720,000 Americans Can’t Be Wrong

720,000 Americans can’t be wrong.

I was doing a bit of research recently and it called for me to figure out how many checks the Social Security Administration sends to retirees living abroad.

That number was almost 720,000 as of January.

Granted, 720,000 Americans is a trivial number considering the overall US population—just 1.2% of Americans over the age of 62.

But the number of overseas Social Security recipients is up about 50% over the last six years or so. And that doesn’t seem so trivial.

The question is: Why are these retirees leaving for foreign shores?

Well, we know some of them are headed abroad to reconnect with their heritage. Hyphenated-Americans returning to their cultural homeland.

Others fall into one of three camps…

1. Economic refugees.

America has become a shockingly expensive place to retire, even in tertiary cities. Life overseas can be radically less costly.

I can throw a dart at a world map and 9 times out of 10 I’m going to hit a country where life is cheaper and the lifestyle richer than you’ll find in the US.

I am not knocking America in saying that. America offers lots of enriching experiences. Just not an upscaled lifestyle.

What I mean, by way of example, is that if you want to spend your retirement in warm weather near the water, that kind of lifestyle is just way more affordable outside the US…

I can point you to exquisite beaches and lovely, safe communities in Uruguay, Nicaragua, Spain, Portugal, Thailand, Malaysia, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Vietnam, Greece, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, and on and on… where it’s 40% to 80% cheaper than the cost a typical retiree would pay somewhere in Middle America.

These are upscale lifestyles.

In some places, a Social Security check can buy you quite the comfortable life on the beach. In other places, what you spend now to live an average life in America buys you a life of luxury…

In most of these places, healthcare is good to great. And you can get by surprisingly well in English.

• Political refugees.

I’ve written about this recently, so I won’t belabor the point other than to say that a Great American Divorce is not some wild-eyed conspiracy theory at this point.

There’s a greater-than-zero risk that political discord cleaves the country apart, or leads to widescale violence.

Beyond that, lots of Americans I talk with and who have relocated overseas regularly recount their anger, frustration, and sadness at how America has devolved politically over the last decade or so.

They simply reached a breaking point… and so, they left.

• Adventure seekers.

Retirement is Life’s Last Great Adventure—a chance to do what you could never do during your working career.

For lots of Americans I meet abroad, living that Last Great Adventure surrounded by a new culture every day, and traveling the world, is more compelling than retiring to the same-old-same-old of the community where they’ve lived and worked for years, if not decades.

Others have told me they knew all along they’d move somewhere different in retirement. But as that moment approached, they came to a realization about where exactly that move would take them. This sort of realization was best expressed by an American widower I met in Greece a few years back…

“I was, like, OK: I can go to live on a beach in the Florida panhandle near my sister. But I figured if I’m going to live on a beach by the water, why not be really adventurous and live on the beach by the water in Greece? My husband and I loved Greece when we visited, and this reminds more of him than does Florida.”

And, I guess, there are people like me who would say that some combination of all three of those reasons has shaped our rationale for bidding adieu to Uncle Sam and taking up retirement overseas.

I have seen so much of the world now—approaching 80 countries—that I can’t imagine returning to America to retire.

Not when I’ve seen Koh Samui, Thailand… places all over Portugal, where I now live… Tulum and Playa del Carmen, Mexico… La Barra, an artsy beach community in Uruguay… southern Spain… several Greek Islands… northern Italy… Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula…

I could easily find a happy life in any of those locations. And it would be way more affordable than anything remotely similar in the US.

Again, not knocking America.

I’m just saying that there are sound reasons why 720,000 Social Security recipients live abroad.

You, too, should consider some of those reasons…