55 Is The New 65…

Is 75 the new 65?

A BBC article I saw asked this question…

I didn’t even read the story. That headline was enough.

Because the headline is damning enough…

And very timely.

The headline was about those who will be working into their 70s out of necessity…

Frankly, I don’t really mind the idea of working into my 70s. Or even 80s and beyond.

But I get the feeling I’m coming at that from a very different perspective than the BBC story.

I don’t expect circumstances to force me to work until I’m 75.

See, I’m heading to southern Portugal this weekend, to speak at International Living’s Fast Track Europe conference in the Algarve. The premise of the conference—the cheaper and higher quality retirement you can enjoy in Europe… is a big part of the reason I’m living in Europe these days.

Alas, I know circumstances are likely to force so many millions of Americans (and Brits and Canadians and Aussies, etc.) to work deep into their dotage just to keep the lights on and the fridge relatively well stocked.

And that’s a real shame. That’s why the BBC’s question struck me.

People work their 40 (now 50) years, and they have nothing to show for it, at least in terms of a financial cushion that allows them to pass through retirement in relative comfort and dignity.

No. They have to button up the trousers every morning at 73 years old and trudge off to whatever job they can find… and which is, most likely, a lower-wage service-sector job that is exhausting and wearing on old bones and muscles.

I feel for those people.

I see them in Walmart or Target when I’m back in States. Or working the cash register at Burger King. I’ve seen them stocking shelves at supermarkets, and slicing lunchmeat in the deli.

I’m certainly not belittling any of those jobs or speaking in any way negatively about those folks having to work. We all do what we have to do to survive.

But I am speaking negatively about the economic, legal, and social system that drives older Americans into this necessity. These people are the victims of a failed system—one that foments inflation, and drives wealth toward the top of the pyramid while robbing the middle and the bottom.

I felt that to a degree when I lost my job at 51…

I went from a mid-six-figure income (with bonus) to a mid-zero figure income (with bonus).

I felt vulnerable.

At times, scared for my future.

I know how it feels to think, How am I going to survive when the money runs dry?

It is, as I’ve written before, one of the main reasons that drove me away from America and toward the financial freedom I found in Europe.

Lots of Americans think of Europe as an expensive place to live.

And it is!

If you live in London, or Ireland, or Oslo, or the center Paris, or pretty much any significant city in Switzerland.

But around much of the rest of Europe, the costs are surprisingly affordable.

I pick on Malaga, Spain a lot because it’s a really lovely Old World, Moorish city that dates back centuries. Comparing Malaga to a place like Miami Beach is no contest. A life costing you $3,800 in Malaga would cost $7,600 in South Florida’s party capital.

Maybe that’s not a surprise, given the money that flows through what is effectively the capital of the Caribbean and Latin America.

But what about a much-lower profile beach city like, say, Pensacola, Florida?

That same $3,800 lifestyle in Malaga is $5,000 per month in the Florida panhandle. And no offense to Pensacolans (I used to vacation there as a kid, so no hate here), but Malaga—and Spain’s Costa del Sol region—runs very large circles around Pensacola and the panhandle in terms of culture, history, food, wine, landscape.

I honestly wish I had a way to invade the brain of everyone who is right now in their 50s and already dreading their 60s because they know retirement isn’t in the cards until they’re in their 70s. And I wish I could play for them a mental movie of everything that makes living overseas such a fabulously fun adventure when you’re a Gen Xer or a boomer… How living abroad offers such a lightness of being financially… How safe and secure you feel when you know medical costs are as affordable as a trip to the supermarket.

So to answer the BBC… Is 75 the new 65?

For many people… Sadly, yes.

And there’s no way to unring that bell.

But… that doesn’t mean the bell tolls for thee.

An affordable overseas retirement means you could retire earlier… 55 can be the new 65 instead…

Which path do you want to be on?