Philippines. Belize. Lisbon, Portugal. Valencia, Spain. Ecuador.
Those are just some of the locations to research about retiring or semi-retiring overseas.
Who's doing that are the aging, like myself, in terror of running out of money if they remain living out their long lives in the United States.
As the legal sector continues to be flat, lawyers and legal staff are finding they can't count on that big income much longer. Or it may have already been snatched away.
A laid-off legal secretary can't find a position which pays comparable salary and benefits. Her son, who has been employed in Germany for contract work, has suggested relocating to a small town in Spain.
Why overseas? Well, the old brands for supposed low-cost living in the U.S., such as Tucson, Arizona, are losing their pull power.
For an individual receiving the average amount of monthly Social Security payment-$1,323.44-there can be a growing gap between that, pensions, and nest eggs and what it takes to maintain a middle class way of life.
Ironically, the overall cost of living in Austintown, Ohio, has been lower for me than residing for 27 months in Tucson, from 2014 until 2016.
Many of us, of course, are still employed or operating successful businesses. However, bad health, another deep recession, that tap on the shoulder by human resources, and/or souring investments can make darkness fall fast. We, including those in the legal sector. need a Plan B.
On Facebook, bulletin boards for potential overseas retirees, and with financial advisors, we discuss the big picture and the nuts and bolts of starting lives abroad. Those of us from immigrant families know that isn't easy. There are also a growing number of publications such as International Living, put out there by Agora.
Sure, the photos depict those locations as the new promised land. Click on Cost of Living in the Philippines. There is the information that a furnished apartment costs between $150 and $200 a month.
In addition to the fundamental angst about leaving our homeland, there are so many choices. No fools, those in the loop about earning a profit from this trend are busy branding X or Y location as the perfect place for everything.
After investing some serious time in the research, chatter, and reading, we can be so overwhelmed that we are unable to choose. That phenomenon of too much choice has been documented.
After four months of a heavy-duty focus on The Where, I temporarily shifted the research to affordable beach communities in the U.S.
However, even those in which the cost of living is low, such as Mobile, Alabama, are more expensive that relocating to the Philippines.
Meanwhile, I still have to operate my communications boutique to seize the opportunities in the recovering world economy. Yes, my clients are global. So, yes, I do ask clients about how it is to make a life in, say, a town outside Manila. But, come on, that's like asking a fish how it is to be water-based.
The common sense tactic on this one is to designate vacations as must-visits to the promised lands which are on the top of our wish list. We can schedule one each year.
We can approach that as we had in our youth-as an adventure. We bought Europe on $5 a Day and just went. Or we can book a tour. Some of those are structured for potential retirees to check out all aspects of life, say, in Belize.
Aging is not for sissies, observed Betty White.
The unexpected challenge is, again as in our early 20s, figuring out what lifestyle to select.
Currently, a piece of that could be learning or re-learning a foreign language. Youngstown University provides courses for those over-60. They don't carry credit but at this stage of the game we likely don't need them. For spring, I could parachute into Spanish refreshers. I can enroll in up to three courses a semester. Perhaps I should also add on Portuguese.
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