u/Intelligent_Ninja461

I have no idea where to post this, but I'm a Verizon customer and this seems as good of a place as any. So, here it goes...

I live in the US and am getting mutiple political spam messages a day. It has been getting worse over the last few months and it will only get worse still as we get closer to midterms. I understand that political messages aren't spam under federal regs and are legal if you opt into them (which many people do unknowingly).

The thing is, none of them are addressed to me--they are all addressed to my mom ("Hi, [Mother's Name]!"). So, it doesn't seem like I personaly opted into something. And I have had this number for 25 years. In that time nobody else has used it. For the first 10 years, I was on a family plan with my parents. We split the account 15 years ago, and I've had my own account for this number and have been paying the bills ever since. And the political text messages to my mother only started a few years ago and, again, are getting worse. So, it's not like she agreed to something when we were on the same plan/account.

Replying "STOP," reporting the messages as spam, and blocking the numbers doesn't seem to do anything. It's not the end of the world, but I'm absolutely sick of getting text messages "from" JD Vance and company telling me that the country is going to collapse if I don't donate $10...

Any ideas on how this happened in the first place? Any ideas on how to get it to stop beyond the above?

I'm a healthy, active, single, white male in my late 30s who has traveled a fair amount, is pretty cosmopolitan, and has been a nomad before. I'm retiring in a few months and am going to be nomadic for a year or two. I plan on living in a few places during this time, but would like to be in each place for at least three months. I like urban environments, but I'm also into the outdoors--especially the ocean, though that's not a dealbreaker. So, I could go either way there. I'm very adventurous, so am open to most ideas. I speak English and decent Spanish, but going somewhere where I speak the language isn't a dealbreaker if there are other English or Spanish speakers or I can get by with learning some basics + Google translate. I will not need to work, so that's not an issue. My main concerns are making friends and dating as being nomadic can otherwise get lonely.

I'd ideally spend about $10K/month, though could spend more. I recognize that it's possible to live decently nearly anywhere on that budget, but I'm curious about both: (1) places that are cheap, where I could have a ridiculous lifestyle; and (2) more expensive places that are nonetheless awesome and worth the money.

I'm looking for recommendations both for me based on the description above and I'm also just curious what you would do. I have some thoughts, of course, but want to get unbiased recs.

(FYI, I'm not interested in the U.S., anywhere in Quintana Roo MX, or Medellin. Been there. Done that.)