You're Too Old to Believe That Mexico is Still Such a Cheap Retirement Option

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

Photo by Alex Azabache on Unsplash

Thinking of moving? Some notes on Mexico and dying in unlikely ways and places

Kindly it’s not about drugs or danger. It’s about money. Let’s talk.

My buddy

Tim Leffel

writes regularly and with great authority about expat life. Not only is he a prize-winning writer, he lives the expat life in Mexico and regularly updates his books on the best places to reture or visit for cheap. I’m a fan, he’s my editor for the occasional travel piece for his online publication Perceptive Travel.

Lots of people write about expat life but Tim is the expert on the best countries, and why. Worth investigating.

Tim moved permanently to Mexico during the first Trump administration and has been keeping a close eye on residency requirements since. His recent article about this addresses something I alluded to: developing countries are cheap until they develop. Then they’re not cheap any more because people are earning better wages, facilities improve, infrastructure improves and the like.

We all get to pay for those improvements, as we should.

As the Mexican minimum wage goes up, so does the residency requirement.

Here is what Tim wrote about this.

The comprehensive nature of this information is part of why I love Tim as a resource. Mexico, once the whipping boy of America, is doing better these days. Nowhere is that expressed more eloquently in that they are now demanding that gringos show up with a great deal more proven income if they want to become a resident.

In other words if all you have is your Social Security, and that is on the chopping block, you may not be able to qualify to be a retiree there.

If you’re much younger and considering digital nomad status, Tim addresses that in his books and articles. This is about becoming a resident, whether working or retiree.

Mexico, however, is no paradise, nor is anywhere else, if we don’t take care of the essentials.

Writer

Kaila Krayewski

penned a piece that she shared with me yesterday. While this is largely about the loss of both her parents to illness after they moved to Mexico, the piece is also a cautionary tale about what happens when we move to another country and don’t take our health insurance needs seriously.

Both My Parents Died Living Abroad — Don’t Repeat This One Devastating Mistake

This is a tough read, but I appreciate the fact that Kaila points out the critical mistakes her folks made. I’ve read about and listened to expats who moved to their dream destinations in their sixties, assumed that their health would stay that way forever (it never does) and end up isolated, lonely, often solo after the death of a spouse, stuck with real estate they can’t sell and bereft of key services, like end-of-life care.

Part of this is the utter denial on our part that we will indeed deteriorate and die eventually, that no matter what paradise we choose we will end up as fertilizer. Our resistance to such truths causes terrible heartbreak for those who love us, to say nothing of how we may end up.

Many people who enjoyed natural good health most of their lives feel as though they can sail into and past their sixties without trouble. This article addresses the changes many of us face, but here’s the kicker: our health can fall off a precipitous cliff right around our seventies if we don’t seriously invest in good food, lots of movement, brain stimulation and the like.

It’s a fool’s journey to just assume vibrant health and not do the work. Even if we do the work, we can’t assume that we’re immune to plain bad luck.

Those of you following the death of Gene Hackman may well have seen something similar to what I’m addressing. Hackman, at 95, had advanced Alzheimer’s and heart disease. His younger wife by some 32 years, Betsy Arakawa, might have been perfectly-positioned to care for him to the end but she contracted the rare hanta virus and died before Hackman.

That left this man, who had plenty of money and access to care, to sit alone with his dead wife’s body for a week before his own body gave out.

That is a horrible way for anyone to die. And it speaks to the lack of a close network of people who check in on us and who ensure that we’re all right.

Part of that network is health care, part of it is investing in the community around us. While I cannot speak to the Hackman’s situation, the simple fact that it was days before they were discovered tells me that they may have overly relied on each other and not created the kind of network that might have saved them. That is my opinion only, I have no clue if I’m right.

Arakawa’s youth may have convinced them both that they were good to go. But youth is no guarantee. As with Kaila’s father, the fact that he, like me, was a gym rat for years is no guarantee that a horrible disease won’t hit us right at the knees. We cannot assume, and we must prepare.

That means invest in insurance. Part of that insurance is community.

Before you and I consider moving anywhere, especially late in life, we absolutely MUST be realistic about our final days. Some countries are checking our health at the door, if you will. They’re not interested in spending their coffers taking care of our fatty liver disease and lifestyle illnesses for cheap. We may not be allowed in at all if we’re that ill. That’s a stark reality.

The other stark reality is that no matter how young or old we are, we are subject to illness, disease, accident - just life. Insurance is also part of just life.

During my trip to Ecuador in February I met with an insurance broker. I’m very clear that first, I can’t move there without insurance coverage. Second, I am very happy to pay for that coverage because first, I’m aging, second, I like my sports, third, I’m clumsy AF, and finally, I don’t care for magical thinking when it comes to my health.

Of course being able to pay for it means that I have to have an income, which is under threat right now as it is for many. Something for all of us to consider. Gone are the days when just Social Security pays for a great life, if we lose those payments entirely.

Photo by Dario Valenzuela on Unsplash

In many Latin American countries, the health insurance policy is the family. It’s embedded in inheritance laws, for example. If Dad dies in Ecuador everything is split between mom and the kids. The kids are expected BY LAW to take care of Mom until she dies. I guarantee you that today’s kids chafe at this, but this is why there are no-end-of-life care facilities in Ecuador.

No matter what I decide, to stay or go, what’s very clear is that I have to have that community. My friend

Rebecca C Mandeville MACP CCTP

recently discovered that she had a community of angels around her when her husband went through a very rough time after surgery.

To have that we have to invest in others first.

That’s insurance. Perhaps all it does is give us a better death. No matter where we end up, overseas, on the Riviera, in Panama or Panama City, doesn’t matter. We need to be prepared for the costs that life exacts for granting peace, to rip off Amelia Earhart.

Gene Hackman did not have a good death. Money made no difference. People, community, love do.

Being filthy rich is no guarantor of life, nor quality of life, nor the presence of people who give a flying damn about us as we suffer the indignities of a dying body.

You and I are going to die. Whether we are eyeing Mexico or just moving into a senior community, we need to mind our health, our health insurance, and invest in a community that cares.

To get that, let’s care deeply about others first and foremost.

In order for us to be able to play, let’s invest in the world and the people around us.

Photo by Janosch Lino on Unsplash

Thanks to Tim and Kaila for their material. I hope this was useful to you. If you’re thinking about moving overseas please take preparation seriously including end-of-life care needs. Please also consider supporting my work