When Not to Retire Abroad

Make sure your dream retirement is not an illusion.

Although I am an advocate of retiring abroad, I also recognize that it is not for everyone. As a regular reader of several expatriate forums, I discover that for some people, it is a bad experience. It should prove useful to you to go through the following list of situations that suggest when not to retire abroad. This was gleaned from the negative experience of some people on  those forums.

Reason #1 Not to Retire Abroad: Inadequate Assets

What is adequate or inadequate is difficult to judge. It depends on your individual needs in life which varies from person to person. It also depends on your health and the type of medical infrastructure that you need. Both of these needs – your basic life needs and medical care costs money. You should have an adequate income stream to cover these types of needs as well as a nice cushion that you can either build up quickly or already have in place to fall back on.

Odds are that there will be no security net for you if you become an expatriate living abroad. Living abroad usually means that you are fully capable of supporting yourself and dealing with the ups and downs of life.

If you are relatively young when you retire abroad and have a decent income stream, you can take greater risks and have a smaller personal safety net. I retired abroad with a decent pension and a nice chunk of debt, but should be able to eliminate most of that debt in a few years and still maintain a decent lifestyle. And, I am still too young for social security, but when that kicks in, my personal finances will be in very good shape.

Living abroad on my pension provides me with adequate funds to live comfortably (not like a king!), cover my debt, and still put away some in savings. And in a few years, social security will kick in and accelerate my ability to build a nest egg even further.

My recommendation for living abroad: sit back and evaluate what you really need to live comfortably, assess any debt and either eliminate it or make sure you will have enough to bring it down, and evaluate whether you will need to dip into a nest egg. I know many people write about living like a king on $600 a month, but that is based on their comfort level. Make sure that you have a good understanding of what your comfort level is and how much it will really cost to live like that.

Nothing is more tragic than reading the forums about some guy who ran out of money, is flat broke and got dumped by his girlfriend, and has no reserves to get back home. You need to do some solid financial planning.

Reason #2 Not to Retire Abroad: You Fell in Love on the Internet

Perhaps the second biggest tear jerker in the expatriate forums are stories of people who fell in love on the Internet and have decided to live abroad to be with their loved ones. While there are indeed, some who have done this successfully, the Internet has changed online dating greatly over recent years. For some unscrupulous types, it has become a business to prey on lonely foreigners. And it is a relatively large business.

I don’t know how often things like this happen, but I suspect it happens often enough that any retiree who is looking for love online take great care in moving abroad for this reason alone. I simply read too many sad tales about people who arrive at the airport and there’s no one there, where the girlfriend/boyfriend is already married or has a boyfriend, and on and on.

I don’t intend to just point out that there are foreign predators lying to pounce on you. There are as many predator Americans as well who will boast about how many women they’ve fooled over the Internet and how many they’ve gotten into bed before hopping the next flight to another town and another girl. Both the foreign and American players are only utilizing the Internet for their self-serving needs rather than love.

My recommendation for loving abroad: most of the people here in my new country of residence are good and honest people, but somehow the Internet attracts a lot of people who really aren’t looking for love, but are looking for money or a quick one night stand. My advice is to move abroad first for other reasons. Then if you are in need of a spouse, court one as you would back home. Get to know her/him face to face. Get to know their family. Get to know their personal background. Make sure you have similar life goals and needs. This is a major life decision, do it wisely, don’t rush it, and don’t fall for the first pretty or handsome face that gives you that seductive look.

Reason #3 Not to Retire Abroad: You Are Running Away From Something

The third major source of unhappiness that I see on the living abroad forums reflect individuals who are running away from something. In leaving America, they were in search of some kind of paradise to solve all of their internal unhappiness. Living abroad won’t bring happiness if you fall in this category.

Odds are that you are not running away from America, but running away from yourself. Moving abroad won’t change who you are. If you make your life miserable in America, odds are that you will make your life miserable anywhere else on this planet.

For example, on one popular Philippines expatriate forum, someone was bitter about having to eat rice three times a day. Well, let’s think about that for a minute. Is that really a function of the Philippines or is it the result of choices that the person made? Granted, if you eat out, odds are that you will get rice most of the time. But when I don’t want rice, I make hash browns for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, or pasta for dinner. Or if I’m lazy, there is always McDonald’s. But there is no law that requires anyone to eat rice three times a day, except one’s own failure not to create alternative choices.

My recommendation for living abroad: make sure that you are running to something. And, make sure that you really aren’t running away from yourself. If you are, then re-evaluate your life and your attitudes about life. If life sucks because of the choices that you make and your attitudes about life, there is really no where on earth that will make that problem go away. In this situation, you and not some country is the problem that needs to be fixed.

Reason #4 Not to Retire Abroad: Inflexibility

Let’s face it, as we age, we tend to become less flexible. We develop comfortable routines and expectations about life. If you want to retire abroad, you will have to be a little flexible in your thinking. You will have to adapt to a new life, a new culture, and an entirely different environment.

The good news is that we “old dogs” can learn new tricks. Sure, it takes a little effort, but the effort may be all it takes to shift a bad experience to a positive one.

I am now doing things that I never did back home. Watching my diet, jogging regularly, and really enjoying life. Those were changes in my old behaviors that I had to make. And they are improving the quality of my life a great deal.

Reasons Not to Retire Abroad: Summary

The decision to retire abroad shouldn’t be taken lightly. A successful move to expatriate living requires sound financial planning. It requires realistic expectations and honest appraisal of yourself and some amount of adapting to a new life. This can be done, but it does require effort on your part.

I’m not sure that you can live like a king overseas on $600 a month. But depending on your choice of country and on your ability to adapt to that country, you probably could carve out a comfortable lifestyle for yourself in the right country. But, I would really, really think carefully about doing it if your total income was just $600 a month and you had no savings or if you have not done your research on the country and have all sorts of false expectations.

I am finding that expatriate living suits me well so far. I’ve no major regrets about having made the move. But I carefully laid a decent foundation for myself before taking the plunge. Take the plunge … the waters fine … but look before you leap … because there are rocks in the water as well.

(Image by Satty4U)

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