Best Places to Retire

PARADISE apparently isn't in the United States, at least for people planning to retire. In fact, almost 500,000 retired Americans live outside the United States, in places like Mexico, Thailand, Costa Rica, Panama, and Portugal. The main reason is that a lower cost of living in another country can mean a much higher standard of living.

There are three other main motives why retirees may move to a new location. The first is to relocate to a beautiful location with a better climate and find refuge there. It can be a place formerly reserved for annual vacations somewhere close to the mountains, beside the ocean, or in a nice warm climate.

The second motivation is seeking new adventures. Some people want a place that is more interesting and exciting than their present location. It can be a nice villa in Italy or a seaside cottage in Panama.

Wanting to be closer to a support structure is the third motivation. Some retirees may want to move to another country, not because they are seeking adventure or a change of scenery, but because they want to be closer to their children and grandchildren.

Fortune magazine in a recent issue says it has found "five idyllic places - from Patagonia to Phuket - where you can still live like a king on what you've saved." You can dream on in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Boquete, Panama; Merida, Mexico; and Phuket, Thailand.

What's more, not so long ago US magazine Modern Maturity [now AARP The Magazine] sent teams of researchers out in search of exotic locales around the globe to determine the absolute best places to retire - a home away from home or as a retirement haven for North Americans.

Modern Maturity graded each destination using 12 categories, ranging from weather, the cost of living, cultural programs, housing, public utility, communication, public health, medical facilities, environment, safety and security, and political stability. According to the magazine:

The Top 15 Best Places to Retire

1. Costa Del Sol, Spain
2. The Cinque Terra, Italy
3. Provence, France
4. Boquete, Panama
5. St Vincent & the Grenadines, Caribbean
6. County Lare, Ireland
7. NONG KHAI, Thailand
8. Crete, Greece
9. Ambergris Caye, Belize
10.Tunis, Tunisia
11. Algarve, Portugal
12. Cayman Islands, Caribbean
13. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
14. Paphos, Cyprus
15. Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Whether retirement is a distant dream, just around the corner, or if you are already retired, give some consideration in your retirement plan to living and traveling in a country other than where you are today. "The world is a book," declared Saint Augustine, "and those who do not travel, read only a page."

Note: This article about the best places to retire in the world by Ernie J. Zelinski was originally published with the title Retirement Planning Tips on the Best Places to Retire on several websites.

For More Places Where to Retire See

THE BEST PLACES TO RETIRE

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT WHAT MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY IN RETIREMENT CAN GREATLY HURT YOU!

Retirement is a double-edged sword. You either make it work for you - or it will cut your happiness in half. The more you know about the secrets to a successful retirement, the happier you will be once you retire.

That's why you need:

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How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor is a provocative, entertaining, down-to-earth, and tremendously inspiring book that will help you get more joy and satisfaction out of all your retirement activities.

Although turned down by over 35 publishers, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie Zelinski has already sold over 100,000 copies and has been published in 7 foreign languages since it was released by Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, California.

What's more, go to www.Amazon.com and type "retirement" into the search feature. You will see that How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position - out of over 175,000 listings for retirement books!

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Criteria Used for Choosing The 15 Best Places to Reinvent Your Life

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/travel/Articles/a2003-03-27-mag-bestplaces.html

Availability of jobs, since many in this group will work beyond age 65.

Affordable housing-many cities have costs on par with or below the national median price of $161,600.

Culture and entertainment (from museums and opera to shopping and sports events).

Access to outdoor recreation, from skiing and biking to walking and hiking.

Safety-personal and property safety, and a generally secure feeling.

Colleges or universities (for continuing education and a multigenerational vibe).

Sense of community (often places with a vital and walkable downtown).

Proximity to comprehensive, well-regarded health care facilities.

Good public high schools, since many boomers still have teens at home.

Ease of getting around (public transportation, traffic, access to an airport).

COMING REAL SOON

Cheap Places to Retire in California

10 Best Places to Retire in California

Best Places to Retire Young
See http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0703/gallery.bp_retireyoung_new.moneymag/index.html

He makes his home where the living is best.
- Latin proverb

Why waste so much time, energy, and money trying to buy the biggest house that your credit rating will allow? Truth be known, a small house can hold as much happiness as a large one. Sometimes it will hold even more.
- from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie J. Zelinski

Go and live somewhere else [in your retirement]. Try doing what you think you've always wanted to do.
- John Osborne, Retirement Seminar Presenter

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself there.
- Fred Allen

If my dreams could all come true paradise/retirement would be - in a little bungalow - somewhere by the sea.
- Unknown wise person

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
- Samuel Johnson

NOTE: Check out more retirement quotes and retirement sayings at:

Retirement Quotations Café

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Best Places to Retire Books

• World Retirement Places Rated: What You Need to Know to Plan Your Retirement Abroad by David Savageau
• Cities Ranked and Rated by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander
• Where to Retire: America's Best and Most Affordable Places by John Howells
• Choose the Southwest for Retirement by John Howells
• Choose the Pacific Northwest for Retirement by John Howells
• America's Best 100 Places to Retire by Elizabeth Armstrong
• Choose a College Town for Retirement by Joe Lubow

NOTE: All "Best Places to Retire Books" are available at either your local bookstore or Amazon.

Recent research about where to retire released from Queensland's Griffith University in Australia suggests that a move to the coast may not help retirees realize their dreams or retirement plans. Indeed, the beach is certainly not one of the best places to retire for many retirees. Research team leader Michael Davies says city dwellers, adjusting to life after work and asking the question, "Where is the best place to retire?", can find it difficult to relocate to a quieter place on the coast.

Dr Davies claims that people do not understand the shock that can come from leaving a busy work schedule and a network of friends to move to the beach. "Generally when you're looking at a transition like retirement you need to think a bit about what that change will mean for you," Dr Davies said.

"I guess for those who don't think long and hard about how they want to retire to maximise their opportunities and to maximise their lifestyle and well being, then I think there can be some problems."

Have you wondered which country is the best one for taking early retirement? Well it's Brazil. Not only one of the best affordable places to retire in the world, it is the best counrty in the world in which to take early retirement. The average resident retires at 49, and many people retire with benefits of 100 percent or more of their salary.

What makes Brazil's government pension plan so generous is that it is based on the notion of "time served" with no minimum age for retirement. (Brazil along with Iran and Iraq are the only three countries in the world that don't have a minimum retirement age for collecting a government pension.) Thus, two-thirds of Brazilian civil servants retire younger than 55 and 14 percent retire before they turn 45.

If you satisfy certain conditions, however, you can retire much earlier than 49 with a generous life-time government pension. Take, for example, a farmhand who recently hung up his work clothes at the age of 33. Having satisfied government auditors that he had started working at 3 years old, he will receive a nice pension until he dies, even if he gets another job and retires again.

All told, the great benefit for work-detesting Brazilians who take early retirement is that their retirements can last much longer than their careers. Moreover, they collect a nice pension to help them live in style. And of course, it is one of the best affordable places to retire in the world.

Britons who are retiring are not content to sit at home and relax, according to new research.

A survey of people nearing the end of their working life found they had a number of ambitions that they wanted to pursue as soon as they begin their retirement.

Interestingly, 19 per cent of Britons said that they wanted to relocate to a new area as soon as retire.

Of those who want to move, the majority are not satisfied to stay in England or the rest of the UK. Fifty-two percent said they want to move abroad.

One of the reasons that people want to relocate is that their cost of living can go down. Indeed, according to a recent poll by NatWest, nine out of ten British expats are financially better off since relocating abroad.

More Information That Corresponds to:

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Best places in Florida to Retire

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Where is the Best Place to retire?

Cyprus has been praised by a media outlet for offering a very attractive environment for foreign expats.

Gulf Weekly said the Mediterranean island combines both a "rich cultural heritage" and a contemporary European lifestyle.

According to the publication, this has helped to make it a highly popular location for retirees from countries such as the UK.

Commenting on the island, Gulf Weekly said: "It's understandable - the reasons that make Cyprus so appealing are sustainable, which is important for any investor to keep in mind."

The newspaper highlighted the favourable tax regime as one of its major attractions, as well as the good healthcare provision it now offers.

This is now available to retirees from Europe as a result of the island's accession to the European Union in 2004.

International links between Cyprus and the rest of the continent were strengthened earlier this year went it became a member of the euro.

If you feel that your city or country is too populated and are looking for the best places to retire in the world where there are not as many people, following are the ten least populated countries where to retire in the world based on recent statistics.

1. Cook Islands 21,008
2. Palau 19,717
3. Turks and Caicos Islands 19,350
4. Wallis and Futuna 15,734
5. Anguilla 12,738
6. Nauru 12,570
7. Tuvalu 11,305
8. Montserrat 8,995
9. Saint Helena 7,367
10. Saint Pierre and Miquelon 6,976

This comes from the Uganda's The New Vision,


Retirees Urged to Watch Out for Detoothers

The UPDF 3rd Division commander, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, has advised retiring soldiers to watch out for spouses who love lavish lifestyles.

"If your spouse is a spendthrift and is not willing to adjust, abandon her, as she is bound to lead you into misery."

He made the remarks on Friday during a function at Rubongi Barracks in Tororo district where 57 UPDF soldiers retired. He told the retirees that they had left the army with a modest financial package which they should invest wisely.

"Irresponsible spouses are planning how best they can get a fair share of the money you have worked for before eloping away with other men."

He added that such women prefer staying in the cities. "She will insist that you rent an apartment in town then she will lure you into spending money on luxuries till it is finished."

Kankiriho also cautioned the soldiers against over drinking. "If you do that, you will never regret why you retired from the force," he added.

This bit is a great Singles Advantage to add to the revised edition of The Joy of Not Being Married:


#1 of Three Retirement Quotes Regarding Men and Women in Retirement
When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.
- Gail Sheehy

#2 of Three Retirement Quotes Regarding Men and Women in Retirement

In this country . . . men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.
- Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

#3 of Three Retirement Quotes Regarding Men and Women in Retirement

A retired husband is often a wife's full-time job.
- Ella Harris

Choosing the best places to retire is no problem for many Americans who have their retirement planning in order. According to a recent issure of Kiplinger's Retirement Planning Guide, hundreds of American retirees are flocking south where they enjoy a tropical environment, a lower cost of living, and a slower pace of life. These retirees choose countries in Latin American as their best places to retire, particularly Panama, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

Some benefits of placing Latin America into your retirement plan include:

* The cost of living in these countries make them some of the best places to retire because it is well below that of the U.S.

* Another reason that American retirees look at these countries as the best places to retire is that they pay no tax on foreign-generated income and are exempt from property taxes for up to 15 years.

* Cars and household goods can be imported tax-free and retirees can take advantage of discount programs on goods and services ranging from prescription drugs and health care to airfares, restaurants and
movie tickets.

The oldest of baby boomers are 62 and just old enough to start collecting Social Security and qualifying for a reverse mortgage. But for this group of Americans, retirement looks a whole lot different, according to Gene Warren, president and chief executive of Thomas, Warren and Associates. Warren, an economist who specializes in the study of retirement, helps developers and communities figure out how they're going to attract future retirees.

By 2029, those baby boomers born in 1964 will turn 65, notes Warren. But this group of individuals looks at retirement in a different way. For example, baby boomers are much more likely to move when they retire than their parents were. At the 2008 annual meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors in Dallas, Warren said that typically just 10 percent of retirees relocate. He expects 20 percent of boomers to relocate, or approximately 18.2 million individuals.

Another difference: Baby boomers are activity-driven, he notes, unlike their parents, who are from what he calls the "silent generation."

Here is a reviews about The World's Best Retirement Book which will help you retire happy, wild, and free once you choose your best place to retire:



An Unsolicited Testimonial for The World's Best Retirement Book from The Life Planning Network
A truly upbeat read! The author, who semi-retired at age 30 and in debt, claims you are never too young to retire. He paints a picture that is so appealing you will wish you had retired years ago. He hits topics such as lifelong learning, relocation, the importance of friendships, and creative travel options. His seven-page list of "activities for your get-a-life tree" will help you start and keep you active for a very long time.
- Life Planning Network



OVER 100,000 Copies SOLD
PUBLISHED IN 7 FOREIGN LANGUAGES INCLUDING FRENCH AND CHINESE

Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com before you submit your retirement letter with this direct link:

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com



Visit one of Ernie Zelinski's Other Blogs:

Ernie Zelinski's Redroom Blog

Ernie Zelinski's Blog on Morgan James Publishing

Sources for lists of the 100 best retirement towns

You can also consult one of the many widely available "Top 100 places" or "10 Best places to retire" lists on the Internet.

Here are links to the top 100 lists:- Money Magazine 2007 Best Places to Live
U.S. News & World Report Best Places to Retire
AOL Best Places to Retire
Kiplinger's Best Cities to Retire (see also their Best Cities for Empty-Nesters
Sperling's Best Places
"Best Places to Retire and Stretch Your Real Estate Dollar"
Certified Retirement Communities

The question may be:

Where to Retire - Arizona or Costa Rica? Thomas Moore of Phoenix, Arizona, made this comment on Ernie Zelinski's Blog at Arizona Central.

Hi Ernie;

A lot of retired people live in the Phoenix area, and many of them think Paradise is right here in Arizona.

I think you'd sell more books to the folks in the snow belt.

Actually, my wife and I did quite a bit of research before we chose a retirement location. We lived in California and traveled to Oregon and Costa Rica, two locations we thought might attract us. We've traveled before to Europe and Asia, and while we didn't exactly cover the world, we found that no place matched the safety and convenience of living near a metropolitan center in USA, with arts and culture in English, a relatively stable currency and cost of living.

We enjoyed our visits to Costa Rica, since we have a friend there who is a long-time resident. He showed us all around both coasts and found a nice property that we could afford, but the culture shock seemed daunting. One must learn the language and assimilate, otherwise you wouldn't last a year, according to our friend there. Many Canadian and US retirees come to Costa Rica, and many return home within the first year. There are only three TV channels, all in Spanish, so you must get out and socialize to avoid complete boredom. The people are very friendly. There's a park on every other corner, and a bar in between. It's a very Castilian culture, quite different from Mexico or even Nicaragua, which is right next door. For example, in Costa Rica they have reservations for the native people, like we do.

The nicest thing about Costa Rica (besides the climate) is that it's relatively safe to live in any of the suburbs of San Juan, the capitol city. In many third world countries all of the Americans and Europeans live in one enclave, behind a guarded gate. Not so in Costa Rica. Very little violent crime there. Burglary, yes. Hold ups, no.

And, you can drink the tap water! They make a big thing about the national water purification system. Free medical care for residents, too, after you've been there for one year, I believe.

But, you have to "live local." Imported goods, like canned food and automobiles are taxed 100 percent (pays for the free medical care), so you don't buy imported stuff.

We decided that Costa Rica is a nice place to visit, but we didn't want to live there. I think we made the right choice.

NOTE: Thomas Moore is a retired journalist/technical writer/illustrator (a profession he took up after retiring from aerospace engineering).

Photo of Author Ernie Zelinski and Jack Canfield

A Place to Retire

Sooner or later the retirement day would have come and gone. If you are in a corporate house or a public sector undertaking, a generous company pension and investments will provide the opportunity to pursue many time-consuming (not time-killing) activities. But here the crux of the matter, after the novelty of the retirement wears off in a month or two, is that time tends to stand still and you feel you have nowhere particular to go, no regular coffee breaks, no colleagues to gossip with and exchange notes, no challenges to give your life a shape and purpose. Eventually you may be forced to ask yourself, "What next? Do I wait for death to overtake me or do I try to kill time by imposing myself on others?"

It is here that How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Random House Author Ernie J. Zelinski provides some interesting reading material which can help to boost the retired person's morale and make life both exciting and demanding, bringing new challenges, new experiences and new uncertainties.

Retirement normally turns out far different from what one envisions. For some it is a big disappointment; for others it is an annoyance and for still others, an opportunity to attend to activities never done before. As someone has said, "Retirement is the time when you do all the things you intended to do when you'd have the time."

This book gives retirement wisdom that no financial advisor can give. Not just having a big balance contributes to happiness in old age for today's retirees, but also physical well-being, mental well-being and solid social support play a bigger role than financial status for most retirees. Planning is important, says the author, well before retirement. You must take steps to ensure that when the bell rings to announce your retirement, you are ready to do what is in front of you. The time available for marital, personal, social, creative and family activities expands "when the hours previously taken up with full-time employment cease. How you manage time is just as important as when you are in the workforce."

This book suggests that to retire happy, wild and free, you must stay active, have goals and dreams. Retirement can be a time for life's best moments, provided you plan in advance. The author says that as a matter or course, retirement is the last opportunity for you to reinvent yourself, let go of the past and find peace and happiness within. Strange as it may sound, despite the adverse publicity that retirement sometime gets, in Western nations, one in every eight persons is aged 65 or older. More people there are retiring much earlier than 65 despite far better health, a higher level of education, more income and many more options for maintaining an active and productive lifestyle than those who retired before them.

Some of the major suggestions made by the author are:

• Retirement sets you free. George Eliot had said, "It's never too late to be what you might have been."
• To have no aptitude for leisure is to have no aptitude for life.
• Create a new identity because the old one won't do.
• Finding and preparing your true calling can make retirement the best time of your life.
• Work at something which is "a fun thing to do" and not so much a job.
• Reclaim your creative spirit as it will impart a joyful purpose to life.
• "Plant your 'get-a-life' tree and watch it grow." This can be done by going mountain climbing, taking up golf, cricket or tennis, teaching English or Hindi as a second language, phoning old friends, walking barefoot in streams, joining a club or a library, giving on a cruise, learning to cook, playing a musical instrument, writing a novel or painting a picture, retirement traveling to old haunts, joining a laughter or yoga club, etc.

Retirement is thus an opportune time to get to know yourself better - psychologically, materially and spiritually, be it in a part-time career, family relationships, spiritual fulfilment, passionate pursuits or the opportunity to hang out at bookshops or restaurants. You must find time for things that matter most to you.

• Choose Costa Rica for Retirement 8th: Information for Travel, Retirement, Investment, and Affordable Living by John Howells
• Choose Panama . . . the Perfect Retirement Haven by William G Hutchings
• Choose a College Town for Retirement: Retirement Discoveries for Every Budget by Joe Lubow
Retirement Places Rated: What You Need to Know to Plan the Retirement You Deserve by David Savageau
Where to Retire, 6th: America's Best and Most Affordable Places by John Howells
America's 100 Best Places to Retire, Fourth Edtion: The Only Guide You Need to Today's Top Retirement Towns by Elizabeth Armstrong
Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places Across the USA and Canada by Warren R. Bland
50 Fabulous Places to Retire in America by Arthur Griffith(Editor), Mary Griffith (Editor)
America's Best Low-Tax Retirement Towns, 3rd Edition: Where to Move to, and From, to Slash Your Taxes in Retirement! by Elizabeth Niven

Health in Retirement tops most people's retirement agendas and those deciding to retire abroad look for the reassurance of a renowned health service.

Retirees moving to Malta have this covered, as one of the island's overriding benefits is its comprehensive health service, which is currently ranked 5th in the world by the WHO (World Health Organization), easily beating the UK's 18th place.

Malta has become particularly popular with British buyers in recent years due to the island's Mediterranean climate, low cost of living and a comprehensive health service that's entirely free to residents at the point of delivery. Funded from general taxation, all residents have access to preventative, investigative, curative and rehabilitative services in Government health centres and hospitals.

Malta also offers extremely favourable taxation. Permanent residency schemes offer tax as low as 15 per cent on any income brought into the island, and after three years of residency there is no local inheritance or capital gains tax, making the island as good for your financial worth as it is for your health.

According to a new retirement lifestyle survey in Australia, the ongoing volatility within financial markets has prompted a massive increased awareness toward retirement savings by Australian baby boomers. More than three out of four Aussie baby boomers are beefing up their savings strategy as a result of the turmoil, according to a Commonwealth Bank survey.

The majority of changes included making bigger or additional contributions to their retirement savings plan, while about a third said they were investing more in other investments outside retirement plans such as shares or property.

Interestingly, the Retirement Lifestyle survey found almost 40 per cent of those surveyed considered being retired an opportunity to pursue a new career or learn new skills.

"This trend suggests that many people see retirement as a series of transitions where some form of work or community service can continue into the retirement years," Commonwealth Financial Planning general manager Tim Gunnin said.

The best signs of whether Australians will find retirement living easy, however, is found in two other research studies on retirement. The studies found that people with the most happiness in retirement were those:

• Who had the ability to cope financially before retirement.
• Who were satisfied with life as a whole prior to retirement.
• Who retired at the time preferred.

At the same time, according to TD Waterhouse's first Canadians and Retirement survey of already-retired Canadians, retirement is different from what many Canadians imagined it would be.

Twenty percent of women found retirement quite different from what they imagined, versus 15 percent of the men. How to enjoy your retirement, apparently, is not the easiest thing in the world.

A quarter of Canadian retirees aged 55 to 70 found it hard to adjust to a life no longer defined by their work. Financial constraints meant they could not do all the things they used to do for 22 percent of those surveyed. Interestingly, two-thirds of Canadians retire before the full Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan benefit age of 65, often times involuntarily.

The retirees in the survey were asked what retirement advice they would give to those contemplating retirement. These were the five most popular answers for ways that retirees can experience the joy of not working:

• Workers should develop a full life outside of work instead of waiting to do so at retirement.
• Workers should take care of their physical and mental health.
• Workers should save for retirement as early as possible.
• People should pay off all debt before retiring.
• Above all, individuals, if they want to experience real success at retirement, should take time to prepare for and understand what they want from retirement.

According to the TD Waterhouse results, only 15 percent of individuals are "completely living out their retirement dreams." Lack of retirement planning appears to be one reason for this.

Retirees taking part in the TD Waterhouse survey were also asked what they found most enjoyable about retirement. The three magical ingredients of a happy retirement for Canadians - which should not come as a surprise to the intelligent people of this world - were: 1. Simple pleasures, 2. Simple pleasures, and 3. Simple pleasures.

Here is a list of top-five retirement quotes to help people retire happy, wild, and free after they submit their retirement letters, write their retirement poems and present their retirement dinner speeches:

#1 of Top-Five Retirement Quotes and Sayings


A lot of our friends complain about their retirement. We tell 'em to get a life.
- Larry Laser


#2 of Top-Five Retirement Quotes and Sayings


There is life after retirement, and it is BETTER.
- Catherine Pulsifer


#3 of Top-Five Retirement Quotes and Sayings


If my dreams could all come true paradise/retirement would be - in a little bungalow - somewhere by the sea.
- Unknown wise person


#4 of Top-Five Retirement Quotes and Sayings


I'm not retiring from life, just a job.
- Unknown wise person


#5 of Top-Five Retirement Quotes and Sayings


I really stay busy [in retirement]. I often have to cancel my golf games on the weekends to go play in tennis tournaments.
- Richard Davies

Financial planner Robert Doyle (CPA with Spoor, Doyle & Associates in St. Petersburg, FL) once said, "When you retire, your house is your home. Don't look at it as an investment. You can convert it if you need to, but if you're retiring because of the equity in your house, you better get back to work."

A little over a year and a half ago, when I was forced to purchase the loveable half-duplex that I had rented happily for over 25 years, some of my friends warned me that I could be purchasing at the height of the house boom in Edmonton. I told my friends that I was aware of this but I was not purchasing the place as an investment or as part of my retirement plan. Indeed, houses should never be considered as an investment - for retirement or otherwise!

"A house should be viewed only as any other consumer item," was how I put it. "Then if the price goes down, it is no different than when the price of your car or your running shoes go down in price. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this. Some do, however. Richard Kiyoski, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad stated that your house is not an asset but a liability.

"The problem," I told my friends, "is that millions of people have been conned by fradulent bankers and real estate agents into believing that their home is the biggest investment that they will ever make in their lives. What a ridiculous statement! I know that the biggest investment that I will ever make in my life is in myself, in my self-education about how to live within my means so that I don't have money problems and in tapes, books, and seminars on how to create money with my innovative books and products so that I don't have to live in poverty - even if haven't had a real job in over 25 years."

Alas, the con job of having people believe that their houses are investments has come home to roost. The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey just showed the biggest one-year drop in its 18-year history.
One of the major reasons was that that home ownership was a substantial component of most respondents' net worth: one-third on average, according to a study of baby boomer retirement security by Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues.

They further calculated that an average national housing price drop of 13.5% -- less than we've already experienced -- would decrease the net worth of the boomers they surveyed an average of 10%.

A loss of 10% of net worth for people on the verge of retirement -- which doesn't include stock market losses or the losses people will incur if the housing market continues to fall, as many analysts think it will -- can have a big impact on a retiree's ability to live the life he or she imagined. Yet many Americans are relying on their homes as a source of income in retirement, either through downsizing to a smaller property or through dubious transactions like reverse mortgages. Between 1997 and 2006, housing prices increased an average of 83%, leading more people to assume their equity would see them through their retirement years.In the last year, however, house prices in the U.S. are down on average 14.1%.

Worse yet, some people say that the house price declines have just started. A few analysts are predicting that house prices will go down for 5 to 7 years straight. Think this can't happen? You are fooling yourself. Remember how financial analysts claimed that real estate prices could never go down in Japan, particularly Tokyo. When Japan had their recesssion hit in the 1990s, real estate prices in Tokyo declined for 10 years straight.

So much for houses as investments for retirement.

The baby-boomer generation about to retire is in no rush to pay off their mortgages according to the third annual Affluent Boomers at 60 survey from Bell Investment Advisors.

The prior generation of retirees had a major goal prior to retirement: "Burn the mortgage!"

Not so with the baby-boomer generation. More than 55 percent of boomers surveyed who currently hold mortgages do not plan to pay their mortgages off until at least their 70s, and likely never.

Of the 500 boomers surveyed approximately two-thirds currently have mortgages on their residences. The remaining third either rent or do not have a mortgage.

Here is a book that I was asked to review for Simon and Schuster:
Retirement Without Borders: How to Retire Abroad in Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Panama, and Other Sunny Foreign Places (And the Secret to Making It Happen Without Stress) by Barry Golson with Thia Golson and the Expert Expats.

Product Details
Scribner, December 2008
Trade Paperback, 432 pages
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9701-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9701-1

Besides the retirement books about where to retire listed below, there is another retirement book that you may want to consider reading and recommending.

Beth Wateham, a Vice President at Simon and Schuster, just sent me a galley copy of Retirement Without Borders: How to Retire Abroad in Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Panama, and Other Sunny Foreign Places (And the Secret to Making It Happen Without Stress) by Barry Golson. This book with the Scribner imprint is for those retirees who want to consider retiring abroad. The book will be released in December 2008.

Retirement Without Borders is the best book that I have read about retiring abroad and I will be giving a testimonial for the back cover requested by Beth Wateham (she claims she is a big fan of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

Product Description
Barry Golson knows all about retiring abroad -- he and his wife, Thia, have lived in six different countries. Now they choose expatriate-friendly locales around the world for their low cost and their high quality of living and explain how to investigate and settle in each country with minimum hassle and maximum pleasure.
Taking you step-by-step through the process of researching, testing, and finally living abroad, the Golsons' practical how-to guide covers all the major issues, including health care, finances, real estate, taxes, and immigration. Each location is profiled by an expatriate writer who has made that country his or her home and who knows how to answer all the questions about living richly and economically in some of the world's most beautiful places.

Here is the testimonial which will also appear on Amazon.com:

Retirement Without Borders

Do you have the urge to leave the American "rat race" behind - and live the retirement life that you have always dreamed about in another
country? Then you definitely need Retirement Without Borders.

This book not only shows you the best places where to retire in the world, but also gives ten great reasons for retiring somewhere else and six main reasons why perhaps you should not even consider moving to another country in the first place. This is a highly inspirational and informative guide for retirees and soon-to-be retirees who are considering retiring abroad but have no place to begin.

Author Barry Golson along with Thia Golson and other expert expats help you consider the dream, explore the dream, show you the dream in several countries, and tell you honestly what the pitfalls are. There is much, much more. Anyone who has thought about living overseas should read this book. Retirement Without Borders is absolutely, positively the best book that I have read on why, where, and how to retire abroad.

- Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of the international best-seller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

Here some of the reviews of the book:

Review
"Retirement Without Borders is for smart people who not only want to think outside the box but live outside the box as well. Golson doesn't just give you a road map, he gives you the compelling reasons, as well as the pitfalls and pleasures, of why the low-cost, high-quality expatriate life is one of the last great -- and rewarding -- boomer adventures."-- Peter Greenberg, travel editor of NBC's Today

"This is a must-read for anyone considering retiring abroad or living outside the U.S. for an extended period. It cuts through the myths and provides balanced and hardheaded advice on every aspect of living in a different culture."-- Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine

"The book takes us beyond the essentials, with expats writing about their experiences, both good and bad. An engaging and personal read, Retirement Without Borders leaves us wise and eager to try new places where we may want to spend the rest of our lives."-- Bernice Bratter and Helen Dennis, authors of Project Renewment

"Perfectly timed for boomers facing fundamental questions about costs of living and quality of life."-- Andrew P. Garvin, CEO of PreRetirementinfo.com

"An excellent, valuable resource for [those] who are seriously considering offshore retirement as well as those who may be dreaming about it."-- Booklist

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Daydreams

Ten Reasons to Consider Moving Abroad

Chapter 2: Reality Check

Uh-oh: Seven Reasons Not to Retire Abroad

Chapter 3: Medical Checkup

Health: The Big One

Chapter 4: Do Your Home Work

At Last: Real Estate! Our Secret Sauce

Chapter 5: Do the Math

Money: OK, Maybe This Is the Big One

Chapter 6: Test Yourself

Checklist: What's Important to You (and Your Spouse)

Chapter 7: Get Your Grades

A Report Card

Chapter 8: Add It Up

How Much Will I Need to Live On?

Country by Country

Prepare to Submerge

Latin America

Wait! Pop Quiz! Should You Retire in Mexico?

Chapter 9: Mexico

The Primary Destination

Chapter 10: Belize

The English-spoken Enclave

Chapter 11: Nicaragua

Coming Up on the Radar

Chapter 12: Costa Rica

The Peaceful One

Chapter 13: Panama

Best Retirement Benefits

Chapter 14: Field Trip

Panama's New Settlers

Europe

Wait! Pop Quiz! Should You Retire in France?

Chapter 15: France

La Grande Dame

Chapter 16: Italy

La Dolce Vita

Chapter 17: Croatia

The New Frontier

Chapter 18: Spain

The Possible Dream

Chapter 19: Portugal

Touch of Old Europe

Chapter 20: Also Consider...

A Sampler of Other Retirement Destinations

Argentina %u2022 Australia %u2022 The Caribbean %u2022 Ecuador %u2022 Greece %u2022 Honduras %u2022 New Zealand %u2022 The Philippines %u2022 Thailand

Chapter 21: Volunteering Without Borders

Acknowledgments

Appendix 1: The Charts

Appendix 2: Trend Spotting

A Chat with the Professor of Expatology

Resources

Index

"Go and live somewhere else," advises John Osborne,,a resident of Victoria, B.C." Try doing what you think you've always wanted to do." Osborne, a retired psychology professor from the University of Alberta, moved to Victoria after he found retirement living left a lot to be desired in his old hometown of Edmonton, Alberta.

Perhaps, like many retirees, you too yearn for a change of scenery, new experiences, and a changed set of circumstances. Moving to a new location within your own country is one way to satisfy these yearnings.

Going abroad is another option. Indeed, as many as two million American retirees currently live abroad, according to David Warner, professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

If you need guidance on where to retire abroad, one of the best sources is International Living magazine. The editors of this magazine evaluate the best places to retire in the world using the following criteria with the respective weighting.

• Cost of Living - 20 percent
• Health Care - 20 percent
• Special Benefits - 20 percent
• Real Estate - 15 percent
• Entertainment, Recreation, and Culture - 10 percent
• Climate - 5 percent
• Safety and Stability - 5 percent
• Infrastructure - 5 percent

Surprisingly, Panama which had been at the top of the list for six straight years has fallen to fourth position this year as the best place to retire. Here are the top three best places where to retire according to International Living magazine.

1. Mexico
2. Ecuador
3. Italy

In short, Italy in the number 3 spot has great weather, beautiful cities, and many historical sites. Ecuador in the number 2 spot offers an extremely low cost of living, great weather, beautiful landscapes, a vibrant economy tied to the US dollar, and a stable political environment.

Insofar as Mexico, it wins the top spot due to its Senior Citizens Benefits program, the quality of life that expat Canadian and American retirees can enjoy, investment opportunities, and the fact that it is relatively convenient for Americans and Canadians.

More than 78 million baby boomers are approaching retirement, and, while most will likely decide to stay in their present houses or homre, some will be relocating.

"For many people 55 and older," reports Associated Press reporter Adrian Sainz in an article in Forbes, "making the decision to move from a house into a smaller apartment, condo, assisted-living facility or nursing home can be a source of stress, apprehension and fear."

"It's overwhelming for both sides, both physically and mentally," added Nan Hayes, president of MoveSeniors.com, one of many Web sites which helps seniors find relocation resources.

"Apparently age makes it difficult to maintain a single-family home. Other times, financial circumstances, the desire to be closer to family, health issues, a spouse's death or other crises force a move, requiring emotional decisions by seniors and their adult children," wrote

Here are a few quotes from Retirement Quotes about Where to Retire to things in proper perspective:

My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty,
and it was the law.
- Jerry Seinfeld

I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I don't want to
spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.
- Jerome K. Jerome

A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately
after health and a good conscience.
- Sydney Smith

In the midst of a recession, America's baby boomers may be looking for some of the best places to retire in the US.

A list of most affordable places for retirees has just been released by the US the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, with Columbus, Ohio topping the list of where to retire if housing and living costs are a consideration. This college town has reasonably priced housing relative to income and a 4.5 percent inflation rate.

Dallas and Houston in Texas have been ranked second and fourth respectively, offering warm climate and growing economies. Minneapolis, Minnesota ranked third.

Here are a few more retirement Retirement Quotes about Where to Live When You Retire to keep things in proper perspective:

Why waste so much time, energy, and money trying to buy the biggest house that your credit rating will allow? Truth be known, a small house can hold as much happiness as a large one. Sometimes it will hold even more.
- from Life's Secret Guide to Happiness

Go and live somewhere else [in your retirement]. Try doing what you think you've always wanted to do.
- John Osborne, Retirement Seminar Presenter

Home - that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings.
- Lydia M. Child

Here is the 2008 list of Top 25 best places to retire in North America in 2008 according to Topretirements.com:

With me being Canadian, it's interesting to see Halifax, Nova Scotia on the List.

1. Asheville, NC
2. Sarasota, FL
3. Prescott, AZ
4. Paris, TN
5. Winston-Salem, NC
6. Athens, GA
7. Green Valley, AZ
8. San Diego, CA
9. Austin, TX
10. Phoenix, AZ
11. Halifax, Nova Scotia (CAN)
12. Charlottesville, VA
13. Fort Myers, FL
14. Venice, FL
15. Oxford, OH
16. Sedona, AZ
17. Gainesville, FL
18. Flagstaff, AZ
19. San Luis Obispo, CA
20. Old Saybrook, CT
21. San Antonio, TX
22. Mount Airy, NC
23. Beaufort, SC
24. Tucson, AZ
25. Crossville, TN