The Secret to a Life of Luxury…
I have one goal today: To teach old dogs a new trick.
To be clear, I’m one of the old dogs. Indeed, a thought struck me while trying to fall asleep recently: I’m 10 years removed from my Social Security Full Retirement Age.
There’s something about “10 years” that makes it all too real for me.
Ten years pass in a blink.
It’s not a lot of time.
Thus, my goal today is teaching a new trick to those, like me, who are so close to retirement that we can see the Welcome Committee waiting for us to cross the finish line.
My goal stems from a comment that Mohamed Younis made recently to CNN.
Mohamed is editor-in-chief at Gallup, the famous polling firm. A recent Gallup poll found 43% of non-retired American adults feel they haven’t nearly enough money to retire comfortably. Apparently, that’s the lowest reading in almost a dozen years.
Worse, the percentage of adults expecting to live a comfy retirement has fallen 10 percentage points in just two years. In short, perceptions of expected retirement happiness are plunging.
Which brings me to that comment from Mohamed Younis. He told CNN that the retirement data is “rather grim.”
I’d say that’s rather an understatement.
When less than half the country fears that it will live a cat-food and cardboard-house retirement, that’s an indictment of America’s retirement situation.
The unspoken implication is that the U.S. is increasingly unfriendly to those living on pensions, nest eggs, and Social Security. The place is simply too damn expensive. Many Americans can’t afford a retirement lifestyle comparable to what they enjoyed in their working life.
America Is Too Damn Expensive to Retire At Home
I grew up with grandparents in the 1970s and ’80s. They were lower-middle class. My grandfather sold tires at a department store. My grandmother was a purchasing clerk for a chemical company. They had Social Security and some pension income, and still lived pretty much lived the same comfort level in retirement they had while working.
Today, that’s not even remotely possible.
Except that it totally is.
In fact, it’s possible to live well above a middle-class lifestyle.
It just requires that you heed the message of Jimmy Buffett when he sang about “changes in latitude.”
What I’m saying is that living a fat retirement on a not-so-fat nest egg is achievable if you open your mind to the idea of retiring abroad.
Retiring Abroad is Not Scary – It’s an Adventure!
I know. I know…
Lots of people balk at that idea because they don’t want to learn new tricks in retirement. A foreign culture. Foreign healthcare systems. A foreign language. I get it.
But you have to ask yourself if those concerns are worth living a retirement that leaves you depressed and longing for a better life. Will you be happy when every day is just another reminder that 40-plus years of grinding out a paycheck has led to… this.
Truth is, living abroad is the greatest adventure I’ve ever had. And all those concerns about culture and language and healthcare… you find they melt away. They aren’t the challenges in real life that you build them up to be in your mind.
English is widely spoken everywhere I go, or at least enough so that I can manage easily. Healthcare ranges from good to top-notch to better than the U.S. in many countries. And it’s much cheaper.
Like, shockingly cheaper!
As for friends?
So many expat groups populate our world that no matter where you alight, you’re certain to find Yanks and Brits and Aussies and Canadians and Germans and Spaniards, and they’re all going to adopt you as the new kid on the block.
And if you’re still working, then there’s also a potentially massive (totally legal) tax hack. It will allow you to radically reduce your tax obligations, therefore boosting your ability to save even more for retirement later.
Thailand: A Great Example of Retiring Abroad
I traveled through Thailand last year—Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui. Not hard to see why retirees love that place, and you only need monthly income of about $1,900 to qualify for a Non-Immigrant “O” Visa. Or just $23,000 in a Thai bank account.
I mean, average Social Security checks in 2023 are $1,827, and that includes retirees from a decade or three back whose checks are much lower than modern Social Security checks. Retire today at 66, Full Retirement Age, and the average monthly check is $3,627. You can live damn well in Thailand on that and never touch whatever nest egg you’ve saved.
Or consider Costa Rica. There, a couple can live well on $2,000, even less. And you’ll have access to one of the nicest climates and some of the best beaches in the world. Plus, it’s a short hop back to America.
Even if you retire today at 62 and accept the decrease in benefits from claiming Social Security early, you’re still collecting nearly $2,600 per month. That’s substantially more than you need to live well in Thailand or Costa Rica…. or a host of fabulous destinations globally.
My point: If you’re an aging dog like me, and if you look at your nest egg and think “rather grim,” then maybe learn a new trick. It’s the trick I’ll be pursuing for my retirement – retiring overseas.
You really can live the retirement of your dreams if you just change your latitude.
Think about it…