I have a simple plan for life. It’s a loose plan in many respects, with lots of details to be ironed out at undetermined future points in time. But the plan has two fundamental points. I want to retire as early as financially prudent and avoid being one of those folk who find the Grim Reaper has pencilled in an earlier-than-planned-for visit. Sixty would be nice. Sixty-two would be acceptable. But absolutely not a minute beyond sixty-five. And I want to spend my retirement somewhere other than the UK. Somewhere warm, safe, exotic, with a very affordable cost of living. Good travel links locally and internationally, stable and reliable governance, decent internet connectivity.
I’ve loved most places I’ve visited, but some are just for visiting. India, for example. I’ll not be seeking out an Exotic Marigold hotel in Jaipur, thank you. But occasionally, I do set foot somewhere and think to myself, ‘I could happily live here’. Queretaro and Merida in Mexico are candidates. Porto is the top Euro option. Both Saigon in Vietnam and Samarkand in Uzbekistan tickle my fancy, but I don’t think Mrs P could be persuaded by either of them.
She could be persuaded by Sicily. We’ve been twice within the last nine months, stopping in Taormina, Palermo, Cefalu, Syracuse, Nota and Catania. Sicily has everything going for it, except affordable cost of living. Unless you cheat. If you grab one of the €1 homes, then you’re quids in, even after the additional renovation costs. The idea is hugely tempting, although I suspect the bureaucracy might do its utmost to put us off. If the deal is still going in a decades time….well, maybe we’ll look into it then.
What I would really like to do though, is something more along the lines of a DIY version of the Real Marigold Hotel television show. Thanks to AirBnb making short term rentals easy, safe and affordable, I think this might well become a ‘thing’. Instead of selling up the house in Blighty, rent it out. And then spend a year or three sampling what the world has to offer. Rent a home for a couple of months somewhere and then move on to the next destination. No need to worry about a forever home just yet. I just need to decide on the first stop. Maybe it will still be Sicily….
The Mexile 
When Linda and I retired in 2008, we did the house rental thing in winter, three months in a warm place, one of our children holding down the Ohio house while we were gone. It worked well. All in rents were never more than a thousand dollars, the grand covered everything dealing with the house or condo. A very affordable winter away from Ohio’s weather. We used the house as a base, renting cars, using buses and taxis at times, we did our share of touring.
We did two trips where we flew into Cancun and traveled by bus, staying in hotels with kitchens for a week or two as we traveled around Yucatan, Guatemala and Belize-that was a nice way to travel. We had two big canvas tool bags for luggage, heavy duty with big wheels and a brass zipper across the top. We had a cooler that attached to the pull handle of the tool bag and a small document/book /laptop bag that went over the shoulder.
Our parents got old, grandchildren were born, we’ve been staying home for the last seven years but it was a good time for that time in our life.
On second homes: they are more work than they are worth. I have real construction skills, yet an old beat up house, bought for a song is just a long slog before you get a rest. I prefer to rent my vacation property-much less work, by far.
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I will confess, when I look at a ‘do-oer up-er’, I most definitely have it in mind to pay someone else to do the doing and the up-ing. I can change lightbulbs and paint a wall, but draw a line at that.
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This might make you jealous: Stew and I retired when we were 57, and had been sniffing around for a place for several years before that. Vancouver, BC (beautiful, dismal climate, very expensive); Santa Fe, New Mexico (too expensive); Oaxaca and a few other places. There’s no perfect place, we found out, and you have to compromise. I suggest you draw a little matrix of the factors that are important to you (cost of living, good medical care, good climate, etc.) and then rate the places you’ve visited. You guys can move anywhere in the EU, or did Brexit screw that up too? Portugal? There are a lot of Brits there What happened to your dream job at the railroad?
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Pioneers, the pair of you! I’m still working on the railways. And will be until retirement beckons, unless something goes horribly wrong.
As things stand, we can move anywhere in the EU just like you can. That is to say, not easily. Gracias, Brexit. I live in hope that we will at least rejoin the Single Market between now and retirement. That would restore our freedom of movement.
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I’ve looked into Northern Spain, that’s to say the NW area of it. Great climate, not as expensive as Eastern or Southern Spain. And peaceful and quiet in terms of political problems and the like. You might check that out too.
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I’m all for moving to Spain. Alas, Mrs P isn’t so keen for some reason. But that might change.
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I just sent you an email, and then I read this latest post. Mexico is a logical choice for you, but I must say (as I did in my email) that I would rule out Mérida. This summer the heat wave was brutal, and it will probably only get worse as the years go by. And then there is the danger of hurricanes. Stick with someplace in the central highlands.
This will make you even more jealous, but I retired at the age of 52 after putting in 30 years of teaching. Glad I retired when I did, because the rules have changed, and I think you now have to teach until you reach the age of 60. (I can’t imagine teaching a classroom of 30 kids at the age of 60!)
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Got your email, thanks!
I know Merida fairly well, and have experienced the place in the middle of summer. It is warm….! But that’s where Mrs P’s family are, and so that is why Merida is the most likely end point in Mexico.
And 52? I am jealous. I’d only have 2 more years to wait….
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