Paul Terhorst

Paul Terhorst and his wife Vicki are what we call PTs: perpetual travelers. Sometimes they stay in one place a month or two, sometimes a year or two. According to Paul, "Home, for us, is wherever we plug in our little computer." In 1984, at the age of 35, Paul retired. He wanted more time to himself, more time with Vicki. He wanted to travel, see old friends, and make new friends. They were living in Buenos Aires then, and during those early retirement years they kept a small apartment there and returned to it every summer after six to nine months of travel. In 1991, however, they decided to let the apartment go and travel continuously. They have been on the move ever since. Most recently Paul and Vicki left Paris, where had been for a little over a year, and headed to Thailand. At last report they were somewhere in Asia.

A good life in the Third World

A good life in the Third World

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In this issue we present our annual Quality of Life Index. The U.S. looks like a pretty good choice for retirees. That’s good news, now that the collapsing dollar makes the rest of the world so much more expensive. Still, Vicki and I choose to live abroad. We’re Americans, but since 1981 (except for brief periods in Austin, Texas and in Las Vegas in the 1990s), we’ve lived overseas. Why? We have a spirit of adventure, the key to a quality retired life abroad.

Is your house the perfect pension?

Is your house the perfect pension?

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I recently reread two novels, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, both by 19th-century writer Theodore Dreiser. In the books Dreiser writes about the poor in the 19th-century, their problems, and how they struggled through them. One problem was simply getting enough to eat. I was surprised to learn that, in those days, the poor ate all their meals out. Only the rich could afford a kitchen, pots and pans, and the luxury of home cooking. The poor ate at boarding houses, typically, where they lived in a tiny room upstairs. Alternatives were lunch kitchens or street vendors. But hardly anyone had the means to cook for themselves.