Where to?

[mcoyote]

I like the US, but we won't be able to retire here and stay healthy and housed, and I don't believe the economy has anything to recommend it in the coming decades. Much as in Snow Crash, we appear to be down to pizza delivery [read: service work, requiring folks with money for services], movies, and software, and that won't employ too many people.

Plus, we keep making the rest of the world mad at us, gas is getting to the point where it's expensive to go anywhere in this joint, and we're not doing anything worthwhile otherwise (like...exploring the solar system or whatever).

Where to?

[Rincewind]

http://www.auroville.org/ - if you don't mind hippies, your dollar will last a very long time in India.
Posted on: March 05, 2008, 02:14:12 pmOh wait, you're the guy that hates hippies, scratch that!  lol

[vitaminC]

Maybe you could teach English to the Chinese.

And you'll likely need to go to a so-called third world country if having cheap gas and a nearby factory are your priorities.

Good luck.

[mcoyote]

Oh wait, you're the guy that hates hippies, scratch that!  lol

Me? Heck no...who do you think you're talking to? I don't hate anyone, really...but I did grow up with hippies, of the first order, and definitely have an aversion to moochers and body odor as a result.

[mcoyote]

Maybe you could teach English to the Chinese.

And you'll likely need to go to a so-called third world country if having cheap gas and a nearby factory are your priorities.

Good luck.

*shrugs -- My sister teaches English in the Czech Republic and has been there for over a decade now.

I'd suck at Chinese, from what I've read about the language, but I could muddle through a Slavic or romantic language. What the Czechs have a larger demand for is software engineers, as they do in India (for example), and those are definitely above-average jobs for those countries but pay an unpleasant fraction of what they do here.

Plus, like the rest of the world, they're training plenty of folks locally to do that work just fine, but there are still lead positions here and there for the adaptable. The trick is finding such a setting that will let me live once I stop working (or let me stop working at all), and won't prevent me from earning a living as an incoming US citizen. Might not be possible.

[Rincewind]

Me? Heck no...who do you think you're talking to? I don't hate anyone, really...but I did grow up with hippies, of the first order, and definitely have an aversion to moochers and body odor as a result.

I thought you were the one worried about slipping into a mellow-yellow mindset, sorry.  I would still say India.  Auroville is actually a nice expatriot 'intentional' community, though a little strange.  And it is not far from Pondicherry and Madras.

If you want to keep working, try Bangalore for software jobs.

[mcoyote]

I thought you were the one worried about slipping into a mellow-yellow mindset, sorry.  I would still say India.  Auroville is actually a nice expatriot 'intentional' community, though a little strange.  And it is not far from Pondicherry and Madras.

If you want to keep working, try Bangalore for software jobs.

Oh, *that*. No, that was because of some well-chosen words from another on this board that stuck in my head, not the concepts underlying them.

I have about a dozen contractors from Bangalore in nearby cubes in my office -- ironic if I get were to get shipped back here. I wouldn't do it if the outlook for my lifestyle in retirement was worse than it is here, and I don't think India is renowned for its social safety net -- though it may be more possible to pile up enough scratch to live well in retirement there.

That's what my mentor at CSC on my first MOC procject, back in '95, did. She took her tasty, old-school CSC retirement and moved to the Philippines. Difference is, she was from there originally and had a good plan in her head for stretching her savings once she went back. If one is an outsider, I'm sure things would be a lot more tricky and expensive.
 

[traveler]

Aren't there a lot of expat Americans retired in Costa Rica? Also, many Americans have retired in various parts of Mexico. I'm sure there are other countries in central or south America where one might go. What about eastern Europe?

I've had the same question in mind for a while, but don't have an answer yet.

You should probably pick a place soon, and begin learning the language. My Spanish skills could be resurrected in short order, so I'm leaning that direction.

[Nouroog]

Mexico, Belize.... someplace south, warm, brown, and on the ocean.  

[mcoyote]

Mexico, Belize.... someplace south, warm, brown, and on the ocean.  

Ooh! Ooh! Let's buy up a chunk of Baja near the Sea of Cortez and make it the ST.N retirement community. Oh, wait...we'd kill each other...

[Nouroog]

Between the guns, the beer, and the dirtbikes? Yeah, probably.

[mcoyote]

Between the guns, the beer, and the dirtbikes? Yeah, probably.

Well, ok, I'll take the guns, you take the beer...and-- ..wait..that won't work.

[mcoyote]

Mexico, Belize.... someplace south, warm, brown, and on the ocean.  

Eh, in all seriousness -- fresh water is too scarce and global warming are going to make these places uninhabitable in a couple of decades. Thinking...Ireland, Vancouver, Iceland...?

ED: Actually, Iceland's tricky...I've been there, little water, no arable land, vulnerable to sea level rise...hmmm.

[katzke]

One of my friends retired at 45 to a little island off of the coast of Honduras. He bought a business (a movie store and one-screen theater) and plans to operate it when he's not scuba diving or sleeping on the beach.

[Nouroog]

One of my friends retired at 45 to a little island off of the coast of Honduras. He bought a business (a movie store and one-screen theater) and plans to operate it when he's not scuba diving or sleeping on the beach.

Very cool!  

[bomber]

I know a couple of folks that lit out for Ireland -- this was before the dollar fell, but they tell me the folks are nice (which matches my experience) and their retirement income went a long way there . . . ..  

at one time, you could get a tax free deal if you were an artist of darned near any stripe.

the riding's pretty fair, too ;-}

[DredheadV2.0]

I was thinking of going back to the homeland I've never seen - my mom's side is Estonia.  Apparently they've turned it into quite the awesome little country - strong economy, extremely tech-savvy, civil liberties abound.

However, that whopping great big kleptocracy along its Eastern border worries the shit out of me.  I like Canada as a neighbor much better than Russia.  I think I'll stay put, in the country my foreuncles helped create.

[lizard]

Mexico, Belize.... someplace south, warm, brown, and on the ocean.  

I think I read somewhere that non citizens cannot legally "own" property within 100 miles of the coast in Mexico. Might put a damper on some oceanfront locations.

[stefrrr]

I was thinking of going back to the homeland I've never seen - my mom's side is Estonia.  Apparently they've turned it into quite the awesome little country - strong economy, extremely tech-savvy, civil liberties abound.

However, that whopping great big kleptocracy along its Eastern border worries the shit out of me.  I like Canada as a neighbor much better than Russia.  I think I'll stay put, in the country my foreuncles helped create.

Isn't Estonia the country that all of the labor is outsourced to in the Dilbert cartoons?

[Nouroog]

I think I read somewhere that non citizens cannot legally "own" property within 100 miles of the coast in Mexico. Might put a damper on some oceanfront locations.

What about Belize or Costa Rica?

[Req]

What about Belize or Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is getting completely bought out by American interests.  The downside of eco-tourism; when enough tourists come, the ecology flees in their path.  But yeah, you can own all the land you want.

A mid-sized airport is going in at the hidden-and-hard-to-get-to spot called Drake's Bay, where J and I had our honeymoon, and I give the region another year after it goes in before it becomes just another spot for fat americans to yell at the waiters and check their Blackberries.    A real shame, the diving was incredible and the rain forest pretty badass too.

[Jeff N]

What about Belize or Costa Rica?

Bring enough money and you'll have no troubles.

Retirement for me? Highly doubtful. I'm fully involved in my employer's 401K and my own investments, but with my work schedule and the joy I get out of my job I'm retired about a third of the year anyway, and as time goes by it's only gonna get better.

[Bubwheat]

What about Belize or Costa Rica?

Currently, Panama offers the best incentives for Americans wishing to retire there. Dollarized economy, and abundant English spoken, within a coupla hours flight to US, and largely not run over by tourists, and a real estate market not gone crazy.

The restriction on coastal property ownership in Mexico is more like 65 miles, but is easy to get around; trust ownership with the title held by a bank, which you can buy and sell, start a Mexican business and have the company buy the property, or find you a little mamacita, and have her buy it.    

[Ant]

Isn't Estonia the country that all of the labor is outsourced to in the Dilbert cartoons?

thats Elbonia.

[OmegaSix]

What about the Phillipines?   The insurgency is pretty well isolated to the southern islands.   What was the naval base at Subic Bay is now a tourist area.  Olongapo, Subic City, The burbs of Manila...    

I think Australia has some fairly stringent immigration requirements, but as long as you meet them...

Europe is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I dunno.   I think the US is more resilient than maybe you are giving it credit for.

[Playinthestreet]

South Island of New Zealand.

[JonS]

Greece is where I would go if I left the US. Living is cheap. Its a fascinating and beautiful place. The climate is... Mediterranean.
I was there for about a month once, and for years, if I had a conversation with anyone about it,I would get homesick for the place.

[scott-sts]

Costa Rica.
Vietnam.
West coast of Mexico.

[sammyseaman]

Michigan  

[mcoyote]

South Island of New Zealand.

Unless I have the cure for cancer tucked under my arm, my understanding is that New Zealand ain't interested, though I agree it's a gawjus place.

[mcoyote]

...I dunno.   I think the US is more resilient than maybe you are giving it credit for.

*shrugs -- maybe, but when I hit 60...65? I might have the 2-4mil I'm projected to need saved in order for the SO and I to survive at an approximation of my current standard of living *and* a former-employer-backed health plan to supplement (*gulp*, having taken care of a recipient for a decade or so) Medicare, but...I have my doubts.

Props to the young'uns then...perhaps there will be opportunities aplenty, but are they somehow going to magically prevent the dollar from inflating at a rough approximation of my paltry 401k/IRA equity earnings? Eh...maybe, but perhaps there will be other nice places to live where we might be happier, just saying.

[toddrod]

Michigan  

   I was gonna say Florida