That’s the magical thing about finding places on the planet where your dollars stretch disproportionately. That secret garden dinner is no fluke… An every-other-week house cleaning in the US can easily cost you over $500 a month. In Mexico, you can employ a housekeeper three hours, three times a week—all month—for $195 total. Instead of paying more than $1 million for a vacation home in Oregon with a water view... you could secure one in a place like Costa Rica or Portugal for less than half that. In Chicago, a one-hour treatment at a good spa starts at about $120—before the tip. In Penang, Malaysia, you can enjoy an hour-long massage, an hour-long facial, and a 45-minute body scrub for $103, all in. My point is: You don’t have to be particularly wealthy to live like you are... Now, I understand, “living well” is a subjective thing. After all, what makes me happy might not be your cup of tea. And your dream could be my nightmare. Still, some common denominators exist… One is having the luxury of time. Another, the luxury of choice. We typically associate both with wealth—because in the US, money buys them. But the interesting thing about spending time abroad is that in the right spots, you don’t need nearly as much money to enjoy either one. Take time. In the States, buying back your time usually means paying someone else to handle the chores you’d otherwise cram into your evenings and weekends. And that doesn’t come cheap. Abroad, in so many places, that kind of help fits a modest budget. Remember that $195-a-month housekeeper in Mexico? The hours you get back are yours to spend however you like. But it’s deeper than that. In the right places, the whole pace of life is slower. The rhythm of a day is different. A leisurely lunch with a friend might happen three or four times a week. Walking in the park in the evening, stopping for a glass of wine, running into the neighbors and lingering to chat… that’s just how days unfold. “My days are much slower. There is no sense of urgency. I love it,” says Tracie, living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Then there’s choice—or the lack of it. The US is expensive. Which means if you’re paying a mortgage and funding health insurance, vehicles, groceries, and more... you’ve got relatively little flexibility. You’re pretty locked into a system where you have to earn a bundle to pay for the high cost of living. But when your cost of living drops by half or more—your options open up. You have a lot more choice about how you live. Dine out more often. Travel more. Buy that vacation home... take a six-month sabbatical and roam. Or simply enjoy having a comfortable cushion leftover at the end of the month. You could, in fact, grow your nest egg in retirement. As Annette Ford Rio, who retired to Cascais, Portugal, puts it: “We’re never surprised by costs, other than to realize how richly we can live on our retirement income, beyond all of our expectations.” Time to savor the day. And the freedom to decide how you’ll spend it. For me—and maybe for you, too—that’s what “living well” really means. The good news is that you can build that life in lots of places beyond our borders. But getting there takes some know-how. No single person can be the expert on all of it. So today, I want to introduce you to a few of the people on my team you’ll be hearing from regularly in our Daily Postcards going forward... |
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