Retire Abroad

Preparing for Retirement

It is a human instinct to worry about the future especially when one is at the prime of his life.  It is not easy to wake up one day and realize that you are old and about to retire from your job, yet without a plan as to what you should do and where you should go.  In the book of Doctor Robert Weiss, he stated that retirement brings about two opposing possibilities - the promises of leisure and freedom as well as the risks of boredom and isolation.
(http://www.colorado.edu/RetiredFaculty/weiss_eckerdt_book.htm). 
Some people look forward to retirement because it will be the time when they get to do what they wanted and enjoy life to the fullest without worrying about the expenses. However, for some, retirement is a new phase of life that would require a lot of changes especially in lifestyle.  Whatever these possibilities that we have in mind about retirement, it is important to consider the place where a retiree could settle, wise investment, and making up to the lost social life.

A retiree needs to consider the following factors in choosing a place of settlement - affordability, cultural wealth,security, increasing economic and political stability as well as history. In an article "The Lure of Foreign Lands" Volker Poelzel stated the 12 Most Visited Places by the retirees. These places are Argentina,Brazil, Australia, Costa Rica,Austrialia, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico,South Africa,Spain, and United Kingdom.(http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0609/living_abroad_choosing_a_country.shtml).

One of the retirement investments that can provide guaranteed income is the immediate annuity. With this, one gives the insurance company a sum of money and the insurer agrees to pay you a monthly income as long as you live.  If it happens that you live more than a hundred years old then the company still has to pay you the amount the they have to pay every month and maybe even more than the amount that you paid them.  There are different ways in which we can create a retirement income: create your own portfolio of stock and bond index funds; have a retirement fund;buy a bond;invest on rental properties;buy a dividend income fund; and invest on real estate investment trusts. A total return portfolio may be done with a financial advisor. A retirement income fund makes a great investment because it does everything that a total return portfolio does. Your money gets allocated in a diversified portfolio stock and bond funds and it is distributed as your monthly income afterwards.  The only difference is that your money is accessible any time you want it.  Buying bonds means lending your money to the government of from a corporation.  Then, a certain interest will be paid by the borrower for a certain amount of time.  When the principal amount matures it will then be retured to you.  Investing on a rental property can be a stable source of income but their could be some unexpected expenses with this type of investment but if you have a your own portfolio of investments then it could be a profitable retirement investment.  The only edge of a divident income fund is that itwill own and manage dividend paying stocks for you but retirement income funds certainly does better than this type of investment. A real estate investment trusts is like a mutual fund that owns real estate. They manage everything about the property and gives the remanining income to the investor, which makes it a worry free investment for a retiree. If this kind of trusts will be used with a diversified portfolio then it can be a good retirement investment.(http://moneyover55.about.com/od/howtoinvest/a/retirementinvestments.htm).

"A lot of people have been totally immersed in their work and have not taken time to develop outside interests, and when they retire they are just totally lost," says Robert Christenson, a certified financial planner for Net Worth Advisory Group in Midvale, Utah. It is important to plan the things that we should do after retirement. The individual should have a hobby or  a social life after he retires to avoid living an isolated life.  We shouldn't lock ourselves in our homes watching TV and reading newspapers just because we are old.  Being a retiree is a signal of a new chapter of our life.  It is the right time to make up for our lost social life.  After years of burrying ourselves in a pile of deadlines and workloads we gain the right to relax and enjoy.  There a re a lot of social clubs run by the retirees.  These could be clubs that arrange travel, local walks, talks,exercise, and sports.  Depending on our interests these clubs encourage the elderlies to  be competitive and and have a fun at the same time.
(http://family.wikinut.com/The-need-to-enjoy-life-after-retirement/k6whpilo/)

Preparing for old age seem a difficult task.  Some of us may avoid the thought of it but we should understand that we should all go through it no matter how we stay away from it.  It is better to be ready by choosing the right place we should live in, having the right investments, making the right  plan for future social life.  It doesn't matter what kind of life we have lived. What kind of life we will have in the end.  It is never too late to have the life that we dreamed of and have the happiness that we aspire.