…by Ilene Little…
Baby-boomers nearing retirement are questioning whether there’s not a smarter way to live. Just working longer or harder gets old and it makes us feel old. Maybe it’s time to re-group – or is it “re-think” our position – shake the tree of life for more options.
A lot of us are excited about making a change, a big lifestyle change, something more exciting than “downsizing” and taking on second jobs at Safeway to pay for medical benefits and high-cost of living.
Retiring Abroad
I ask myself: Would I be looking for “greener pastures” to retire abroad were it not for all the incentives to do so – incentives like living much better for less? If I could live in the States and afford to do as much traveling as I wanted, would I still feel the urge to experience living in different places in the world?
For me, the answer is yes, I would – because it’s the adventure and the interaction with other cultures that keeps me young. The difference between being a tourist and a traveler is vast – and even more so if you engage with people in other cultures.
The Lure of the Snowbird Lifestyle
I will perhaps always have a home-base in the Northwest because that’s where the grandkids are. But I can’t deny the logic of living abroad at least part of the year just because it just makes so much sense health-wise to “follow the sun” in the winter.
It’s all about having a lifestyle choice. The key word here is choice. And by choice I don’t mean which RV parking lot to live in. I do not intend to live a “settled for” or boring lifestyle – whether in a castle or a tent. I intend to be an example to my grandchildren of living life to its fullest.
My head’s been turned by the opinions of friends and colleagues living abroad. Eileen Dunn, past Director of Women’s Programs at Green River College in Washington State, said, “I’m looking at Panama or Ecuador as two leading countries for retirement with lots of incentives for retirees.” Dunn currently lives in South Korea where she and her husband teach English.
I hear from a wave of baby-boomers taking a fresh look at the lifestyles of expats — the communities, the medical services, the expat and location demographics. I predict that retirees who used to head off to Arizona, Texas, California, or South Florida will instead be heading further south and across the border.
“Well, you know it’s interesting that you say that,” agreed Martin Frankel, founder of expat-connection.com, “because I’ve been telling my parents for four to five months now that I think the next big wave of expats to move to Argentina are going to be retirees from the U.S.”
Frankel left an executive career as Marketing Manager for FedEx in New York, and moved to Argentina. He’s quite happy there and prides himself on creating the only Argentine expat group to actively break down the barriers that exist between local and expat communities. Frankel negotiated group insurance rates with a leading Argentine insurance provider to facilitate expats’ ability to enjoy quality and comprehensive health care at extremely attractive rates.
The proximity of good medical practitioners define a livable community for retirees living abroad in much the same way good school districts define desirable livable communities in the States. And from the standpoint of retirees, the attitude of health and wellness providers and access to quality healthcare are the top priority.
Ilene Little is a Bonnie Lake resident and a former newspaper reporter with several years experience in the health and tourism industries. At age 64 she embarked on a new career, a medical tourism and expat social site www.traveling4health.com Contact people who live abroad through her community site. For more information email Ilene@travelingforhealth.com or call 253-334-1877.
Photo Caption: Gene Warneke, a photo-journalist and Traveling4Health.com contributor, moved from the U.S. to Costa Rica over three years ago at the age of 54. “For sixteen years I had carried around a sketch of a dream home I wanted to build,” says Gene. “I couldn’t afford to build it in the States, but I could and did in Costa Rica.”
This article recently appeared in the January 2011 issue of Northwest Prime Time, the Puget Sound region’s monthly publication celebrating life after 50. For more information, visit www.NorthwestPrimeTime.com
Top Places to Retire Abroad
The monthly publication, International Living, recently published its annual guide of the top places to retire abroad. Their annual Retirement Index for 2010 offers places around the world “where retirement funds go farther, health care is cheaper, and the lifestyle is healthier than in the U.S.”
Ecuador topped International Living’s Annual Retirement Index for the second year.
“Ecuador is simply the world’s most affordable retirement haven,” says Eoin Bassett, editor of International Living magazine.
“In Ecuador, there’s something for everyone,” says Bassett, “beaches, rural highlands, jungle escapes, colonial cities. You can find a four-course lunch for $2. A taxi ride in the capital, Quito, costs $1. You can stay in a nice hotel for less than $20 or get a 30-minute massage for $15.”
To determine the Annual Retirement Index, 25 countries are analyzed and ranked in categories including real estate costs, special benefits offered to retirees, culture, safety and stability, health care, climate, infrastructure, and cost of living. “We give top priority to those things that matter most to retirees, such as special retiree benefit programs that include tax breaks and discounts,” says Bassett.
This year, the world’s top five retirement havens are Ecuador, Panama, Mexico, France and Italy.
International Living reports that the United States moved up from #22 last year to a ranking of #15. A relatively high cost of living and other costs for such factors as taxes and insurance hurts the U.S.’ ranking.
International Living analyzes data in eight categories from “a huge range of sources,” says Bassett. “Then we run the results past our in-country experts for their judgments based on first-hand experience. So we’ve crunched the numbers, but we’ve also made adjustments based on what we know to be the reality on the ground. No place gets a perfect score,” she adds. “Every place has pros and cons, pockets where living is easier, or cheaper, than another. But all of the countries in our Index have something to offer. Even if they score poorly in a specific category, they’re still the best places in the world to retire that we’ve found.”
The countries that ranked in 2010’s top 15 “Best Places to Retire” are:
1. Ecuador
2. Panama
3. Mexico
4. France
5. Italy
6. Uruguay
7. Malta
8. Chile
9. Spain
10. Costa Rica
11. Brazil
12. Argentina
13. Colombia
14. New Zealand
15. United States
To read more about the places that score the highest, visit internationalliving.com for the complete 2010 Annual Retirement Index.
This article recently appeared in the January 2011 issue of Northwest Prime Time, the Puget Sound region’s monthly publication celebrating life after 50. For more information, visit www.NorthwestPrimeTime.com
