Page 1 of 1

Ben Stein short piece on the choices for retirement

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:34 am
by peteyperson
Try this on for size. You're seventy five years old. You live in the comfy home you've always lived in. You play golf in good weather. In bad weather, you travel to where it's warm and sunny. When your grandchildren call, you take them out on the lake in your new boat. Your wife takes classes in the local college and paints. This is your life in retirement and it's everything you always hoped and dreamed it would be.

Or, try this scenario: you are seventy-five years old. You live in a tiny apartment with the smell of boiled cabbage and noisy neighbors all around. You live in a scary neighborhood and you dare not go out after dark. Eating at restaurants is just a dream. Your apartment is too small to have your kids or grand kids visit. If you get sick and you have to spend time in nursing care, you don't know how you'll afford it. Your life is pure fear.
http://www.benstein.com/112804ret.html

Petey

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:50 am
by unclemick
I saw the movie (PBS long ago) retired British (Colonal?) sitting in Africa in a rented mansion with a 'houseboy' to attend his every need. Forced to go back to England - ??? govt, drop in the pound???, I don't remember the details - ended up in a small flat eating canned goods.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:04 am
by unclemick
Hmmm -on reflection - I could envision the American version being in Panama, Thailand, etc, etc - living on SS and perhaps a small pension - forced to come home to make use of Medicare. The other bugaboo would be rampant inflation like that experience by the Terhorst's in Argentina early in their ER.

Coming from a long line of poverty - I have personally known and lived among such experiences - among friends and relatives from youth onward.

Maybe??? - why I'm such a cheap bastard - AND harbor deep scepticism of spreadsheet retirement calculators - unless backed up by 'the real deal' - dividends and interest - and I'm not as trusting of interest cause rates change.

Frugal as a choice is one thing - if NOT A CHOICE - that's entirely different.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:41 am
by peteyperson
unclemick wrote:Hmmm -on reflection - I could envision the American version being in Panama, Thailand, etc, etc - living on SS and perhaps a small pension - forced to come home to make use of Medicare. The other bugaboo would be rampant inflation like that experience by the Terhorst's in Argentina early in their ER.

Coming from a long line of poverty - I have personally known and lived among such experiences - among friends and relatives from youth onward.

Maybe??? - why I'm such a cheap bastard - AND harbor deep scepticism of spreadsheet retirement calculators - unless backed up by 'the real deal' - dividends and interest - and I'm not as trusting of interest cause rates change.

Frugal as a choice is one thing - if NOT A CHOICE - that's entirely different.
I don't know that the same situation is true of somewhere like Thailand. The excess has been wrung out. Inflation is more like developed nation levels there. Latin America is a different story, I agree with you. I think one has to look on a case-by-case basis and see how things go. I plan for a minimal FIRE level here in the UK as a starting target and see how I do. I should be able to do something like Thailand with a better lifestyle for the same or less money, but I'm using that as one possible additional option and not the only one, or something I'm relying upon.

Petey