My father used to point out that teachers were involved in a trade-off: you traded high salaries for tenure, lifetime employment. So at the beginning of the economic downturn, I watched with lurching stomach the downturn in my retirement accounts. I solved that problem by not opening any statements EVER.
But then the scary statements about program reductions starting wending my way. Maybe my job IS in danger. OK: worst case scenario: unemployment in your 50s.
I wrote about this before, declaring that I'd rent out my house and move to Costa Rica. Now I have a longer list of places to go. I asked the library to order How to Retire Overseas by Kathleen Peddicord>
And the LOVELY bookbuyer did order it. And I'm reading it now. Predictably, the author of the book has lived overseas--and still does--and makes her money by running a website on retiring abroad.
What is useful about this book is that it contains numbers: how much it costs per month to live in various places. Buenos Aires: $2590; Paris: $2960; Morella (Mexico): $899; Abruzzo: $1405; and so on through other places. My current fantasy is Languedoc, coming in at $1495, which includes $300 for household help, which I am pretty sure I wouldn't avail myself of.
Isn't it nice--or nicer--to mix panic with wonderful--and apparently do-able--fantasy?
Where would you like to live?
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