Do some people choose to retire in a country they’ve yet to even visit?
With more people realizing that a great way to improve your retirement lifestyle is to move to a cheaper country, it brings up the question of the process of choosing our destination. For most of us, I would hope, we would only consider moving ourselves to a country we’ve spent a fair amount of time in already, but there seem to be people who at least dream about moving to places they know almost nothing about.
A recent article in the Business Insider asking why the heck do so many people want to move to India says that in HSBCs fifth annual Expat Survey it shows that 11 percent of expats report wanting to retire in India. This is in spite of the fact that India ranks dead last on the same survey’s overall rankings, with only 25% of respondents saying they have a better quality of life there. India has many charms and many fans, but still it’s hard to imagine that all of those 11% have spent much time there.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel affect?
The article mentioned above doesn’t actually mention this recent movie about retired Brits moving to India, but it uses a still from the film in the article, so the implication is there. If you haven’t see it, the film is about pension-age Brits who each realize they can’t afford to retire well in the UK, so they all move together into a hotel in Jaipur that is only at the beginnings of a refurbishment. Most of the group had never been to India before making the decision to move there, which is a frightening prospect for most of us.
India is generally very affordable, the people are generally friendly, and most of the country is warm (or very hot) most of the time. So on the surface it would sound an ideal place to retire to, especially when you factor in that the larger cities have high quality healthcare available at very low prices. But India is not without its problems, of course.
I’ve spent about 4 months traveling around India and I am looking forward to going back again, but some aspects of the country are horrifying. I don’t mean any offense to those who live there, but you can’t avoid the fact that its cities are overcrowded to a shocking degree, and that most of the country seems to be crumbling.
I know there are expat communities in Pondicherry on the east coast, as well as in Goa on the west coast, and certainly some sprinkled elsewhere. Expats who live in the large cities like Mumbai or Delhi or Chennai actually have to pay high prices for housing and a lifestyle that is suitable, so the urban areas are no bargain.
An India that only exists in books and movies
It’s certain that India isn’t the only country where there is a popular romantic vision for those who’ve never been there. Much of Latin America is probably similar, as are many parts of Africa. To be honest, the Hollywood district in Los Angeles suffers from the same thing, where most people envision it to be very different from the reality.
Still, India might be the most dramatic example of this phenomenon. The book (and later movie) Eat, Pray, Love also inspired thousands of trips to India where it seems like you just take a taxi from the airport to a peaceful ashram in the suburbs and everything is perfect. Interestingly, the “love” stop in the book is about her trip to Ubud, Bali, and aside from the insane vehicle traffic, that destination actually pretty much lives up to the hype.
Are there other destinations that don’t match the myth?
Of course you could say that nowhere on earth does the reality truly resemble the popular culture portrayal of a city, but most of them are pretty close. I’d hope that no one reading this would seriously consider planning a move to a place they’ve yet to even visit, but can you think of other examples where people would be shocked at how different the reality is?