Archive for November 23rd, 2009
The world’s best places to retire
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 23, 2009
US retirees looking for lives of comfort at bargain-basement prices might do well to look at a sunny, sophisticated city near the equator.
By MSN Money staff
US retirees looking for lives of comfort at bargain-basement prices might do well to look at a sunny, sophisticated city near the equator.
The best place in the world to retire, according to expatriate lifestyle magazine International Living, is sunny, cheap, cosmopolitan and 8,000 feet high in the Andes.
Cuenca, Ecuador’s third-largest city, is a well-preserved colonial city of cobblestone streets and dramatic period architecture, with modern suburbs, shopping and all the comforts American retirees might expect. Yet they can live there — and well — for about $17,000 a year, the magazine says.
Cuenca and Ecuador in particular have so much to offer, says International Living Managing Editor Laura Sheridan, that the country bumped Mexico from the top spot in the publication’s Annual Retirement Index, released last month.
The index analyzes and ranks 29 countries in categories including real-estate costs, special benefits offered to retirees, culture, safety and stability, health care, climate, infrastructure and cost of living. The rankings are below.
“We look closely at the best opportunities worldwide for retirement living,” Sheridan says. “Where will the retiree’s dollars go farthest? Which country is the safest? Where is the health care best? We give top priority to those things that matter most to anyone planning for retirement, including programs with special benefits for retirees . . . things like tax breaks and discounts, for example, that various governments offer in an effort to attract investment and retirement dollars.” Read the rest of this entry »
Why retirees are fleeing the US
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 23, 2009
A move to another country may make economic sense, especially for seniors who don’t have enough savings to live in retirement without a dramatic cut in lifestyle.
By Scott Burns
A move to another country may make economic sense
Several years ago a Dallas couple approaching retirement disappeared. Well-known on the charitable-event circuit, the couple were in Dallas one day and gone the next. Phone disconnected. No forwarding address. No working cell-phone number.
Eventually, word spread that they were somewhere in Mexico. They had sold whatever they owned, packed their car and headed for the border. They were, conflicting reports said, living in small towns, the kind of places seldom featured in travel magazines.
We can only speculate on what happened. I think they were broke, had little or nothing in savings and knew they had to make a major change to survive on their Social Security income and minimal savings. Like millions of other Americans, their ship never came in. They got older. Work became harder to find. Suddenly, they realized their life was entirely unsustainable. They were heading toward a cliff. Read the rest of this entry »
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