Why You Should Consider Spending Your Retirement Abroad

Posted on by AMAR Staff

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By Ethan Harrison

1. You Want (or Need) Your Money To Go Further

These days, many people reach the retirement age with fewer savings than they had hoped for. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the median amount that the typical American has saved for retirement is about $17,000 at 56 to 61 years of age.

People who have saved much less than they had hoped to when retirement rolls around or who have planned poorly may feel like their options are limited. If you’re in the same boat, moving abroad can be a great solution. Depending on the country you move to your savings might be able to go twice as far, or more, what it would at home.

You’ll, of course, need to do plenty of research to find the right place for you to move abroad, but popular destinations for retirees from the USA include Cancun and other parts of Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Other retirees are moving to parts of Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe.

In these locations, and in many more around the world, your dollar can go a lot further. However, you’ll still be getting much of what you’ve come to expect from your current standard of living.

2. You Expect Your Healthcare Bills to Be Costly

Speaking of low costs, moving abroad can be a very good solution if you’re anticipating your healthcare bills to be very high as you enter retirement age. Healthcare costs in the U.S. are among the most expensive in the world and Medicare doesn’t offset these costs by much.

If you’ve ever had medical care abroad, you may have been surprised to learn that the quality of care you can receive in even the most affordable of countries can be very good.

Many great retirement destinations offer healthcare services that are on par with just about any of the healthcare organizations in the United States, at a fraction of the cost. Mexico, in particular, is well-known by expats as a great destination due to its affordable healthcare system that meets high standards.

Even among the more expensive retirement destinations and countries in the world, you can still expect to pay much less for medical costs. An average doctor’s visit in France, for example, will cost you about $25, more than 2/3rds of which is reimbursed by the government.

3. You’re Ready For a Different Lifestyle

While there are many benefits to moving abroad, the truth is that it can be both a difficult and amazing experience. Not all types of people are suited for moving abroad for the long-term. However, many other retirees who experience their new life wonder why they stayed in their home country for so long.

Most of all, you need to realize that you will be making some sacrifices when retiring abroad. You’ll need to be okay with leaving family and friends behind and dealing with the difficulties of adjusting to a new language and culture.

If you do decide to make the switch, though, you may just find that living abroad helps you stay young. Retiring abroad will force you out of your comfort zone, continuously give you new experiences, and as a result, will help your brain stay sharp. You may also get the chance to live in your ideal climate, eat great food, and meet new people.

Final Thoughts

Retiring abroad can be a great idea and, if you’re cut out for it, can make a very positive impact on your finances and your overall way of life. It’s not right for all people or couples, but if you think it may be right for you, consider the decision carefully. It’s not a small one to make.

Original Source: https://bit.ly/2ITxsDe

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Why is Guanajuato Famous? The Most Colorful City in Mexico!

Posted on by AMAR Staff

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By Tangerine Travels

It’s one of the most famous cities in Mexico for a reason. The colors of Guanajuato, Mexico are absolutely breathtaking! We spent the day walking miles and miles up and down the hills of Guanajuato to produce one of our favorite videos yet.

We may have worn out our shoes a little bit in the process but it’s what we had to do in order to capture all the beauty that this city has to offer.

 

 

 

Original Source: https://bit.ly/2GYXNz0

Expats are very satisfied with healthcare in Mexico

Posted on by AMAR Staff

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By Vallarta daily

How does medical care compare in Mexico with what expats are used to from their home country? In terms of quality, accessibility and affordability, the answer is very good, according to the majority of expatriates contacted for a recent survey on the subject.

The medical care they receive in Mexico
Health in Mexico: a research study found that more than three-quarters of expatriates surveyed are satisfied with the medical care they receive in Mexico, while almost a third of respondents said their health care costs are less than a quarter of what they were in their home country.

United States or Canada.
Completed by 1,129 expats, the survey also reveals the areas of Mexico where foreign residents experience the best medical care and have the healthiest lifestyles. The study was conducted and published by Best Places in the World to Retire and is the third in a series of survey reports on Mexico. Previous reports explored expat expectations about moving to Mexico and the cost of living in the country. The first question posed by the survey was: How would you rate the quality of medical care in Mexico compared to your country of origin?

While 29.7% of respondents said it is “approximately the same”, 23.2% said it is “somewhat better” and 20.1% said it is “much better”, which represents a combined total of 43.3% of all the respondents.

Only 15.9% of respondents rated medical care in Mexico as “somewhat worse” or “much worse” than in their countries of origin, while another 11.2% said they had no opinion on the subject. The survey indicated that the positive to negative relationship among respondents is well above two to one.

Chuck Bolotin , vice president of Best Places in the World to Retire, said that most expatriates use the private health system in Mexico, but added that “it is possible for an expatriate to qualify for public health care in Mexico, and many make use of it. ”

Foreign residents of the Chapala Lake area are more satisfied with the quality of medical care in Mexico, according to the survey, with 69.4% of respondents saying it is “much better” or “somewhat better” than in their countries of origin. The survey indicated that the area is an hour’s drive from Guadalajara , a city that, he said, “is generally recognized as having very good and modern hospitals.”

Mexico City offered the next best level of care with 64.3% of respondents saying it is “much better” or “somewhat better” than their home countries followed by the state of Yucatan, including Mérida (52.1%) and the area metropolitan area of Mazatlán (50.6%).

The comments of the respondents reflected the high general levels of satisfaction with the quality of medical services. “A little less advanced, but much better care and attention, doctors give you their own phone numbers,” said a survey respondent from the United States.

“Doctors have time for their patients here,” said a resident of San Miguel de Allende, reflecting a sentiment shared by other respondents. A user of the public health system commented that “once the bureaucracy is exceeded, medical attention is excellent.”

Answers to the second question of the survey: how would you rate your access to medical care in Mexico compared to your country of origin? – They were also largely positive. More than 58% of respondents said their ability to access health care is “much better” or “somewhat better”, while only 12.8% said access is “somewhat worse” or “much worse”.

Access to medical care
The area of Lake Chapala, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Yucatan lead the way in terms of accessibility, with about half of all residents in those areas saying that access to health care is “much better” than in their countries originally. “Access to medical care in Nova Scotia [ Canada ] is so bad it can not be compared, I could have waited a year for an MRI in Nova Scotia and two days went by here,” said a resident of Baja California.

One respondent cited the fact that many doctors make home visits as a factor that improves access to care medical. Another advantage of the Mexican system is that medical costs are significantly lower than in the countries of origin of expatriates, particularly in the United States, according to the survey.

In response to the question: “How would you rate the cost of medical care in Mexico compared to your country of origin?” Nearly three-quarters of respondents said it is “less than a quarter of the cost” (31.6%) or “From half the cost to a quarter of the cost” (40.7%).

Only 7.8% of respondents said that medical care costs more in Mexico than in their country of origin, although the figure increased to 18.8% among Canadian respondents and fell to only 2.6% among Americans. The survey said it presumed that “these differences are mainly the result of Canada having a state health care system.”

One respondent commented that low costs extend to veterinary services for pets, while another said that ” pharmaceutical products have a much more competitive price and in many cases the manufacturers are the same.”

Comparatively low prices for medical services also attract many short-term visitors to Mexico. The tourism dental is particularly popular. Health insurance costs are also generally lower in Mexico, according to the responses of expatriates, with only 7.9% saying that medical coverage costs more than in their country of origin.

However, almost half of the respondents said they had no opinion on the subject. The survey said it suspected that the result was largely due to the fact that the respondents did not have health insurance in Mexico and cited several reasons why they include:

• The low cost of medical care in Mexico makes it less necessary to buy insurance.

• Respondents still have health insurance in their countries of origin.

• Some may have pre-existing conditions that a Mexican insurance company would exclude, so some of these expatriates may choose to dispense with them.

“Who needs health insurance here when [medical care] is so affordable?” Said a resident of Quintana Roo from the United States. In response to the fifth question of the survey, in general, how satisfied are you with the medical care you receive in Mexico? – Nearly 60% of expatriates surveyed said they are “very satisfied “. Another 19.5% said they are “somewhat satisfied “, which means that there is a general satisfaction coefficient of 78.8%.

Only 3.9% of respondents said they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied “, while 7.1% said “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”. More than 70% of residents in Mazatlán said they were “very satisfied” with the care healthcare they receive, closely followed by residents of Lake Chapala area (69.8%).

The respondents
“A very fast, modern and professional service, and very reasonable cost.” Canada and the United States could learn a lot about Mexico’s efficient medical care, said a Canadian resident of Mazatlan. However, some other respondents were less impressed. One cited an experience in a “dirty hospital” while another said that “medical standards for doctors in Mexico are lower than in the US.”

In addition to seeking opinions about medical care, the survey also asked respondents to rate their health- related lifestyles compared to their countries of origin, taking into account factors such as eating, exercising and controlling weight. Bolotin said the question was included “in order to judge the relative need for medical care as increased or decreased by lifestyle.”

Just over 40% of respondents said their lifestyle in Mexico is “much healthier”, 31% said it is “a little healthier” and 23.5% said it is “more or less the same” ” That left only 4.4% of respondents who said their lifestyle is “a little less healthy” and the 0.7% who said it is “much less healthy”.

Increased opportunities for exercise and access to fresh and affordable foods were the most frequently cited factors that contributed to healthier lifestyles. However, not all was good news in the front of the lifestyle, and some respondents commented that their alcohol consumption had increased since they moved to Mexico.

The number one place with the healthiest expansive lifestyle is Mazatlan, followed closely by the state of Yucatan and the area of Lake Chapala, according to the survey. Finally, the survey posed the question: how worried are you about not being able to receive the health care services you may need in Mexico compared to your country of origin?

The survey said the question was included “to test the notion that medical care in Mexico can be considered acceptable for non- challenging diseases, but that our respondents would want to return to their home country should something happen more catastrophic.” However, 55% of the respondents said that “I was not worried at all”. Another 24.4% admitted being “a little worried”, while 12.7% said they had “almost the same level of concern”.

Just under 8% of the respondents said they are “a little more worried” or “much more worried ” about the possibility that they can not receive the services they need. The survey has a theoretical margin of error of +/- 2.91% based on a population of expatriates in Mexico of 500,000.

Original Source: https://bit.ly/2EINehV

Could You Be Saving Too Much For Retirement?

Posted on by AMAR Staff

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By Bob Carlson | Forbes

The media regularly run headlines about how Americans are unprepared for retirement, primarily because they haven’t saved enough. But there’s another view that doesn’t receive as much attention. This view is that many people might be saving too much for retirement. That could be good news for their heirs, but they could be shortchanging themselves by using rules of thumb and wrong assumptions in their planning.

Most people are told that in retirement they’ll spend about 80% of what they earned in the year before retirement and they should save enough to fund that level of spending. The theory behind the 80% rule is logical. You’ll need less money in retirement, because you won’t be commuting to work, having payroll taxes withheld, and incurring other work-related expenses. Studies by Aon Consulting support this rule of thumb.

A study by T. Rowe Price in 2014, however, concluded the 80% rule might be too high for many people.

The study surveyed retirees and found on average they were living on 66% of their preretirement incomes. Yet 57% said they were living as well or better than when they were working, and 85% agreed that “I don’t need to spend as much as I did before I retired to be satisfied.”

Perhaps the 80% rule probably doesn’t subtract enough working-years’ spending to accurately estimate what a retiree will spend.

For example, many people pay off their mortgages before retirement or early in retirement. That eliminates a major cash outflow.

 Many times the amount of money spent on younger family members declines. Even when people continue to help children and grandchildren, they’re spending less than when the children were living at home and the parents were paying for tuition and other expenses.

Also, many people ramp up their savings rates in the years just before retirement to make up for not saving enough in earlier years. Paying into savings often stops in retirement.

Another indication that traditional retirement spending estimates are too high is in work from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Most retirement spending models assume that a particular amount is spent in the first year of retirement. That amount is mechanically increased each subsequent year by the Consumer Price Index. The result is spending that steadily increases during retirement.

The DOL studies spending of Americans by age group and has been doing this regularly for many years. The results of the DOL studies are very different from the traditional retirement spending models.

Annual spending generally increases each year through a person’s late 40s or early 50s. Then, spending generally levels and gradually declines.

In retirement, there’s also a definite pattern. Spending is fairly steady from about age 65 to 70 or a few years later. Then, spending starts to decline. The decline is partly because people are less active and possibly less healthy as they age. The decline is also because the early years of retirement often include a lot of spending that isn’t going to be repeated, such as extensive travel.

The third phase of retirement occurs in a person’s late 70s or later. Then, spending can turn in one of two directions. For most people, spending slowly but steadily declines as they age and are less active. For some people, however, spending begins to rise because of medical expenses or long-term care. This spending could replace some other spending, but much of it is new spending and will cause overall spending to increase in the later years toward the early-years’ spending level.

The conclusions are that very few people spend money the way the traditional retirement models indicate, and the difference is likely to result in over-saving by those who follow the models.

I’ve recommended for many years that the models and 80% rule be considered only starting points. You need an individual spending estimate. Determine the lifestyle you want in retirement and estimate how much that will cost. Also, don’t look at only the first year of retirement and assume spending will be the same amount plus inflation after that. Consider how spending is likely to change over the years as the pent-up goals of the first years of retirement fade and you settle into more of a routine.

Whichever approach you use, there are two keys that will make a successful retirement more likely.

First, build flexibility into your spending plan. There will be surprises in your spending. The most likely surprises are medical expenses, but there could be others from time to time. You need to expect surprises and have room for them in your plan.

Second, review your plan annually. See how the actual spending matches the estimates. Then make adjustments. If you make annual reviews and adjustments, they are likely to be small. But if you have several years between reviews, the adjustments you have to make could be substantial.

Original Source: https://bit.ly/2Jr6qEr