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"Best' country to retire in? OR, 'best' country to grow old in?

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OldPro
  10/20/2016 13:04 EST

If you Google for 'best country to retire in', you find all kinds of articles and blogs purporting to give lists of the 'top ten' etc. Seems like there is no problem finding advice on where to move to when you retire.

But looking at them, you will see that they invariably put cost of living as the primary factor and give it a weight that exceeds any other factor by a large margin. In doing so, they invariably reduce the weight of things like healthcare, crime, public transportation, etc. Yet those are also the things that most retirees will ask about when considering a country to retire to.

Thinking about it, it occurred to me that really, the wrong question is being asked and answered. When you get to retirement age, what you should really want to know is where is the best country I can move to and GROW OLD in? That is an entirely different question!

In fact if you Google, 'best country to grow old in', you will find a list. What's more it will differ considerably from the lists of 'best to retire in'.

Here are the best countries to 'grow old in':
http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/global-rankings-table/

Compare that list to the list of 'best to retire to' list by International Living, an often quoted source.
https://internationalliving.com/2016/01/the-best-places-to-retire-2016/

As an example, consider 2 countries that are popular right now with N. American retirees (most of those posting in this forum are N. Americans). Panama and Costa Rica.

On the 'best to grow old' list they rank 20th and 28th respectively. On the 'best to retire to' list they rank 1 and 4 respectively!

That shows a HUGE disparity between how one list is ranking based on criteria vs the other.

Now obviously, 'best' is a subjective word and will differ by individual. For example, if you can't afford to live in a country or can't get legal residency, it doesn't matter which country that is. 'Best' for you may have to be a country that ranks a bit lower in any list since you have to be able to afford it and get legal residency to live there in the first place.

But my point is that while most people do Google 'best place to retire' when looking at potential countries, most do NOT Google, 'best to grow old in' and I believe they SHOULD be.

For me, the 'best place to retire' would also be the 'best place to grow old in' that I can legal reside in and afford. When you consider the age at which most people retire and what lies ahead of them, what should be more important than being in the best place they can be in to 'grow old in'?

Consider 2 other popular countries to retire in, Portugal and France. In the 'best to grow old in' list they rank 38th and 16th respectively. In the 'best to retire' list they rank 10th and 13th respectively.

So what that tells me is it's a fair bit better to grow old in France but Portugal is a little cheaper. I'd take a fair bit 'better to grow old in' over a 'little cheaper', assuming I could afford to live in France.

Looking at those two lists TOGETHER and seeing the trade-offs makes a whole lot of sense to me. Looking only at 'best to retire' does NOT make sense to me. IF I were only going to look at one list, it would be 'best to grow old in.'

pebbalita
  10/22/2016 08:43 EST

Well written thanks,
BUT where is the mention of Weather? My biggest reason for living here in Costa Rica for 26 years is our mild *not hot and humid" (as in many areas here, but our area has a Spring like climate year round, which beats the heck out of Canadian and many other freezing winters in many other countries , such as parts of USA, Europe,even my own Englnad with its 'Mild type winters". Weather is an important factor for choices of :where to retire OR grow old. yes?

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OldPro
  10/22/2016 11:42 EST

Yes weather is a criteria for many people. What kind of weather does differ however. Not everyone wants warm weather year round necessarily. For example, if you were an avid skier, you might put the availability of that activity quite high in your criteria. ie. 'I want to be within a 2 hour drive of somewhere I can ski in winter'.

Take San Diego, California for example. It has what many consider an ideal climate with a year round average of 75F. Yet within a 2 hour drive, inland, you can be skiiing in Idyllwild in the winter or hiking in the spring desert blooms in the Anza Borrego Desert.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE4DB173FF930A25752C0A9609C8B63

https://www.google.ca/search?q=anza+borrego+desert+bloom+pictures&rlz=1C1CHZL_enCA704CA704&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=662&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigpujM2-7PAhVi4IMKHdGaCUoQsAQIGw

Or how about actually trying to define what is 'best' weather for a human being? Read here:

http://www.weatherwise.org/archives/back%20issues/2014/march-april%202014/10-best-full.html

According to that you should be in Vina Del Mar, Chile if you want the 'best' weather. No where in C. America even makes the list.

Again, the point is that each individual will have their own criteria and will give each of their criteria a different amount of weight in their decision. But what matters is that they do as much due diligence as they can and not just take a couple of criteria that pop into their head to begin with and think they have done enough research.

We all should be questioning, not just encouraging, new posters who put up a first post saying, 'I plan to retire to X and want to know if life is good there'. We should be asking them how they arrived at the choice they have, not jumping in with, 'I love it here, you will too.'

I find too many regular posters want to validate their OWN choice and do not pay enough attention to really helping those contemplating a move, by trying to guide them through the process of making the choice.

I would say that I think 9 out of 10 at least, do NOT do enough due diligence before making their choice. If I let that go unchallenged, am I helping them?

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