Thinking of retiring abroad for economic reasons?

I'm not sure if I would be an economic refugee or not.

What I do know is that I just finished another "touring" trip, despite vowing I would not do another one after my previous four monther. It has reinforced my thinking that future travel will be one where I find a centre base from which to explore a region. I live in a "high rent" city, and have rented out my place when I was gone for longer times, which so far, has been relatively successful, and provided a more or less positive cash flow when I spend time in a lower expense place. I have not found this a hardship, but an adventure.

Will I want to do this forever? Maybe, maybe not. But now, it seems a great plan, and I have been busily researching my next destination.

I suspect you reflect on that 'rotten apple' way to much!

I LOL'd at post # 15. Thinking about my future retirement I've been looking at my 90 year old mothers very successful one. It seems to me that the key to her success was buying a modest condo (but the nicest place that my parents had ever lived) in a very rich town. All sorts of services are provided to the seniors. The most important, for her, are the social connections. She took my fathers death very hard. They had been married close to 50 years. Her town provides many activities for seniors, she has a full schedule of exercise classes, shopping trips, lunches and dinners and new friends (at 90 obviously most of her former ones have passed). Her yuppie neighbors are kind and helpful. She does not fear having her purse snatched on her daily walks around her beautiful village.
I think that at that age one has to rely on the kindness of strangers for many things.
My mother who has drawn the lucky straw (sound mind and good health) does even though my sister lives only a half hour away.

silvanocat- You are describing my experiences with my mother, exactly. And, yes, it makes me thing very seriously about what my life might be like at her age.

She is lucky enough to stay in my parents modest (hugely overpriced) small, one-story home in an ideal climate. The social network available through a wonderful senior center and her church is her lifesaver. The excellent healthcare with practioners she knows and trusts is peace of mind for all of us, as she has encountered several unpredictable severe health crisises.

My point is that there is sort of an early retirement phase and a late retirement phase. I think Resurgam makes excellent points about the early retirement phase. I think it's crtitical not to destroy your chances at making a happy and secure late retirement phase, when your needs really change.

You've hit the nail on the head silvanocat and Kahua. I like your simply dividing it in 2 as well Kahua.

When I retired at 43, I didn't even buy travel insurance for crying out loud. What's to worry about at 43? You still think you're indestructable. Of course I actually do happen to be indestructible but that's another story involving Kryptonite and interplanetary travel.

The difference for many of those posting here on the TT about retirement is that they haven't done it yet! I'm lucky enough to have had 20 years to observe what happens, before I got to my 60s! I was fortunate in that I could afford both the money and the time to spend those 20 years living in various places, being a beach bum, etc. that people like to dream about. But someone who starts on that path at age 60-65 will not have those years to mess around with.

I'll be 63 next month and here I am, back where I started in Canada. Why? Because the country has so much more to offer than any other. Take holidays, snowbird for the winter if you want but live in the highest standard of living country you can.

{quote:title=Resurgam wrote:}{quote}
It's a simple mathematical equation which can easily be proven to be true... That's a 100% known outcome... There's nothing left to debate.

I can't understand why you feel so strongly about others discussing their future. I would also bet that you can't make good on your strong assertion above and challenge you to actually prove your point since it is so easy.

One post livingretired? What is your other handle? Should I guess? If you are going to double handle the received wisdom is that you first post a few dozen innocuous posts before using the handle for whatever reason you wanted it for in the first place.

If you want me to prove my point, I'll gladly do so. It will cost you however. To prove it I will have to take you to a few places and we will simply do a head count. Shouldn't take more than a few months to convince you of the numbers so figure on say $20k for my expenses and the same for your own. Or did you think you could get the proof of what it took me years to figure out for free? It's easy to prove, it just ain't cheap to prove it to you.

I have no problem with others discussing their future or anything else. But what gypsytoes wrote was, "I want to debate the pros and cons on my website.", not discuss their future. What I wrote was there is nothing to debate. Can you see that those are not one and the same thing?

I keep wondering why anyone would retire as young as 43.

I would be interested in hearing the real story from Resurgam.

It seems highly probable that 20 years later, even if careful, such a person would likely find himself in pretty straightened financial circumstances.

I retired at 63. I live in a full sized house in a well-to-do neighbourhood in central Canada and do not have to worry about my ability to meet the bills.

Resurgam OTOH has had to locate out in the sticks of B.C. and, even there, to confine himself to pinched condominiun living, cheek by jowl with social levels far below his imaginary level of "gentleman of leisure".

He says he feels obliged to spend one full day of every week on financial planning and what-if scenarios.

With me, the situation is much more carefree: - the required time for that would be at most a couple of hours a month.

IMO nothing is changed . LP is simply a site to gather information not to treat your own opinion like a religion.

Well said V20091