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Isla Guapa
Joined: 19 Apr 2010
Posts: 1520
Location: Mexico City o sea La Gran Manzana Mexicana
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 Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:13 am Post subject: |
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| Zero wrote: |
| Isla Guapa wrote: |
I've been happily settled in Mexico for almost three years, living in the heart of the beast, lovely Mexico City (it is lovely, at least in my neighborhood). When people ask me what I'm doing, I tell them that I'm semi-retired, meaning I took early retirement from US Social Security and receive a modest monthly check, which more than covers my expenses and leaves a bit left over to save for those all-important vacations within and outside Mexico.
I teach English part-time (on my terms in my tiny flat) and do translations for a couple of art museums in the city as well as occasional editing and proofreading work for friends and acquaintances both here and in the States. In a couple of weeks, I'll begin to receive another modest pension from the last job I held in the States, which I was removed from in 2002. I'll be able to save all of that pension money to acquire a nest egg for more travel and possible art history studies at the UNAM, the national university.
I pay for private health insurance at a rate impossible to find in the US. Though I may eventually give up teaching, I expect I'll be able to do translating/editing/proofreading work crouched over my trusty laptop until the end of my days.
And that's my retirement plan  |
I like your retirement plan, I really do. It sounds very laid-back and yet the continued part-time work adds some structure.
But I have one question. Do you plan to stay there indefinitely? If you were to have a severe medical emergency, are there people around who could help you, or at least make medical decisions? If your mobility were to decline in old age, or if, God forbid, you began to develop dementia, are there people who would see to it that you weren't in danger?
I have been there for a loved one in an ICU, trying to be a comfort, filling out paperwork, making decisions about life support. This was all in the U.S., where we could navigate the system -- well, at least we had a fighting chance. I could not imagine how it would have been if my loved one had been overseas. |
I do plan to stay in Mexico indefinitely. Health care here is certainly at a par with what it is in the US and even better in some ways. I have one very good friend who I can count on for certain things though I must admit I haven't much thought about what to do if I can't take care of myself any longer. I will give some thought to that but maybe not this year. Thanks for pointing that out to me  . |
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Teacher in Rome
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:48 am Post subject: |
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I pay 20% of my gross income in INPS (Italian equivalent of social security). There's no opt-out, and as far as I know, no alternatives to the state system. I'm hoping that there'll still be something left in the pot for when I retire, but with the currently crappy state of Italian public finances, I'm not betting on it.
I don't have any extra �� to pay NI or any other scheme, so you could say my situation could turn out to be very rocky when I retire. I'm in good company: most of Italy is in the same boat.
In theory, property investment is a good idea - if you can sell when you need to. The property market in Italy has been stagnant for a while, and as it's so difficult to get a mortgage from an Italian bank, there's little speculation in property conpared to, say, the UK.
As I have no interest in playing stock markets, my only way to cushion a precarious future is to develop other income sources. There's absolutely no way I'd want to continue teaching into my dotage. Plenty of opportunities to start businesses on the internet (not necessarily teaching-related) along with a bit of creativity and imagination make this option the most attractive to me. |
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Hod
Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 1613
Location: Home
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| Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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| AGoodStory wrote: |
| Hod, you have directly disparaged another poster |
That�s not the intention. It�s not clever to be impolite from the safety of a computer.
If anything, you�ve emphasised my point. Experienced colleagues who claim all will be OK are sometimes unfortunately proved wrong. The situation of a sixty year old will also be very different from someone twenty or thirty years younger. When it comes to finances, we must look for second and third and � opinions.
You asked about my pension plans. Here goes (yawn): I�m putting one third into a private German scheme (because it offers tax relief now) and the rest into an offshore account. I will also pay some UK National Insurance to get my full UK state pension (currently 96 pounds a week) at 67. There might be one small house in there too, but you can see how irrelevant those plans are for most people reading this. Everyone is different.
And hopefully you don�t think I am a financial guru, because I�m far from it. I�ve only started looking at my pension in the last twelve months. I�ve got nearly thirty years until I retire and was appalled to find out how little I will get. That�s why I urge others to do some planning whilst there is time. |
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jgmodlin
Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 120
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:27 am Post subject: |
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epik_teacher wrote:
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My pension is what I've saved in gold and silver and my investing plan for after the crash. The best technical indicators I've seen call for a 10-20% DOW drop this fall. The conditions on the market are very similar to the ones prior to the drop in OCT 1987.
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I really hope you aren't heavily invested in gold, that is the next big bubble to hit. Late 90s it was the tech bubble, the mid 2000s it was the flip the house real estate bust, and most are lookng for the wheels to come off gold in a big way. Fortune magazine says:
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Verdict: a major bubble
Gold has already started slipping. It declined 6% in July to a recent $1,160 an ounce. Some economists are warning that continued weakness could lead to deflation. If that happens, expect gold to crater |
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1008/gallery.five_investing_bubbles.fortune/6.html
I'd steer clear of gold... |
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Hod
Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 1613
Location: Home
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| Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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What would you recommend then?
That CNN report says investing in gold might be a bad move right now. Every day, similar reports warn of impending crashes, and very rarely are they accurate.
Glossing over the fact that, in the long term, some (not lots of) gold will be worth having, as it will always be in huge demand, any sort of pension saving is a must.
Journalists have to write about something to pay their own bills, and if as a result of their doommongering, we put off saving for a pension, the result will be to have no money at all.
I wouldn�t recommend it, but if you do the sums, even sticking regular cash deposits in a Building Society until pension time would allow an OK pension not massively different from that of a decent private pension scheme. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| That CNN report says investing in gold might be a bad move right now. |
Been watching a lot of Fox News lately (I need my daytime laughs) and every second commercial is for gold. Buy gold. Buy gold now they all say.
With so much selling of gold going on, the CNN report is bang on. |
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jgmodlin
Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 120
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:41 am Post subject: |
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| What would you recommend then? |
Well I definitely wouldn't follow the "this time it's different" rationale that many are using to justify buying gold now. Just look at what happened to gold in the early 80s the last time the economy was on the ropes for an extended time.
I believe in the Bogle type approach of buying solid stocks and index funds over a long period and holding them. By investing continuously in the market you are able to take advantage of dollar cost averaging and not have to question whether or not you bought in at the right time. I continued to invest even when the Dow was down to around 6000. It seemed counter-intuitive and I began to question myself at the time, but it was the right call. I did the same after the tech bubble burst too.
For those that feel compelled to try to time the market, having a cash position now wouldn't be bad since inflation is negligible. You would have money available to start buying into the market if this is indeed a double dip recession.
Either way, buying gold at the top of the market seems like a pretty bad idea to me. Gold... tulip bulbs anyone? |
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