What'll your retirement look like?

[Moemg]

Retirement may be 30 to 40 years of our life so I think most people will make a few moves along the way . In my last thirty years I moved three times changed husbands , changed jobs and changed my outlook more times than I can remember so I'm sure my retirement will change a few times .

 

[Koolau]

Voted "stay put in high cost/middle class" but in reality, my retirement was to move FROM moderate cost area/middle class to high cost/middle class. Not one of the poll's options, but close enough, I guess since I've been here more than a year - and I do plan to stay put now. Only travel plans in next few years is to visit the old homestead at least once per year.

 

[Hobo]

I was married to a young women for 6 years - but she got jealous and wanted a divorce because I was too much of a playboy. To my eyes, the other girls are just too beautiful to resist. So I am a single father to a 4 year old boy (which Social Security gives me an extra $800 per month as a dependent child).

This is also part of the reason why I have 2 live-in housekeepers. They are far from being a frustration, unless you mean sexual frustration. I don't have them as concubines. They are here to clean the house, do the laundry, cook, and help take care of my son. Unlike many young women in America, these girls learn how to clean house and take care of children from the time they are young.

I pay them $25 per month each + food + clothes + medical...So I figure it costs me in total about $50 per month for a housekeeper. I had a bamboo and grass roof house built for them - so they have their own private life and I have mine.

As a political commentary... I never could understand why the richest country in the world would not allow housekeepers from developing countries to work in American homes. With both parents working, who has time to clean the house and do the other brainless chores? Singapore (and many other countries) have a system to bring in contract workers for a set period of time. They get passports, learn the local language, learn local customs and come home with enough money to buy a small house. It would be a good arrangement for both the American family and the foreign young men and women who could use the money to get a start on life.

 

[ziggy29]

I was married to a young women for 6 years - but she got jealous and wanted a divorce because I was too much of a playboy.

The nerve of some people. Leaving you just because you were cheating on her? Talk about unreasonable expectations...

 

[Bestwifeever]

I never could understand why the richest country in the world would not allow housekeepers from developing countries to work in American homes.

I believe "the richest country in the world" does allow this (ask my former cleaning lady, my neighbors' nannies, etc.). We just have pay them more than $25 a month to do it.

 

[brewer12345]

Hybrid approach is likely for us. Probably stay put in the existing modest home (but could conceivably move to a cheaper area) and then split for 3 or 4 months of the year (winter) in a travel trailer.

 

[Meadbh]

I voted "Way other" because none of thre options are exactly right. I'm planning to move, not certain where to, but it will be a warmer place and may be a more expensive area, either in Canada or abroad.

 

[Dawg52]

Staying put in moderate cost area! Middle class life, limited travel but no W*rk!

This bracket works for me. I'm content in a small house with limited travel. Short trips to the coast for a little golf is ok with me. I did just book a flight to Cancun for late April. Nephew getting married down there. So will be down there for a few days and just enjoy the bikini's on the beach. That will be my big trip for 2009.

 

[Hobo]

I believe "the richest country in the world" does allow this (ask my former cleaning lady, my neighbors' nannies, etc.). We just have pay them more than $25 a month to do it.

That's just the point. I certainly don't begrudge the work and the salary paid to your cleaning lady and neighbor's nannie. But it seems obvious that no one can afford a full time, live-in nannie to care for the house, the kids, the cooking and the cleaning. I know the cleaning ladies and nannies are both expensive and hard to find - and they are in and out in a few hours.

It just does not seem fair that so many poor people in developing countries would love to work and live in your home for $250 per month. That's a huge salary in many countries. And meanwhile, a large percentage of the population with both husband and wife working must come home and do this grunt work themselves - with less time for the kids.

I know America would never allow any such program to be worked out - even if we could work out something so that the cleaning lady and nannie don't get get the shaft. We just don't do things that way in the US, right?

Another great reason why retiring in a foreign country is so inviting...the lack of American social rules!

 

[unclemick]

I was married to a young women for 6 years - but she got jealous and wanted a divorce because I was too much of a playboy. To my eyes, the other girls are just too beautiful to resist. So I am a single father to a 4 year old boy (which Social Security gives me an extra $800 per month as a dependent child).

This is also part of the reason why I have 2 live-in housekeepers. They are far from being a frustration, unless you mean sexual frustration. I don't have them as concubines. They are here to clean the house, do the laundry, cook, and help take care of my son. Unlike many young women in America, these girls learn how to clean house and take care of children from the time they are young.

I pay them $25 per month each + food + clothes + medical...So I figure it costs me in total about $50 per month for a housekeeper. I had a bamboo and grass roof house built for them - so they have their own private life and I have mine.

As a political commentary... I never could understand why the richest country in the world would not allow housekeepers from developing countries to work in American homes. With both parents working, who has time to clean the house and do the other brainless chores? Singapore (and many other countries) have a system to bring in contract workers for a set period of time. They get passports, learn the local language, learn local customs and come home with enough money to buy a small house. It would be a good arrangement for both the American family and the foreign young men and women who could use the money to get a start on life.

Duh! Cause they won't go home! That's how my parent's parents came to America - a Grandmother and an Aunt were 'Swedish' maids who were really Finns. One was a maid up into the 1950's in 'New York City.'

heh heh heh -

 

[CuppaJoe]

...


Another great reason why retiring in a foreign country is so inviting...the lack of American social rules!

I don’t get why you are posting on a board that does have social rules

 

[Hobo]

Unclemick, read my original post #28 on the subject. "Contract workers for a set period of time" - This is a very standard system thought out the world. I used Singapore as an example, but we also have contract Americans working for Arab nations doing construction and working on oil projects. Its not a new concept. More than 90% of the United Arab Emirates are contract workers from other countries.

CuppaJoe, I post here because I like the subject matter plus the rules are very reasonable. However, you know I would find a LOT OF RULES against a single man hiring a 18 year old school girl to work at my house as a live-in housekeeper/ babysitter - even if I were able to provide a better life for her than she had at home. The worst problem is that American society "looks down" on such an arrangement. And if that isn't bad enough, think what it would like if I tried to marry her! Those are American social rules.

 

[kyounge1956]

It depends on what you mean by low-moderate cost. I plan to move after retirement to somewhere less expensive than where I live now, in order to be able to have my home completely paid for. But it will still be on the west coast, which I think is, on average, more expensive than much of the rest of the country.

 

[unclemick]

Unclemick, read my original post #28 on the subject. "Contract workers for a set period of time" - This is a very standard system thought out the world. I used Singapore as an example, but we also have contract Americans working for Arab nations doing construction and working on oil projects. Its not a new concept. More than 90% of the United Arab Emirates are contract workers from other countries.

CuppaJoe, I post here because I like the subject matter plus the rules are very reasonable. However, you know I would find a LOT OF RULES against a single man hiring a 18 year old school girl to work at my house as a live-in housekeeper/ babysitter - even if I were able to provide a better life for her than she had at home. The worst problem is that American society "looks down" on such an arrangement. And if that isn't bad enough, think what it would like if I tried to marry her! Those are American social rules.

Americans as a general rule do not 'disappear' and melt into the general population in Arab countries and later become citizens.

Heck even the contract workers I knew in the oil patch came back to good old Louisiana to retire.

heh heh heh - I got your point - it's just that I'm having a good time with this thread.

 

[CuppaJoe]

....

heh heh heh - I got your point - it's just that I'm having a good time with this thread.

Regarding the OP, looks like your retirement is looking like a lot of fun, Uncle Mick.