Increasing Amount of Americans Retiring Abroad To Avoid High Inflation Costs, Corruption
As a record number of Americans turn 65 this year, retiring abroad is becoming an increasingly attractive option for many. Former US residents — or “expats” — say it offers a solution to soaring costs of living and health care in the United States. This dream, however, comes with a disclaimer: There are still plenty of challenges to navigate in other countries.
For some retirement-age expats, finding a slower pace of life, a sense of community, and a temperate climate were reasons enough to pull up stakes.
Near the sun-drenched shores of Playa del Carmen in Mexico, Jeff Natale is living his best life at age 68.
“I wanted a warm spot year-round,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
Natale, the author of An Expats Guide to Living in Playa del Carmen, runs JMN Consulting LLC. After spending years in New York and New Jersey, he decided he'd had enough of brutal winters and urban sprawl.
Natale also said medical services are good and can be affordable. “I have found health care to be reasonably priced as a resident. Of course, there are two tiers of pricing—one for non-residents and one for residents. I do not have health insurance here as prices for care are much less than in my home states.”
The inspiration to live a different kind of life came after a high school trip to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula in 1982. Natale fell in love with the culture, traditions, and slow-paced lifestyle of the locals and dreamed of returning one day to live there.
More than 30 years later, after marriage and raising a family in the United States, that’s exactly what he did. After what he referred to as a “series of life-changing events,” Natale turned his attention back to Mexico. He contacted a realtor and closed on a condo in Playa del Carmen in 2014, which kicked off a five-year retirement plan countdown that came to fruition in 2019.
“I said goodbye to the United States and arrived in Cancun with five suitcases and my African Grey Parrot,” Natale said.
In the Philippines, Mike Jansen said he'd be spending his golden years abroad due, in part, to “unhappiness with American lying politicians” and how the government has treated former military service members like himself. “Decided on the Philippines due to the culture, and they have more [spoken] English here than any other Asian country,” Jansen told The Epoch Times in a text.
Latin American countries such as Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil are top choices for living, according to the expat resource InterNations. In Europe, Spain ranks in the top 10 for best expat destinations, alongside the Philippines and Thailand in Southeast Asia.
The number of Americans collecting Social Security income abroad in recent years has risen sharply. In December 2008, the number of retired workers collecting benefits abroad was 306,906, according to the Social Security Administration. That number reached 443,546 by December 2021.
As of this year, more than 760,000 total Social Security beneficiaries living abroad receive a total of $7.5 billion in payments. That’s represents an almost 40 percent increase of total beneficiaries collecting from another country since 2008.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/inside-trend-americans-retiring-abroad
