This website is for you if one or more of the following is true:
 |
| Enjoying retirement together |
- You would like to live very well, but also save a lot of money (not mutually exclusive!)
- You are retired but are having trouble making ends meet where you live today.
- You are one of many "baby boomers" who are worried about being able to retire with enough money to live well.
- You are thinking of early retirement and want to evaluate living abroad where you can live a better lifestyle less expensively.
- Your means of employment requires no business travel and you now (or could) do your job/work entirely from home using a telephone and the internet.
- You have never visited Latin America and are curious about what it would be like to live there.
- You are interested in learning about the pluses and minuses of living in different locations in Latin America.
- You are a U.S. citizen currently living in Latin America and would like to share your experiences with others.
The day you have been waiting for.
You've worked hard. You have earned that pension. You are looking forward to getting back all the (Social Security) money you have been paying your uncle (Sam). Between your 401k, IRA, savings accounts and home equity, you have a tidy retirement fund tucked away in safety to allow you to live your life in luxury.
Or do you?
Financial readiness for retirement
- It is ironic that the United States, the great land of opportunity that it is, has become not just a place to earn a living, but a place that, for many, is UNAFORDABLE to retire unless you continue to work.
- Increasingly, for many Americans, the dream of retirement has become a "bursted bubble" like the recent debacle on Wall Street.
- There is no $700 billion government sponsored bailout for retirees who perhaps borrowed too much to live the dream and saved too little to avoid a retirement nightmare.
Retirement confidence survey results
Americans’ confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement has dropped to its lowest level in seven years, reflecting worries about health costs, the economy, and home values - according to the 18th annual Retirement Confidence Survey® (RCS), conducted by Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc.
However, this decreased confidence does not appear to have affected the way most Americans plan and save for retirement. Moreover, the Retirement Survey finds that faulty assumptions still hinder a realistic assessment of the preparations needed to ensure a financially secure retirement.
The Retirement Survey also reveals additional details about the unfortunate situation many are facing today: Fifty-five percent of Baby Boomers say their income won't keep up with the cost of living in the coming year and many will have insufficient savings upon retirement to live out their lives in the level of comfort they had hoped for. Also, a top of mind concern for many is the ever rising cost of health care. In the last 8 years, the number of Americans without health insurance has grown by seven million, while average premiums have nearly doubled.
There is a solution
There are ways around these problems. - For example, how about living in your paradise for half your Social Security check!
- On one side of the quality retirement equation is how much income you can expect from retirement plans, social security, and other sources - supplemented by any savings you may have and, of course, the drawdown rate.
- The other side of the coin is how much it will cost you to live day by day in the style you desire and how much it will cost to cover occasional and unpredictable costs like health care as you grow older.
Live in a location where your income buys 3 to 5 times as much as today.
In doing so, you can afford a quality of life that you have always dreamed of.
Over a million Americans are already enjoying the many benefits of living overseas in retirement. Europeans have been doing this for years. As the cost of living gap between living in developed vs. developing countires widens, more and more people are looking at options and finally realizing they were missing out on the good life unnecessarily.
Take a tip from businesses: Move offshore, at least until the economic winds subside.
Evaluating living overseas in retirement
Living overseas in retirement can be a short term solution to rebuilding your savings quickly. Like many others, you may find the lifestyle suits you so well that you might decide to stay permanently. In any case, the savings can be so substantial that just a 4 or 5 year adventure will allow you to pay off any debts and "put things right" before returning "home," or to enjoy periodic vacations to see other parts of the world that you otherwise could never afford.
We are going to examine all sides of this important decision to enable you to decide for yourself. The first question should be Is this right for me? Passing that test, then you would want to list your own needs, preferences and priorities and investigate locations in order to develop your own "Quality of Life" ranking
Although there are many low cost countries around the world, We are going to focus on those in the Americas due to close proximity to the USA and also the fact that time zone differences are minimized. Consider how far your money might go in countries south of the border. There are many attractive cities where costs of living are far below cities in the US.
We're going to look at comparative costs of living between a number of US cities and compare to a selected location in Latin America to demonstrate the financial aspects of this decision. You may realize in this analysis that the cost of living in a number of locations is so much lower than where you live today that you could plan to retire years earlier than you might otherwise.
Additional resources for your research and analysis:
There are many free resources on the web to help you do your research. There are also many good books covering planning and living in retirement. Many are helpful and you should take a look. This web-site is intended to provide many tips from those who have done it before you. You owe it to yourself to at least look at the options. You wouldn't believe how much better life can be where you can easily afford full time household help and can therefore spend your time doing what you only dreamed of before.
Help us help you!
If you have found this site useful and wish to make a small $5 donation to help defray development expenses, please click the Paypal donate button below
Also, to help spread the word, please bookmark using your favorite service… tell your friends too!
This site has been visited
times.
We want to hear from you
Use the Comments form below:
