A spouse who’s all in for retiring overseas and a spouse who isn’t entirely sure is quite common. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple or single response to this question.
Let’s get one thing clear: Moving overseas doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are many couples who snowbird. That is, they spend the summer months at home and the winter months at a tropical destination.
The idea of moving to a new country, full stop, full-time, can be intimidating. Selling your current home… off-loading your car, your furniture, your lawn care equipment… flying off to a new country where you know no one and where everyone you meet speaks another language?
Boiled down like that, this retire-overseas agenda can seem foolish, even terrifying.
Start Slow
So don’t sell your home. Keep your car. Lock the lawn mower in the garage. Pack a few bags and head off to someplace that’s got your attention for, say, a month or two. Don’t even think about buying a house or anything else. Rent small and modest. Or arrange an extended stay in a bed-and-breakfast or guesthouse.
Keep it low-key and low-pressure.
Get a feel for what life overseas might be like by transforming your short vacation into an extended vacation. Choose a place that isn’t outside your spouse’s comfort zone and make this trip an adventure. Then return home and regroup. If you both enjoyed the experience, you could plan a return trip. If the experience awoke the adventurer in you, then maybe pick another destination for your next extended vacation.
You could continue like this for years. You’d be enjoying some of the benefits of a new life in a new country (maybe a dramatically reduced cost of living… definitely a richer quality of life… better weather… cheaper medical care… new friends… big adventures… plus little luxuries you probably can’t afford now—full-time household help, for example), but you’d have a safety net.
Following this strategy, worst case, you and your spouse have a series of great vacations and bring home good memories. Best case, your spouse enjoys one destination in particular so much that he or she opens up to the idea of making a longer-term commitment.
Little By Little, You Can Stay Longer
Next step, maybe extend the length of each retire-overseas vacation. You could spend three or even six months in each new place. Just make sure to research how long you’re able to stay on a tourist visa and plan accordingly.
You could begin renting out your place back home when you’re not using it. This income would help to subsidize the expense of your retire-overseas wanderings.
You could, eventually, invest in new digs in a place you decide you like well enough to want to return to regularly. Again, rent out this apartment or beach house when you’re elsewhere to further supplement your retirement income.
Take it one step at a time and let your retire-overseas plan develop organically. Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all overseas retirement haven, neither is there a retire-overseas plan that suits everyone. This idea is infinitely customizable.
