Travel & Holidays Retiring Overseas

Soi 6 has been closed until 6pm every night,and gated off , new rules !

 

The crime isn't too bad, really depends where you go. Davao had a reputation as the safest city in the world because Duterte was then Mayor and practised extra judicial killing to reduce crime. Makati is safe but take care around Ermita/Malate which has lots of poverty and beggers. There's also a popular bar here called LA Cafe. I think Filipinos are great people, very friendly and treat foreigners with respect, more so than Thais (not racist).

Aw sad to hear that. It used to be a good place to meet people and have a drink. The city's still trying to make it a family friendly destination which is good but to the detriment of less bars. I haven't visited for a few years but sure it's changed a lot.. and I know it's hard to sell a condo in Pattaya at the moment with so many around. Buying a condo can seem like a good idea if you intend to retire there but my advice you're better off renting in SE Asia, don't buy, there's too many headaches.

 

walking street is up the soi 13/4 end.

 

Chanced across an overseas site which had this to say about retirement age in Australia

Official Retirement Age
65 years old

67 for those born after 1957

Average retirement age for all people

54.4

Average retirement age for men and women

Men: 58.2
Women: 51.5

Average retirement age over time

As life expectancy has increased, so has time spent in the workforce—members of the Silent Generation spent 20 years in retirement compared to iGeneration/Millennials, who are expected to spend 31 years in retirement.

Average retirement age in the future

Australians believe they’ll retire later—among working Australians, 65 is the average age at which they believe they’ll retire. Among recent retirees (in the past 5 years), the retirement age has sharply increased.

Percent of population that is 60/65+ in age

65+: 15.3%

Note: 65+ is the fastest-growing age group in Australia.

Do people stay in, or leave, the country after retirement? Where do they go if they leave?

They generally stay, though the population receiving pension checks at overseas addresses has increased threefold since the early 90s. Today, about 77,000 Australians receive pension checks overseas. Italy, Greece and New Zealand are the top three locations.

Birth rate

12.8/1000

Other general country data:

Population of the country

24.5 million

Size of the workforce

Employed: 12,051,000

Main industries in the country

Finance, business consulting, metals and mining, energy and utilities, industrial and material, health care/pharma

 

Chanced upon this site

Retire Early Lifestyle

In 1991 at the age of 38 they quit their jobs they sold their business, their home, and nearly all of their possessions and put the proceeds, about $500,000, into Vanguard’s S&P 500 index fund.



Profile

Comments from Billy reminded me of @Nodrog

"We live off the proceeds of our investment portfolio"
"We have more money now than we did when we first retired”

 

2018 Global Retirement Index



Here are the Top Five countries with some factors that influenced their high scores.

1. Switzerland (Score: 84%): The country moves up one spot from last year, toppling Norway off the No. 1 place. Improved performance in Quality of Life due to improved in air quality and environmental factors was a key driver. It also achieved better scores in the finances with strong finishes in governance and bank non-performing loans. It also boasts the third-highest score for health expenditure per capita indicator and the fourth-highest score for life expectancy.
2. Iceland (Score: 84%): It received a top score for the employment indicator, improving over last year’s number five ranking, and also received the highest score for income equality. And it ranks in the top 10 for happiness.
3. Norway (Score: 81%): Norway dropped from the top spot last year third overall due mainly to a significant decline in the Finances (28th) sub-index and a drop in material well-being to the second spot. Even so, it has the fourth-highest score for both the income per capita and income equality indicators and the 10th best score for the employment indicator.
4. Sweden (Score: 78%): Health was the only sub-index that Sweden posted an improvement in this year over last. Declines were also seen in Finances with the country having a higher tax burden compared to last year. But there was an improvement in life expectancy. It now has the eighth-highest life expectancy among all GRI countries.
5. New Zealand (Score: 78%): It ranked fifth this year, like last year, but the only sub-index that registered a higher score is Finances, where the country outperforms. It has the highest governance score and the employment indicator also improved.

 

Interesting story.

Questions:
Do/did they have children? One less expense.
Did they have a large income/investments before they retired? Mentions nothing about that.
Where did they live after they sold their home/possessions? In a tent? $0.5M at that stage would be around $1M in today's dollars and the S&P 500 yield is I think 2%. That's $10k per year on $0.5M.

Just something about the numbers doesn't seem right.

 

They are spending sub usd 25k per annum, floating around the 3rd world. Hardly aspirational stuff (personally couldn’t think of anything worse) IMHO but we each get to decide our journey!

 

As you say, we all make our own journeys in life. I would not be so glib as to say money does not buy happiness (heard that cliche a 1,000 times), but I would certainly argue that that excess consumption (luxury this, luxury that) certainly does not buy happiness. We obtain happiness from different things, like having friends, doing things we like, travel and experiencing new things, setting and achieving goals, workplace freedom and autonomy, etc. Without doubt, money helps in all of this (in fact, essential for some), giving us freedoms to do certain things, which is different to just buying more ‘things’. The couple here seem to be living that ethos in their own way.

 

You are both correct. However, I do wonder if some people coming across these blogs want to adopt the approach without considering the pros and cons.

Following someone else's dream can lead to unexpected and disappointing outcomes.

 

From the looks of it they have sold a few books and the blog would likely bring in income also

 

I wouldn't retire overseas.. But I do like the idea of (in retirement) renting out PPOR to fund extended travels, e.g. 12 month trips.Cheaper parts of the world could be fully paid for by net rent of a decent PPOR.

Or perhaps even a mini retirement (career break).

 

Following on from this data is a podcast by freakonomics which discusses nordic happiness factors.
How to Be Happy (Ep. 345) - Freakonomics

 

The World’s Best Places to Retire in 2019

“Where should I retire?” This is the question we hear most often at International Living, and every January we give you our most definitive answer in the form of our Annual Global Retirement Index

 

of all this country.. malaysia has to be number 1 for two things.. food and english..

oh and a 3rd.

access to domestic maid !

 

for australians i add one more point .

ease of travel.

asia to australia 8-10 hours.

south america/north america.. long

europe - way too long.

 

Quick summary:
Panama
Costa Rica
Mexico
Ecuador
Malaysia
Colombia
Portugal
Peru
Thailand
Spain

 

Compare this from 2014

1. Thailand
2. Uruguay
3. Malta
4. Mexico
5. Colombia
6. Spain
7. Costa Rica
8. Malaysia
9. Ecuador
10. Panama

Thailand must have dropped due to rising prices and deteriorating exchange rate