Your Offshore Retirement “Plan B”

KYEstates’ prior retirement planning coverage has explored options for a $6 million asset base.  With this post, we’re pleased to make our coverage applicable to a wider audience, and encourage readers not to worry quite as much about their own situations, even if they see this post on a bad day for the stock market.

A grateful hat tip to KYEstates reader Rob Penta for sending along this entertaining article in U.S. News & World Report: “5 Places to Retire on Social Security Alone“.

It’s good to know that even if an overreaching court punctures your asset protection strategies, and for some reason hunkering down on a Florida homestead isn’t for you, options (albeit disruptive ones) are still available.

The article discusses retirement havens in Boquete (Panama), Granada (Nicaragua), Hangzou (China), Morelia (Mexico), and Cuenca (Ecuador). Spanish is easier to lean than Mandarin, and the renminbi has been appreciating lately, so our vote is for the Western Hemisphere.

The USN&WR article uses a $1,200 assumption for monthly Social Security benefits.  Readers under age 40 who assume that Social Security will exist when they are retirement age may be making an assumption contrary to projected fact, but the good news is that based on a 4% annual withdrawal rate, to replicate the offshore option with private funds, one only needs to save $360,000 for retirement.  With that kind of savings target, even the “latte factor” might be enough to get you there….

Expatriation isn’t only an offshore option: just ask Arthur Laffer. For those who only want a temporary retirement, consider geoarbitrage, with or without the multiple passports and Zurich safe deposit boxes….

Let’s finish with a KYEstates poll:

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