Long gone are the days of the gold watch, goodbye party, and well-funded retirement years. Baby Boomers don’t get the same perks their parents did. All across the U.S. they put in longer hours, check their work email over the weekends, and fail to take their vacation days. Yet the average retirement age has crept up and up. But you know this. the need to rethink retirement is mainstream now.
But IL is not the mainstream. Most baby boomers don’t want their parents’ retirement, anyway. Boomers are looking for more meaning and purpose. They want to continue to grow and learn…to thrive, not just survive. They want to have some fun. This issue is all about that retirement.
It was during a 10-hour shift that shuttle bus driver Kathy Hall got the idea. The 63-year-old figured out that there were a host of countries she could explore on her social security alone. So she quit, packed her bags, and set off on the greatest adventure of her life through Southeast Asia.
Comparing their spiraling costs in Southern California to the comfortable life they could afford on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, Sue Ellery and her husband William made their move in 2016. “We are both in our 60s and now we’re free to pursue our interests without having to worry about the escalating costs of retiring in the U.S.”
IL Ecuador Coastal Correspondent, Jim Santos, tailor-made a retirement full of fun and adventure for himself and his wife Rita. from their base in Salinas they take trips all over Ecuador for the heck of it, discovering some serious sweet spots as they go. In this issue, Jim reports on a good-sized city close to the beach and mountains that he says is perfect for the trailblazer. (And a couple will live very well there on $1,200 to $1,500 a month.)
Lisa Condie is another who felt the need for something more. It all happened for her after the age of 56 with her own boutique tour business in Florence. And if you prefer white-sand Caribbean, IL Belize correspondent, Ann Kuffner reports on an opportunity in a place perfect for kicking off your shoes and sticking your toes in the sand…
—Eoin Bassett, Editorial Director
The holiday season is usually devoted to celebration and cheer. But in Edinburgh, Scotland this New Year’s Eve, keeping evil spirits at bay is also on the agenda. That’s what Hogmaney is all about. It’s a friendly, inclusive twist on an old pagan tradition.
It takes a moment to find it, the entrance to the Morrigan’s cave. Growing above it is a hawthorn tree, upon which ribbons are tied. In the mud at my feet is a guttered-out candle. A place of magic, a fairy tree with tributes on its boughs.
While dinosaurs may have disappeared from the planet eons ago, they did leave behind some impressive evidence of their time on earth. And in the heart of Bolivia you can get up close to a mile-long wall covered in dinosaur footprints.
The Brothers Grimm themselves could not have dreamed up a more exquisite fairytale town than Annecy. Set in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alps region in southeastern France, the small medieval town is all cobblestone streets, graceful bridges arching over flower-decked canals, and bustling food markets filled with woven basket-carrying locals.
There are depressed oil and gas stocks, and then there are really depressed oil and gas stocks. Many of those in the latter category trade on emerging market stock exchanges.
My favorite day of the week is Friday in my country town of Atenas—although since moving to Costa Rica, every day is pretty good. On Fridays, I pile all of my five dogs into the car and head early in the morning for the farmers’ market, followed by a lively off-leash hike on a forested mountain trail near town.
My husband David and I rent a lot of house for $630 a month. It’s a 2,690-square-foot place that came fully furnished, including a washing machine, heating, and air conditioning.
A perfect climate was a major requirement for Brandy and Bob Gregory when they sought their overseas retirement home eight years ago. They found their ideal weather in the highland town of Boquete, in western Panama.
In the southern U.S., summertime heat and humidity drive people indoors into the air conditioning. That means enjoying the outdoors is a no-go for much of the year. And utility costs can go through the roof.
For Ray and Michele Martin, the year-round temperate climate of Costa Rica’s Orosí Valley leaves them with no need for heating or air conditioning. Temperatures stay in the 70s F most of the time, which means that they can get out on their farm all year-round.