Coastal Dreaming

This weekend there was an interesting article in our local paper that was a re-print from USA today by Sandra Block entitled ‘Nest eggs shrink as growth slows’. The genesis of the article is that with the current downturn in the US, many people will not have as much for retirement as they expected. Much of this is due to people thinking that their houses would be able to sustain them during retirement. Selling their home and downsizing or using vehicles such as a reverse mortgage to begin taking equity out of their home were on many people’s agenda. Now with stagnant, and negative growth in traditional retirement savings vehicles (mutual funds, stocks) as well as declining home prices, and growing costs in items such as food and energy, money isn’t going as far, and the money that is being saved isn’t growing as fast as expected.

Some of the statistics in the article were frankly sad to read. According to the Employee benefits research institute, nearly half of American workers have less than 25,000 in retirement savings. In addition 36% of workers over 55 have less than 25,000 in savings! Now many people in this country that were rich on paper with their homes are now feeling a little less secure. And if anyone follows the theory of Boomernomics, domestic house prices may not rise back anytime soon, not only due to current oversupply, but all of the retirees that had expected to sell there houses will find out that there simply aren’t enough buyers coming behind them to buy these large homes at the prices they want.

So what is a retiree to do? According to the article many near term hopeful retirees as well as people much younger are facing the fact that they are going to have to work longer. Some are just hoping for good luck that the market will get better. There are other options (maybe not for the 60 yr old with 25k in savings) that people need to consider. Retirement abroad in central America. Although this option will not be for everyone, it might be a much better option than dropping to a lower/middle class existence eating hot-dogs for dinner. Retirement abroad in central America not only offers living at a cost much lower than in the US, allowing a retiree to extend their current savings but it offers and a fun and adventurous new chapter in what was likely a fairly mundane existence of working the same job day after day. Third services are getting much better and in many cases such as health care, they are just as good as any domestic offering at a fraction of the price. Furthermore access to these locations are often no further than a trip to Hawaii without the time zone change, plus giving your family an interesting vacation destination. If you are interested in learning more about options for retirement in Nicaragua contact Coastal Dreams Worldwide for more information.

Tags: 401k, Coastal Dreams, Retirement, shrinking next egg, USA Today