:23] Renato Padilla: Yeah, actually a lot of Chinese companies are doing that right now.
[00:34:28] Renato Padilla: They, they buy literally a whole building.
[00:34:32] Mark Goldstein: That's why they probably will crack down on the golden visa. Which allows you to purchase a property, I believe, in Spain for half a million dollars, half a million dollars, euros, okay, euros,
[00:34:48] Renato Padilla: which is, which is around for a five, five hundred and eighty. 50.
[00:34:57] Mark Goldstein: US. Yeah.
[00:34:58] Mark Goldstein: Hey, you're good at that [00:35:00] conversion stuff. It's,
[00:35:02] Renato Padilla: it's only adding 10%,
[00:35:06] Mark Goldstein: but you're good. You're good. Okay. So that was like a rental that you gave us an idea. How about to purchase any 400, 000 euro, 500, you know, you have any
[00:35:19] Renato Padilla: I would say between four and six. Four, 400 to 600 to, to buy a, a nice apartment.
[00:35:29] Renato Padilla: I mean, not So like, if you're coming from another continent, please don't buy a, a shitty hole in the middle of nowhere. You try to, you come here to get a better life, not to make it worse. So if you're trying to buy a nice property, I would say it would be around. Four to six hundred.
[00:35:52] Mark Goldstein: Okay, that's, that's up there too in price.
[00:35:57] Mark Goldstein: How about electric bills and [00:36:00] utilities, electric and gas? I know, well, I know fuel gas is expensive in, in Spain and in Europe. But how about how about electric and gas for the home? I
[00:36:16] Renato Padilla: think I pay around 60 euros a month in electricity. And and gas, it could be around 80.
[00:36:28] Mark Goldstein: It's more. Yeah, gas is expensive now because of the war with Russia.
[00:36:33] Mark Goldstein: The war. Yeah, that's what I just, in fact, just got off with my my Amsterdam interview. And they said that gas prices have gone up because they used to get their gas from Russia. Yeah. Yes, very cheap. Yes, very cheap. And now that there's the war in Ukraine There's they're not getting the gas from Russia or it's more [00:37:00] expensive
[00:37:01] Renato Padilla: No, they're just not getting it because the European Union decided to ban anything that comes from Russia And it would be a little bit What do you say?
[00:37:12] Renato Padilla: Hypocritical. Hypocritical. from them to ban Russia, everything except
[00:37:21] Mark Goldstein: the gas. Right, right, right. Yeah, I agree. Okay. And how about water, water bills?
[00:37:30] Renato Padilla: I think I, I think we don't pay them. As a tenant, I think
[00:37:36] Mark Goldstein: they're included in the rent. Yeah, it's included.
[00:37:40] Renato Padilla: Okay. But it shouldn't be that much. It shouldn't be that much.
[00:37:43] Renato Padilla: I know my mother lived in a three bedroom apartment in Logroño, a city in other Spain. She pays, every six months, like 150. In water
[00:37:56] Mark Goldstein: and water. Okay. And taxes, [00:38:00] taxes are expensive, right? Because you make me cry every time you remind me. So taxes are high because you get, you get stuff, you get things for your tax money, right?
[00:38:16] Mark Goldstein: So you get medical.
[00:38:19] Renato Padilla: You have an amazing public system, education. You have an amazing public health system. So we have things, we get very, very good things. I think it's even the best in Europe that we have in Spain, the best health.
[00:38:41] Mark Goldstein: I wouldn't doubt it. I really wouldn't doubt it. And we'll get to that, we'll get to healthcare in just a few moments, but does Madrid have an arts and culture scene?
[00:38:52] Mark Goldstein: Like. Do they have live theater, museums? Oh, I know they have museums.
[00:38:59] Renato Padilla: Yeah, a [00:39:00] lot of theaters, a lot of museums, a lot of drag queen scene as well.
[00:39:07] Mark Goldstein: Oh, they do? Yeah. Cool. They don't ban drag queens then? No,
[00:39:14] Renato Padilla: this is not Texas.
[00:39:14] Mark Goldstein: Not like Texas or Florida. Yeah. I shouldn't say that, but, okay. Yeah,
[00:39:22] Renato Padilla: I remember once when I was in my high school, I left my first, my first year, which was my junior year.
[00:39:33] Renato Padilla: And then it happened to be a Texas massive shooting going on. Mm hmm. And instead of banning, they banned drag queens the same week, like during the same week they banned drag queens. Right. And, and the, and the teacher, the teacher's assistant who was from Texas was like I don't know how to [00:40:00] answer because we were 16, 17 years old.
[00:40:03] Renato Padilla: And it was like, what is going on in your country? Like, why, if you have problems. Instead of solving, they banned the drag queens. Like, what is wrong with the drag queens?
[00:40:16] Mark Goldstein: Yep, that's what we keep on asking. And, yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing. I
[00:40:24] Renato Padilla: mean, those are things that, I think that shock, shock anybody who is not from the U.
[00:40:29] Renato Padilla: S.
[00:40:30] Mark Goldstein: Not from the
[00:40:30] Renato Padilla: U. S. Or is not familiar with the U. S. Because We don't have guns. We don't have weapons. We don't have anything. Maybe you could kill someone with a Toothpick
[00:40:41] Mark Goldstein: Right. We'll get to that too. But as far as arts and culture you have movies you have Theater live theater you have opera you have basically everything at your disposal And in available in english, [00:41:00] that's interesting so you can go to a movie Yeah,
[00:41:03] Renato Padilla: I go to watch, I actually, every time I go to watch a movie, I watch them in original language.
[00:41:10] Renato Padilla: It doesn't matter if it's Italian, English, Russian, whatever because they, they project them in the original language. There, there are like two cinemas that project the movies in original language. Wow. And one is two minutes away from my house. So it's
[00:41:26] Mark Goldstein: perfect. That's great. That's great. Okay. And
[00:41:31] Renato Padilla: for the theaters, for the theaters right now, we have the Book of Mormon in English.
[00:41:39] Renato Padilla: You have what? The musical The book. The book of The book of Mormon. Book of Mormon. Cool. The musical, also
[00:41:45] Mark Goldstein: Bible in English. Wow. And that's live theater? Yes, sure. Oh, wow. So you could see live theater in English, who,
[00:41:57] Renato Padilla: I mean, okay. I mean, it seems [00:42:00] Spanish, but you can see the subtitles. Okay. Up there. Like there, there are huge it translates reading screens where it translates everything going on.
[00:42:08] Renato Padilla: Also in the, in the opera. If you go to see Sarzuela, that is a kind of Spanish opera. And you also, you also have access to the English translation of everything going on.
[00:42:22] Mark Goldstein: See, I always wondered about that. You just answered my question because I said, You know what, if I move to Spain, and I'm really, you know, I'm trying to learn the language, and I really don't know the language that well, and I wanted to see like a off Broadway show, like, Book of Mormon, how would I understand what they're saying, you know?
[00:42:44] Mark Goldstein: Yes, you will,
[00:42:45] Renato Padilla: you will. They realized a long time ago that a lot of the public that they get is not from Madrid, so they had to solve it. You will, you will.
[00:42:56] Mark Goldstein: Got it. So when I was in Spain in [00:43:00] 1982, they had bullfights. Is that still something that they have?
[00:43:04] Renato Padilla: Yes, it still exists in Spain, but I think it's like the white elephant, our white elephant.
[00:43:15] Renato Padilla: There, we just ignore it. Because
[00:43:17] Mark Goldstein: people really don't like killing bulls and
[00:43:22] Renato Padilla: yeah. We like eating bulls. I mean, they, they taste nice. They taste, yeah. Yeah, I love, I mean, the bull meat, I like it, but I try not to think about the process.
[00:43:37] Mark Goldstein: Right. Okay. All right. So getting into food, do you like are you like a foodie?
[00:43:45] Mark Goldstein: Could, are there, I'm sure Madrid has, Madrid has wonderful, wonderful restaurants. Tell us a little bit about that. Can you get any type of food, any type of cuisine in [00:44:00] Madrid?
[00:44:01] Renato Padilla: Literally any. Yeah. My favorite ones are the Japanese. The Italian, the French cuisine, and also there, there's a lot of Ethiopian, not only Ethiopian, but from lots of different, Senegal.
[00:44:20] Renato Padilla: Bahweh, a lot of Moroccan, Moroccan restaurants. There, there are two really, really good and authentic Turkish restaurants. There is also a Korean one. I don't really like the Korean style, but I have been to them. They are authentic. So I authentically don't like Korean food. It's a
[00:44:46] Mark Goldstein: reality, which it's how about Spanish food?
[00:44:48] Mark Goldstein: I remember when I was in Madrid, I remember it's, it's so long ago. 1982 is a long
[00:44:56] Renato Padilla: time.
[00:44:58] Mark Goldstein: I [00:45:00] don't remember where I went, but I remember walking through like old Madrid. And, like, there were cobblestone streets, and we were just walking to a restaurant. Now, at that time Franco was still, oh no, Franco just got out of power.
[00:45:25] Renato Padilla: Franco never got out of power, he died.
[00:45:29] Mark Goldstein: Right, right, okay. So he died right before, I think, 82, like a couple of years before? Okay. And if he
[00:45:38] Renato Padilla: died in the 75,
[00:45:41] Mark Goldstein: okay, so when I went in 82, there was still some sort of unrest in Spain because I remember walking through old Madrid and they were like army with green beret and With [00:46:00] their machine guns
[00:46:03] Renato Padilla: at
[00:46:04] Mark Goldstein: the door entrance, at the door entrance, while we were passing, right?
[00:46:09] Mark Goldstein: I don't think so. I don't think it was LGBT friendly anywhere. I didn't even know if I was LGBT or if I was gay back then. I probably knew, but I didn't know what it was or whatever, or maybe it didn't have a name, right? Maybe I did, but we won't talk about that. Okay. So I could still get paella.
[00:46:39] Renato Padilla: You can get anything.
[00:46:41] Renato Padilla: I mean, I mean, if you want the real paella, please
[00:46:44] Mark Goldstein: go to Valencia. Yeah.
[00:46:46] Renato Padilla: But if not, if not, you have. Very, very, very good restaurants that are not that extent. I mean, you can get an amazing dinner for [00:47:00] 30 to 40, 30 to 40 euros per person. I remember. You can also get an amazing lunch, like menu del dia. Yep. Or
[00:47:14] Mark Goldstein: 10, 12, 12, not 10,
[00:47:17] Renato Padilla: but 12 to 15 euros.
[00:47:22] Renato Padilla: You can get a very, very good menu idea, which is the starter, the main dish, the drink, and the dessert.
[00:47:34] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That's incredible. I love that. I really like that. Oh, and I remember, it was the first time, it kind of shocked me too, because in the U. S. I'm not used to this. So when I went and I ordered seafood in Madrid or wherever I was in Spain, like shrimp, they The prawns, they looked back at me, and [00:48:00] they had their eyeballs in there.
[00:48:02] Mark Goldstein: They still had the full fish. Oh, wait.
[00:48:06] Renato Padilla: It's not normal to have the
[00:48:08] Mark Goldstein: full fish? Oh, no. In the U. S., you don't see the, like a shrimp, you don't see eyeballs on the shrimp.
[00:48:16] Renato Padilla: Oh, that's weird. I'm so used to eat it like that.
[00:48:22] Mark Goldstein: That's what I said. When I went to Spain, I was like, They're looking at me. Why are they staring at me and they're dead?
[00:48:32] Mark Goldstein: Because they are,
[00:48:32] Renato Padilla: they are, they are abducting you.
[00:48:36] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, they're judging me and I'm like, I don't want to eat you. And you still eat it. And I still ate them because it was so delicious. It was, it was, I loved it. Yeah, I remember the, the seafood in, in Spain was just really, [00:49:00] really, really good. And now they have tapas.
[00:49:04] Mark Goldstein: I don't even think tapas was invented back then. When I was there
[00:49:10] Renato Padilla: Maybe there, maybe they were invented, let's, yeah, I
[00:49:13] Mark Goldstein: don't think so, I think that became a new thing, I don't know when that, in the 90s or 2000s maybe, but tapas is very, I don't know if it's, is it common in Madrid as well as in Casa de, like Malaga?
[00:49:32] Renato Padilla: Okay, so it seems to be that the tapas exist in Spain since the 13th century.
[00:49:38] Mark Goldstein: Oh, okay. So it didn't come to the U. S. for a while, it wasn't, it wasn't popular in the U. S.
[00:49:46] Renato Padilla: Probably it didn't go to the U.
[00:49:48] Mark Goldstein: S. And then we copied you or somebody went to Spain and said, Oh my God, this is really good. Maybe we can sell this in the U.
[00:49:55] Mark Goldstein: S. Little plates. Ah.
[00:49:59] Renato Padilla: Yeah. I don't know. [00:50:00] Yeah, but probably you did something different because in Spain what we do is you go to a restaurant, you get your drink and they serve you the tapa for free. So that's the idea of the tapa, to accompany what you are drinking. So it's normal that maybe you're not paying the real price.
[00:50:15] Renato Padilla: You're not paying the two euros that it values the, the beer, but you are paying four or five euros for the beer, but you have tapa. So nobody, nobody cares if there's an overprice in the beer or drink or whatever because you're getting tapas.
[00:50:32] Mark Goldstein: So the difference is in the U. S. you're paying for your drink and you're paying for your tapas.
[00:50:38] Mark Goldstein: And you're
[00:50:39] Renato Padilla: paying 20 percent for
[00:50:40] Mark Goldstein: the 20 for tapas.
[00:50:45] Renato Padilla: Plus 20 percent for tips.
[00:50:47] Mark Goldstein: Oh yeah. 20 percent for tips. And again, we don't
[00:50:53] Renato Padilla: keep in Spain. Don't fit in Spain. Like it's not normal. Like it doesn't happen. We don't [00:51:00] have. And they're like, there are regulations about work, which people can arrive to the end of the month with their salary.
[00:51:07] Renato Padilla: So we don't need to obligate the client to give us
[00:51:13] Mark Goldstein: it. So they pay their workers a proper wage. to live. So they don't require, they don't require the 20 percent tip. And another thing, tell me about, so let's say I'm, I'm sitting at a, at a restaurant in Madrid and I'm finished and I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for my bill for my check.
[00:51:45] Mark Goldstein: They will never come over? No.
[00:51:50] Renato Padilla: Unless you ask. You need to ask La Cuenta, por favor, because it is extremely impolite to just [00:52:00] give you the bill because it means that they are kicking you out of the restaurant and what kind of bastard would kick you out of a restaurant?
[00:52:08] Mark Goldstein: In the US, they do that all the time.
[00:52:12] Mark Goldstein: So they want to turn over as many tables as possible. So they're like, Oh, what can I get you? Could I get you dessert? Is that all here? Here's the check. Bye bye. It's different in the U. S. So in
[00:52:25] Renato Padilla: the U. S. You do the reservation of the table. Yes. It takes me around 15 to 20 minutes to eat. And it's extremely quickly.
[00:52:35] Renato Padilla: Maybe 30 minutes. I take as much as possible. But when you reserve on the restaurant, on the website, you know, the fork. You know what? The fork, it's an app that you use to do reservations. Oh, okay. It's very common in Europe. We use this app, the fork, and Usually it gives you a time between an hour and a half [00:53:00] to two hours.
[00:53:01] Renato Padilla: So if I want to do a reservation, for example, 2 p. m., the app blocks that table from 2 p. m. to 3, 30, even 4 p. m. because you're paying.
[00:53:20] Mark Goldstein: Okay, so the difference is in the U. S. you make a reservation for 2 p. m. 2 p. m. is it so let's say you get in at 2 p. m. you have your meal and maybe by 3 you're out. By 3? Yeah, maybe.
[00:53:45] Mark Goldstein: And when do
[00:53:45] Renato Padilla: you have time to do the chat, like we go to a restaurant? Not to eat, but for the,
[00:53:53] Mark Goldstein: for social, social. Oh, we chat while we're eating. So [00:54:00] yeah, we get indigestion. We, everything is quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, fast, fast,
[00:54:06] Renato Padilla: fast. Which is also nice for your insurance because you, they don't first get more money and everything is about money,
[00:54:14] Mark Goldstein: right?
[00:54:15] Mark Goldstein: Everything is, is about money. So that's the difference. So I like to highlight that stuff because it's so interesting. I love the way that the Europeans do things. Okay. We learned about restaurants. Let's talk about public transportation. I know in Spain, they have local trains. They have high speed bullet trains that go to different cities.
[00:54:48] Mark Goldstein: In fact, when I was going to go to Malaga. I was going to fly into Madrid and then take a fast train, [00:55:00] I forget, directly to Malaga? I think they have one. Either that or Valencia. I was going to go to Valencia too and they have a train from, they have a train from Madrid to anywhere.
[00:55:13] Renato Padilla: Yes, that's, that's how it works, basically, because of our location in the map, you can go from anywhere, extremely easy to arrive anywhere.
[00:55:25] Mark Goldstein: And I know there was, I forgot the name of the station. There is a specific Atocha. Yes. That was it. Because I had, I looked it up, I googled it, I said, how could I get from the airport To Malaga. And they said, Oh, Toca train goes, that's where you got to
[00:55:46] Renato Padilla: go. Yeah. Good news. If you are, if you are over 65, the public transportation is for free.
[00:55:55] Renato Padilla: Yeah. When, but when I say the public [00:56:00] transportation, I mean, only in the local transportation, which is still a lot, a lot, and it works amazingly well. But. Maybe you don't even need it because we do everything by
[00:56:13] Mark Goldstein: foot. You could walk. That's another thing I wanted to talk about. Yeah, so Everything is walkable, right?
[00:56:20] Mark Goldstein: Yes. So you could walk to the market and buy food? Or Okay, cause here It's different. I mean, I walk. You have to take a
[00:56:30] Renato Padilla: car. Five, five minutes, maybe. No, maybe less, like three minutes to
[00:56:34] Mark Goldstein: the market. Everything in the U. S. is car centric. Everything is a car.
[00:56:41] Renato Padilla: I don't even have the car license, so you can't even.
[00:56:45] Mark Goldstein: Okay, so you could walk to the market. Can you walk to the drugstore pharmacy, Pharmacia? Sure. Okay, can you walk to the doctor?
[00:56:57] Renato Padilla: Yes, you
[00:56:58] Mark Goldstein: can walk to the hospital. [00:57:00] See, this is what I, this is what I need. This is what, this is my dream of a type of place to live. Because I hate to drive, and there's so much traffic.
[00:57:16] Mark Goldstein: In the U S in certain cities that it's just insane. So if I could walk like picture where I live, I could walk us. I live in a major, well, I live in a Midtown downtown area. So I could walk to just a few restaurants, maybe one, two, three restaurants. I'm lucky that I have a pharmacy in my building. I can't walk to the grocery store.
[00:57:50] Mark Goldstein: I can't walk. You need a car. So
[00:57:57] Renato Padilla: in my case, I don't know how to drive. I don't [00:58:00] have a driver's license. I would be very fucked up in the US.
[00:58:06] Mark Goldstein: Okay. You could walk to almost everything in, in Madrid and for the things that you can't walk, you take the subway or you take the metro. I mean,
[00:58:19] Renato Padilla: you can walk for everything. You, you just take the metro.
[00:58:22] Renato Padilla: If you want to take that specific restaurant that you like, that is extremely far. But it's your choice to go to the restaurant because in your neighborhood, you have maybe 30, 50 restaurants, so you are just going to another neighborhood by public transportation. Because you want that one.
[00:58:44] Mark Goldstein: Wow. Do they have Uber?
[00:58:48] Renato Padilla: Yes. And it actually is pretty cheap.
[00:58:52] Mark Goldstein: Uber is cheap?
[00:58:54] Renato Padilla: Yes. We pay like seven euros.
[00:58:57] Mark Goldstein: Oh, wow. [00:59:00] Wow. That's great. And you have the rest. Okay. So is there a lot of traffic? Like with the people that do drive, is there a lot of traffic in Madrid?
[00:59:12] Renato Padilla: Yes, it's not a city for, it's not a city that has been built for cars.
[00:59:18] Renato Padilla: By the way, I have just double checked. In Spain, restaurants, we have 9, 000, let's say 10, 000, 10, 000 restaurants in Madrid.
[00:59:31] Mark Goldstein: And we have In
[00:59:32] Renato Padilla: Madrid alone? In Madrid alone, we have 10, 000 restaurants.
[00:59:41] Mark Goldstein: Holy moly. That's crazy. That's an, that's like five on every block.
[00:59:52] Renato Padilla: Actually it's Madrid has a bar for each 211. [01:00:00] Habitants.
[01:00:02] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That's a, that's an amazing amount of, of bars. Wow. And, okay. Yeah. And you have buses as well as trains,
[01:00:14] Renato Padilla: buses, train, metro
[01:00:18] Mark Goldstein: yeah. Airport. How, how close is the airport to where you live?
[01:00:23] Renato Padilla: I, I mean, if I am in a rush. I pick an, an Uber, and the, the Uber is gonna charge me around 18 to 20 Euros, and it will take during the, during the night, because if I take an Uber to go to the airports, because it's very, maybe two, 3:00 AM and it'll take around 17 to 80 minutes. Wow. Maximum 20 minutes.
[01:00:53] Renato Padilla: And if it's during the day, then yes, it could take like 30 minutes.
[01:00:59] Mark Goldstein: How [01:01:00] far is like the Atocha State train station to you?
[01:01:03] Renato Padilla: It's 20, 20 minutes walking from my house. Okay.
[01:01:09] Mark Goldstein: Okay.
[01:01:11] Renato Padilla: And if you take, for example, Sol, which is the central, the central point to Atocha, it will take you probably 20 to 25 minutes to be there in Atocha.
[01:01:25] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That's great. So if you work, is it important to live by your work or does it matter because there's so much train, there's so many different options for transportation?
[01:01:42] Renato Padilla: I mean, Me personally, I live five minutes walking from my place of work. Convening. If you can, if you can avoid leaving an hour by metro.
[01:01:56] Renato Padilla: work, then it's better. It's yeah, [01:02:00] I think it's better to use because it's another boy in another bag. It's two hours that you're wasting every day. So if you can leave nearby your place of work, that's ideal. But if not, it's very easy to arrive from. One point to another to
[01:02:19] Mark Goldstein: another. Great. All right, let's get into the crime.
[01:02:23] Mark Goldstein: So Madrid is a big city and all big cities have some sort of crime. Well, I feel safe if I lived in Madrid as far as I'm comparing to a city in the United States, such as Phoenix, where I live. So here in Phoenix. We allow guns, of course and it's, I know you're going to say why, and I don't want to get into it because I don't have that, I mean, I have the answer, but do I agree with it?
[01:02:57] Mark Goldstein: No, but anyway [01:03:00] so I know that guns are not allowed in the EU, well, most parts of the EU, but in Spain, they're not allowed. Would I feel safe? Living in Spain. I know. I guess there's crime of opportunity pickpockets.
[01:03:19] Renato Padilla: Mm-Hmm. . I mean, it's quite common if you are in the metro station, which is, by the way, they are amazing metro stations.
[01:03:29] Renato Padilla: We have the pickpockets are, they are beautiful metro stations. Yeah. And the pickpockets are there and, but I think in Barcelona, the pick pocket. More a problem than Madrid. I think that all my friends suffered pickpocket in Madrid, not me. I, in my case personally, I forgot my wallet with my credit card, my credit card, my d how you say, green card with my permission to live in Spain with my European green card.
[01:03:58] Renato Padilla: So [01:04:00] everything, I left it in the metro. I forgot it. It was midnight and. Someone reported that and they called me, they directly called me like, Hey, by the way, here's your stuff. Could you come by the police station? Because someone has has come with all your stuff. So please
[01:04:18] Mark Goldstein: come. Did they take your money?
[01:04:20] Mark Goldstein: Your cash?
[01:04:22] Renato Padilla: I didn't have cash.
[01:04:25] Renato Padilla: I never have cash. I mean, I thought it's
[01:04:28] Mark Goldstein: very rare. It's not a common withdrawal. Is that a common thing that somebody might turn it in if you lost it or no, I think it's not
[01:04:39] Renato Padilla: common. I think no, I think it's the common thing
[01:04:43] Mark Goldstein: to return. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, yeah. In the United States, you lose your wallet, you could forget it.
[01:04:54] Mark Goldstein: You're calling all your banks, stop my debit card, stop my credit card, you're [01:05:00] calling your driver, you know, the MVD for the driver's license, you have to replace everything.
[01:05:06] Renato Padilla: Yeah, it's rare, nobody
[01:05:10] Mark Goldstein: reports. No shootings, no mass shootings, because guns are illegal.
[01:05:16] Renato Padilla: I mean, they could knock you to, to steal your, your wallet, but it's like, it's just your wallet.
[01:05:26] Renato Padilla: If they, if, if you know that you are one person against free just to them, whatever.
[01:05:34] Mark Goldstein: I remember seeing a YouTube. There's there's a guy that does YouTubes that he was from New Zealand and his wife is from Spain and they live there and I remember he. was in a tapas bar or in a bar and he left his camera in a bag with all of his stuff and just put it down on the bar and in a snap [01:06:00] second somebody Took it and stole it, and it was over a thousand dollars worth or a thousand euros worth
[01:06:09] Renato Padilla: of stuff.
[01:06:10] Renato Padilla: I mean, please don't leave your stuff that looks like a thousand euros on the table with a cartel with a little sign that says, Please Steal
[01:06:22] Mark Goldstein: Me.
[01:06:23] Renato Padilla: I mean, don't be steely or innocent or I don't know how to describe it. If you don't expose yourself. Nothing's going to happen, just
[01:06:33] Mark Goldstein: don't expose yourself.
[01:06:34] Mark Goldstein: Right, right, gotcha. Okay and pretty much I'll feel safe going out walking my dog if I had to in the middle of the night? For sure, for sure.
[01:06:45] Renato Padilla: Yeah, I go out at 2 or 3 a. m. Like, I go to party and I go back to my place alone at 4, 5 in the morning.
[01:06:55] Mark Goldstein: And you feel safe. Sure. Well, [01:07:00] that's different than here because.
[01:07:02] Renato Padilla: I mean, I can always scream if something is happening, I can always scream. And there is always people around. It doesn't matter if it's 3 AM, 2 AM. 5 p. m. If I scream, people would help me.
[01:07:18] Mark Goldstein: And how about women? Like, women feel safe too, right? Walking at night? Yes. That's interesting. Very interesting. It's different.
[01:07:28] Mark Goldstein: So we're, we have a different mentality as far as that's concerned.
[01:07:35] Renato Padilla: And supposedly you were a colony of the UK, so you are meant to be As European as we are.
[01:07:44] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, I don't know what went wrong. The money. Everybody's money hungry. Okay. Tell us a little bit about healthcare. Let's Do you think there are enough doctors to accommodate the population in Madrid?
[01:07:59] Mark Goldstein: [01:08:00] For doctors, is it a long wait for doctors?
[01:08:05] Renato Padilla: I have a private insurance, so in my case, I, I just need to call the doctor literally on like this, on a video call. I see the doctor, he sees me. I don't even need to go to the center. And if he sees that it's not as easy as, I don't know receive antibiotic something or just get these medicine, you'll be fine.
[01:08:31] Renato Padilla: If it's something more serious, then it would be like. Okay, so come to the emergency and maybe take like two or two, three hours waiting, or maybe it could take 30 minutes. It depends. Or for example, if I need a specialist, probably I don't get it today, but I can get it tomorrow. Tomorrow or next week, the
[01:08:58] Mark Goldstein: latest [01:09:00] and that's private insurance,
[01:09:01] Renato Padilla: private insurance.
[01:09:02] Renato Padilla: And if you want the public insurance it depends father, he got a stroke. He was in intensive care for 31 days and we paid nine euros. Because there was one medicine that wasn't totally covered, so it was covered like 95 percent of the medicine, so we had to pay euros because it was full of cover, and that's it.
[01:09:27] Renato Padilla: So probably in the U. S. I would have paid something like 10, 000 a day or something like that. So I had to. sell my soul and
[01:09:39] Mark Goldstein: You're you're right It's sad that people could go bankrupt because of health care here in the u. s so Okay so for expats In order to get a visa, you need private healthcare for at least a year, am I correct? Yes,
[01:09:59] Renato Padilla: for at least [01:10:00] a year, yeah.
[01:10:01] Mark Goldstein: Okay, and then after a year I'm entitled to go on to the public system, which since I have not paid into the public system, I have to pay depending upon how old I am.
[01:10:13] Mark Goldstein: So if I'm over 60, 65 or 60. Can't remember. I think I paid double in Spain. I pay like 170 a month, if I'm not mistaken, per person for the public.
[01:10:30] Renato Padilla: Approximately.
[01:10:31] Mark Goldstein: For the public and private could be anything. But private. Because
[01:10:38] Renato Padilla: it depends a lot on your, on your condition. I mean, it's not the same. You are a high risk patient, that is.
[01:10:46] Mark Goldstein: So what I understand though, the pub, the private, they don't accept pre existing conditions, which is an issue. But let's say I have a pre existing [01:11:00] condition with my heart, I can't get private coverage, or I have to pay out of pocket.
[01:11:06] Renato Padilla: Pay out of pocket. I mean, they won't let you die, but if it is a pre existing condition, Even
[01:11:16] Mark Goldstein: if I go to a public
[01:11:18] Renato Padilla: hospital?
[01:11:19] Renato Padilla: No, no, not the public hospital.
[01:11:22] Mark Goldstein: Okay, so let's say I'm The public is public. Alright, so let's say it's my first year, and I don't have public insurance, or I don't have public healthcare, yet. I only have private. I have a heart attack. So they rushed me to a hospital. Is there public and private hospitals?
[01:11:47] Renato Padilla: No, there are public hospitals and private hospitals.
[01:11:51] Renato Padilla: You have both of them.
[01:11:53] Mark Goldstein: Oh, there's two different kind of hospitals? Yeah,
[01:11:55] Renato Padilla: you have the private
[01:11:56] Mark Goldstein: one and the public one. So if [01:12:00] I, so if I have
[01:12:01] Renato Padilla: They are very human here. If you are suffering a heart attack, nobody would even think about taking you to the, to the private hospital. I mean, the first thing we would do is call the ambulance, which is for free.
[01:12:16] Renato Padilla: We would call the ambulance and say, there is a, there is a man suffering a heart attack in the bar. So please come. It will arrive within two minutes. And then they take you to the, to the, how
[01:12:30] Mark Goldstein: can you do that again? ?
[01:12:34] Renato Padilla: Yeah. So they'll take you to the, to the public hospital and I don't even know if you, if you have to pay anything.
[01:12:44] Renato Padilla: I mean, I should double check and
[01:12:48] Mark Goldstein: I Probably not. Or something minimal because healthcare is, is a right. In Spain, it's not a privilege. Is [01:13:00] that right? Yeah,
[01:13:02] Renato Padilla: yeah, it's a right, not a privilege,
[01:13:07] Renato Padilla: which I think is the rule. I mean, I don't see Anything about, anything about paying for the, for the thing that you're
[01:13:20] Mark Goldstein: I would think you're right. I don't think if it was that kind of an emergency, I think they would rush me to a public hospital and just do what they have to do. And then I say, okay, how much do I owe you?
[01:13:38] Mark Goldstein: And they're like, what is that? Oh, what? Oh, you don't owe anything. Or two dollars. For whatever. I don't know. That's what I'm thinking. I don't know. Yeah.
[01:13:52] Renato Padilla: Yeah. I mean, it, it just seems it just, I hear like, so weird that they would even try to ask [01:14:00] for money. It's like, you just survived a heart attack. What else do you need?
[01:14:04] Renato Padilla: Another heart attack?
[01:14:06] Mark Goldstein: Right from the seeing a bill. Do they have state of the art hospitals in Madrid? I would think so, right? Do they have what? Like, state of the art hospitals. Like, high tech hospitals. Really up to date. This is Europe,
[01:14:24] Renato Padilla: for sure.
[01:14:26] Mark Goldstein: Okay. Okay. They wouldn't have to ship me back to the US.
[01:14:31] Mark Goldstein: They could do whatever they could do in Madrid.
[01:14:37] Renato Padilla: Yeah, also for some expats that it could be that even in the LGBT community that some of them are their 60s, but they have their children because before they were married to a woman and then they discover, rediscover themselves when they were in the 50s, it happens.
[01:14:55] Renato Padilla: If they want to come here with their children or anything. If you want to do [01:15:00] university, how much do you think it costs the whole, the whole four years of, of your career? Let's say for example, me, I want to study modern languages, which is four years, a four years degree. How much do you think I would pay yearly for that university?
[01:15:17] Mark Goldstein: 30, 000 euro?
[01:15:20] Renato Padilla: A thousand and fifty.
[01:15:23] Mark Goldstein: Oh,
[01:15:23] Renato Padilla: wow. So my whole, my whole thing, my whole degree would cost me.
[01:15:33] Mark Goldstein: It's amazing. And here in the U. S. it's so different that people can't afford to pay back their loans, their student loans. That's another big thing here. Because they have tremendous amounts of student loans, 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars. And that's right before they even, get a job. They're graduating [01:16:00] university and they have this big bill, you know, over their heads.
[01:16:05] Renato Padilla: And I work, I mean, we have a very good quality, everything. I just don't see why we should pay more than, more than that.
[01:16:17] Mark Goldstein: All right. And I like it. I like it a lot. Okay. What do you wish that you that you don't have in Madrid that you might've had elsewhere? Do you miss anything like that you had in Bolivia or in Japan that you don't have in Madrid? I
[01:16:38] Renato Padilla: miss my family and my friends from my whole life that are in Bolivia.
[01:16:43] Renato Padilla: So I just came back from Bolivia and it was refreshing for me to see all these family, all these friends that I grew up with. So I think it's a pity I cannot share all these adventures and things [01:17:00] and experiences with them. You I think it's part of being an expert. Such a shame. I we can, we are not in Montana and get the best of, of both
[01:17:11] Mark Goldstein: worlds.
[01:17:12] Mark Goldstein: Right. How far is Bolivia from Madrid? Like an hour? Not, not that far.
[01:17:17] Renato Padilla: It's 12
[01:17:18] Mark Goldstein: hours away. Not too bad. 'cause it would take and there and
[01:17:22] Renato Padilla: there's direct flag from Madrid to my city.
[01:17:28] Mark Goldstein: Okay. Cause from the West coast of the United States to Europe to like Madrid, it'd probably be with connections and everything, 17 hours. Oh, but you need
[01:17:43] Renato Padilla: connections.
[01:17:44] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Where I am. So we have to connect somewhere. Unless if, if I was on the East coast out of New York where I used to live, I could go probably.
[01:17:55] Mark Goldstein: non stop to Madrid, but not from where I am in [01:18:00] Phoenix. I have to stop somewhere in the country in the mid, either mid or on the East
[01:18:04] Renato Padilla: coast. Okay. Because Madrid is very well connected. So if I want to go Madrid, Brazil, Madrid, Bolivia, Madrid, Peru, Madrid, Chile, direct flights, non stop flights, so I shouldn't even need to worry about connecting.
[01:18:18] Mark Goldstein: Nice, nice. Okay, so do you, besides family, you don't miss anything? I have everything
[01:18:28] Renato Padilla: here, so it's like, I mean, I think, I mean, whatever I miss, I'm sure it's here.
[01:18:34] Mark Goldstein: It's here. You have a, you have a good point, Renato. All right. So let's also, do you know how to obtain a visa? Sure. What kind? Okay. So let's. Many kinds of visa.
[01:18:55] Mark Goldstein: So let's talk, since our audience are probably more [01:19:00] retirement visa. Non
[01:19:02] Renato Padilla: lucrative, I guess.
[01:19:04] Mark Goldstein: Non lucrative visa. Yes. And can you tell us briefly what the rules are there and how do I get one?
[01:19:14] Renato Padilla: Yeah. So you need to show that you have money in your bank account, a certain amount of money that is different every year.
[01:19:24] Renato Padilla: But it totally depends. I mean, the information is public. You can check it on it. But let's say that you're coming with your partner. So maybe you will need to show 30, 30 to 40 K. For both of you to prove that you can live without depending on the Spanish states because the only thing that that they don't want is you to ask for money to the Spanish state nothing else so you
[01:19:52] Mark Goldstein: don't want to be a burden
[01:19:54] Renato Padilla: yes so if you come here with your money you're paying private insurance and [01:20:00] you you do you so it's totally fine they will get they will leave the visa easily.
[01:20:08] Renato Padilla: It's really easy actually for the American people to get visa to come to, to, to Spain. They just need to do it in there. They just need to follow the right steps to Spain.
[01:20:19] Mark Goldstein: Which is usually the consulate within the United States. That's where you start from. Yes.
[01:20:24] Renato Padilla: Yes. First consulate. You ask what are your requirements?
[01:20:28] Renato Padilla: You get all the requirements together. You present your dossier. And then it starts.
[01:20:36] Mark Goldstein: So let's say my husband has a pension. I have, I'm going to be collecting social security. I'm still working right now, but let's say I stopped working and I collect social security. So I have that income. Plus I have savings and like, you know, retirement savings.
[01:20:57] Mark Goldstein: Would that be.
[01:20:58] Renato Padilla: That's more than [01:21:00] enough. Okay. That's more than an average Spanish person has.
[01:21:06] Mark Goldstein: Okay, because my social security Again, I've been we've been paying since I was started working when I was 17 years old and now I am 66 so I've been paying into the social security system in the United States all these years.
[01:21:25] Mark Goldstein: So now when it's time to collect social security, I should have a decent amount per month, you know? Yeah.
[01:21:34] Renato Padilla: I mean, taking into account that people make 1200, 1300 a month in here. So you can, if you can get, let's say 2000 per person, you can live a good life in Spain. So you as a couple Thank you. 4, 000, 4 to 5, 4 to 5, 000 monthly, but [01:22:00] you are going to have a very good life.
[01:22:05] Mark Goldstein: Just trying to think in my head and monthly between both.
[01:22:10] Renato Padilla: So it means 60K per yearly per month.
[01:22:15] Mark Goldstein: How much?
[01:22:16] Renato Padilla: 60k per
[01:22:17] Mark Goldstein: year. 60k per year for both. And I think if you're married. For having a very good life. It's not really double, but what they ask for the visa. No, I mean, I mean,
[01:22:29] Renato Padilla: it's not double, but I am saying like a very high amount.
[01:22:32] Renato Padilla: Like, you are not going to spend, you are not going to spend that much. Imagine your rent is 1. 5 if you're if it's only the two of you, you don't you can get 1. 5 a place a you spend, let's say, a thousand restaurants because we're really a food and everything that that's 2. 5. If you want to travel around, [01:23:00] around Europe once a month, because you're not going to do it every, every week, you spend on that month trip, other thousand, like an amazing trip, hotel and.
[01:23:13] Renato Padilla: In flight tickets, because for flight tickets, I do travel like every, every two weeks, sometimes every week, and I pay like 50 euros going back my Madrid, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt in Germany, Madrid, Lisbon for 30 years going back. So that's great. So that quantity of money so much that you wouldn't, you wouldn't even know how to spend it in
[01:23:39] Mark Goldstein: Spain.
[01:23:40] Mark Goldstein: That's great. Yeah. Cost of living. It's pretty good. Okay. And I know briefly different, I don't know if you know this, but different parts of Spain have, well, I know, you know, that each part of Spain is its own [01:24:00] autonomous region. Yes. It's very
[01:24:02] Renato Padilla: similar to if there are laws that you have.
[01:24:06] Mark Goldstein: So each autonomous region might have their own.
[01:24:10] Mark Goldstein: rules and laws. So when it comes to taxes or wealth tax, some autonomous regions may charge you wealth tax. Some autonomous regions may not. Yes. Okay. And the same thing goes with inheritance tax. So people have to be aware that different parts of Spain have different rules as far as inheritance tax.
[01:24:37] Mark Goldstein: So definitely speak to lawyer about that as well. Yeah, because
[01:24:42] Renato Padilla: there are so many regions that I mean, it doesn't make any sense that I give any information because whatever I say is only valid for Madrid nowadays. It may
[01:24:54] Mark Goldstein: change in six months. Right. And isn't there, I don't know if there's like 32 autonomous [01:25:00] regions.
[01:25:00] Mark Goldstein: I'm not sure how many. There's a lot of them. All right. So living there for many years in Spain, I should say. Are there any cons of living there?
[01:25:16] Renato Padilla: How
[01:25:18] Mark Goldstein: about bureaucracy? We haven't spoken about that. Like
[01:25:24] Renato Padilla: Spanish. That's
[01:25:26] Mark Goldstein: true. You have an advantage. So big
[01:25:32] Renato Padilla: advantage. And when my friends and students, they need my help, I just go with them and translate, or they just call me when they are, when they are with the the officer. I just translate. So I don't really, I mean, I cannot really see.
[01:25:50] Renato Padilla: For a non non Spanish speaker experts or how they feel about that. But in my case, it's not that difficult. I just go and solve it and everything [01:26:00] is easy. But I, I do realize that they don't speak English. So when I go a lot of times it takes me. To twice the time that I meant to be there because I tried to be kind and help some other expats that are there and they figured out what's going on and they don't know even where to start to fill the documents.
[01:26:21] Renato Padilla: You know, I think in that kind of situation, the language is. Extremely
[01:26:27] Mark Goldstein: important. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's so much bureaucracy and I hear stories where you can go to the office to get a document and then they say, Oh, you need this. So you come back with that, what they asked for, and then they ask you for another, another document.
[01:26:45] Mark Goldstein: And that keeps on happening. Very common, very common. And yeah, frustrating, especially for people in the U. S. Oh my God, we have no patience for anything.
[01:26:56] Renato Padilla: If you come to Spain, you need to learn patience.
[01:26:58] Mark Goldstein: Yes, yes, I [01:27:00] know that.
[01:27:00] Renato Padilla: Because you cannot solve things with money, so there's nothing U. S. unique in here.
[01:27:06] Renato Padilla: Everything works on its own. You just need time,
[01:27:11] Mark Goldstein: time, time and patience. So Renato in wrapping up, what would you say to our audience if they were thinking on relocating to Madrid?
[01:27:26] Renato Padilla: I would highly recommend them to have a session with specifically a taxes lawyer, because I think it's very important for these American people to know what's going to happen with their money if they move here.
[01:27:41] Renato Padilla: Because I think it would be a shock if they move here and they realize that 25 percent of their inheritance is gone or something like that. So I think they, they should. Consider every aspect before relocating, [01:28:00] the taxes, the health, the language, try to start learning Spanish. If you can start since you since you even consider Spain, like you want to move here in two or three years, start now.
[01:28:16] Renato Padilla: So you are not going to be stopped when you are up here. So I think if Spain told me something that the longer, takes you to plan, the better the result is. I wouldn't recommend to anybody to come to Madrid just because it's a nice place. Right. Maybe because, because it's sunny, you can get a sunny place in Bali or Cyprus or Greece or whatever.
[01:28:41] Renato Padilla: If they choose Spain, they need to know why they are choosing and consider all the options because there is an amazing lifestyle, very healthy food. A price is very affordable for American [01:29:00] people, a very, very friendly LGBTQ people around like. If they are straight, it doesn't matter. Nobody cares, whatever you do is your business.
[01:29:13] Renato Padilla: So nobody's going to do anything. So those are the good things and the bad things. I mean, at least for me, that's great advice. I pay a lot of them. And also if, if you have your money in the U. S. and you're going to spend it with your car in here. Don't move your money, like keep it in the U. S. and come to Madrid and spend out of your debit card.
[01:29:38] Renato Padilla: As you didn't transfer the money, you are not paying taxes on the money that you have in Spain. So there is like a few things. You just need to use the logic, not
[01:29:48] Mark Goldstein: rocket, it's not
[01:29:49] Renato Padilla: rocket science, there is a lot of things that you can figure out by
[01:29:54] Mark Goldstein: yourself. That's great, that's great advice. And you, my [01:30:00] friend, are an amazing person.
[01:30:02] Mark Goldstein: You're 22 years old and accomplished what people dream about accomplishing in their lifetime. You know, in a lifetime. So kudos to you. And I hope you your dreams and goals come true and you're able to retire at 25. Like your plan. I hope your business is successful. And speaking of business, where can our audience find you now?
[01:30:36] Mark Goldstein: You only do, you only teach Spanish in Spain, correct? You don't do anything online. We do
[01:30:43] Renato Padilla: online. We have, actually we have lots of our students that we have never met in person.
[01:30:48] Mark Goldstein: Oh, oh. So where, where could our audience find you? What's your website?
[01:30:55] Renato Padilla: It is www dot Spanish [01:31:00] 360 ES.
[01:31:06] Mark Goldstein: Www? Yes. Okay, so you said Spanish 360. Spanish
[01:31:13] Renato Padilla: 360 X-E-E-S-E-E-S.
[01:31:18] Mark Goldstein: Right. Espania. Yeah. Great. Well, we're gonna take a look at your website and Thank you. Yeah. I hope our people that are, our audience that are intending to move to not only Madrid, but all parts of Spain I mean, the internet has no borders, so Oh, sure.
[01:31:42] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Speak to Renato.
[01:31:46] Renato Padilla: Thank
[01:31:46] Mark Goldstein: you. You're very welcome. And thank you so much for taking the time to speaking to our audience today. It's been very educational. I learned a lot. And we'll speak again. [01:32:00] Sure. Whenever you need. Renato. There you go. Bye bye now. Bye bye.
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