Retirees head to Latin America, where middle-class money can buy upper-class lifestyle.


Olde Hornet

Well-Known Member
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article154209369.html

Retirees flock to Latin America to live an upper-class lifestyle on $1,500 a month

CUENCA, Ecuador

To casual visitors, this colonial town in southern Ecuador looks like it was torn from the pages of history. With its cobbled streets, soaring cathedrals and bustling markets, it exudes a lazy, old world charm.

But Cuenca is also on the cutting edge of a very modern trend: providing a safe haven for U.S. retirees who have found themselves unwilling — or unable — to live out their golden years at home.

The growing wave of ex-pat seniors is not only upending notions about retirement in the hemisphere but reshaping the face of communities throughout the Americas. And the trend is expected to grow as waves of baby boomers exit the workforce ill-prepared for retirement.

There’s no accurate way to measure the phenomenon, but the Social Security Administration was sending payments to 380,000 retired U.S. workers living abroad in 2014 — up 50 percent from a decade ago.

In the Americas, records show that seniors are flocking to Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador.
 
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My favorite quote from the article -

Doris Soliz, a ruling-party congresswoman who represents this part of Ecuador, said it’s ironic that U.S. citizens steeped in capitalist values are attracted to a country that has embraced socialism.
 

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