Retiring Earlier, Lower Cost, Healthier Lifestyle (cont.)
By Peter Macfarlane
As I said, people are retiring earlier – often with young families in tow. Maybe retirement is not the right word, because what these boomers are actually looking for is a new beginning. Many people are attracted by what I call the ‘safe haven’ aspect – what’s going on in British or North American cities looks ugly at the moment, and sadly my prediction is that it will get worse, while our home governments keep printing more money to fight wars on the other side of the world. I’m not a pessimist, but I’m a realist.
Perhaps the most difficult part for most people is making the first move. Although you know in your heart that a better lifestyle awaits you, many people are simply scared of giving up their routines, or of a quitting a ‘good’ job which just about allows you to make ends meet. And a big concern these days is retirement funds – will your 401k still be there by the time you reach retirement age??? What about your state pension? Your FDIC-insured bank account? These are all serious questions.
I would suggest you get started by reading all you can on the internet. Although I am joint editor of a newsletter, I know that my ‘competition’ produces good information too. You need to read all you can, get different perspectives, and as I always say – ‘consider the source.’ Very often people are trying to sell you something (typically real estate or offshore investments) so they are biased. Here at The Q Wealth Report we sell information but absolutely no real estate, so we are an unbiased source of facts and research reports on international living and overseas retirement.
I do, by the way, believe that real estate is a good investment still, if you buy right. Banks, currencies and countries can come and go – but people will always need a place to live. But puhlease buy livable places, not off-plan speculations that may well never be built in the current climate!.
One thing is for sure: if you don’t know where you are going, you won’t get there! Start by making your own checklist of all the things you are looking for in a destination. Security, for example, is high on most people’s lists. Healthcare is another. Do you want to live on a virgin Pacific beach in Mexico or in a young, fast-moving, exciting city? What is more important to you –being close to nature, or being close to opera? There are great restaurants everywhere, but do you prefer $5 on the beach style restaurants where you are eating the catch of the hour, or $100 a head gourmet style on the Cote d'Azur or in Monaco with wine to match? Do you need to be close to a good bilingual or international school? Or would your sibling be better off thrown in at the deep end into the local education system in order to pick up the local language quickly? Is the cost of living a big factor in your decision, or less of a factor?
Once you have made your checklist, a good place to start is the NationMaster website, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from other useful sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. It allows you to generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease. You will find everything from fertility and crime rates to The Economist Big Mac index where you can check the price of getting fat in cities around the world.
NationMaster is a great starting point for analyzing pros and cons. But ultimately, there is no perfect place. Everything involves a certain degree of trade off. I tell people that choosing a new home country is much the same as choosing a new spouse – you might start out with some basic demographic requirements, but at the end of the day you have to fall in love with your heart. That is something you can only do by drawing up a shortlist and then making a series of exploratory visits, for as much time as you can spare, to each of the countries on your personal retirement shortlist. If you can go for a few months, rent an apartment and live like the locals, that is by far your best option.
Health is of course of the utmost importance. We are delighted to have on our team Q Wealth Expert and celebrity chef Jacques Haeringer, who regularly contributes to our Your Health column which is accessible to members online and in the print version. Jacques himself retired young from a life slaving away in a hot kitchen at one of Washington DC’s most romantic restaurants. Now he spends more time traveling, lecturing and writing.
These days you will typically find Jacques studying the effects of nutrition and diet on our health. He knows and writes about diets and supplements that can help alleviate typical ailments like osteoporosis, diabetes, asthma, allergies or even Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. As for exercise, Jacques is a big fan of Yoga as a way of contributing to both corporal and mental wellbeing and equilibrium.
Return from Retiring to Investing
