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Five Countries Where You Can Retire for $1,000 a Month
Kiplinger lists five countries where you can retire for $1,000 a month as follows:
1. Thailand
2. Bolivia
3. Nicaragua
4. Malaysia
5. Georgia
Here's my take on this:
- Personally, I wouldn't want to live in any of these. None of them appeal to me in any way.
- That said, if you haven't saved much for retirement and don't want to stop working when you're 90, these offer a great option.
- I'm not sure I'd ever leave the US -- I like living here.
- If we ever did move to a foreign country we'd likely go somewhere more expensive -- like St. Martin.
- For now, I think our near-term plan is to live in Colorado most of the year, then spend anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months in the Caribbean when it's cold here.
Those are my thoughts. What would you like to add?
Where You Can Live on $50k Per Year
Business Insider lists 19 cities where you can live on $50k per year.
Here are my comments related to this:
Five Signs You Retired Too Early
CNN Money lists five signs you retired too early as follows:
1. You're bored
2. Your expenses are unpredictable
3. You don't qualify for Medicare
4. You're withdrawing early Social Security benefits
5. Your financial planner isn't happy
Here's my take on these:
Suze Orman Says 70 is the Correct Retirement Age
This piece by financial "expert" Suze Orman came out a bit ago.
Here's the headline statement:
If I resurrected "How Am I Doing?" today, I'd be handing out plenty of failing grades to anyone who thinks they will be able to retire before they turn 70. Yes, you heard me right: 70 is the new retirement age—not a month or year before.
She goes on to elaborate:
Look, I totally get that if you are reading MONEY you're probably a diligent saver. But it's always dangerous to assume you're better off than you really are. You likely have plenty saved up to breeze through 15 years or so of retirement. But, people, if you stop working in your 60s, your retirement stash might need to support you for 30 years, not 15.
Then she details her three steps to retirement:
How to Save on Healthcare Costs
Money magazine ran a piece on "Four Ways to Cut Your Medical Bills" which inspired this response in a letter to the editor:
Here is my list of free measures that can be taken to save on health care costs that are usually underutilized:
1. Don't get overweight.
2. Do get some regular exercise.
3. Don't smoke.
4. Don't overuse alcohol or don't use it at all.
5. Don't use illicit drugs.
6. Do get enough sleep.
7. Do wear your seat belt.
Over my 31 years as a practicing internal medicine physician, most of my patients would have been better off just following these rules.
My thoughts on these:
Wasted Money
Here's a piece from Money that says Americans paid $15 billion in overdraft fees last year. The details:
In 2016, U.S. consumers paid a total of $15 billion in fees for bouncing checks or overdrafting -- which is when a customer tries to make a purchase without enough money in their account to cover the transaction -- according to new data released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
He also pointed out that the average amount of money consumers overdraft by is about $24 -- but that banks often charge fees of around $34 for each overdraft incident.
I don't know why I'm surprised at stuff like this any longer.
You'd think that after all these years of blogging that I'd have it ingrained how poor Americans are at money management and nothing would shock me.
Then something like this comes along.
The Best Meal-Kit Delivery Service is None
Here's a piece by Money magazine which rates the various meal-kit delivery options:
A summary of what they found:
1. Plated
2. Blue Apron
3. Sun Basket
4. Green Chef
5. Martha & Marley Spoon
6. HelloFresh
Here's my take on them: VERY EXPENSIVE!!!!
Our friend at ESI Money did an analysis on Blue Apron and found these kits cost a fortune:
Make Thousands by Painting Your Home the Right Color
Here's an interesting piece from MSN Money about paint colors and how they impact home selling prices
A summary:
Homes with blue bathrooms — specifically light shades like powder blue or periwinkle — fetched $5,400 more than expected when sold, according to a paint color analysis from real estate website Zillow. The analysis looked at more than 32,000 sold homes, comparing the sales prices of ones painted certain color versus similar properties that had white walls.
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