Author by : Al G Smith

Join me for a moment in one of my favourite daydreams – maybe it is one of yours too? You have just woken early to see that once again the sun is shining and the sky is a superb azure blue. A few exotic birds are greeting the day amongst the swaying palms that ornament your garden. But as you rise and pull back the shutters, your gaze is taken by the scintillating silver of the Caribbean tides lapping against the golden sands only a stones throw from your door.

You now have the onerous duty of deciding whether you are going to settle on the veranda with your bowl of fresh, ripe, delicious fruits (picked from your own trees) with your ‘specially imported newspaper’ (OK it is a day or two past its publication date…but who cares?) and while away the hours until it is decently late enough to enjoy your first chilled Margarita…OR…are you going to be energetic today, and join your pals down at one of the local ‘World-class’ golf courses, before hitting the 19th hole for a lunchtime livener?

It’s a tough call! But such are the rigours of ‘retired life’ for ex-pats in the Dominican Republic for those who did adequate retrement planning. If only all of life’s problems where as sweet!

Yes, maybe like me you harbour that desire to find yourself in a position to retire to somewhere warm and exotic – a world away from the 9 to 5 drudgery, and daily commuting nightmares. Maybe you too are anxiously monitoring the progress of any ‘nest egg’ you may be nurturing, or portfolio you are building- in the hopes that the finances will one day allow your daydreams to become a reality.

Well in order to make yours MORE than just a pipe dream it can help to put some time into considering FOUR key issues. This simple (and quite enjoyable) process can begin to help you clarify whether or not your ‘place in the sun’ is not only to be achievable part of your retirement planning, but also likely to live up to its promise once you are there.

I like to call these the FOUR P’s – and a little thought early enough could just help to tip the balance in favour of you having that wonderful, enviable period of retirement that you deserve – but which in reality relatively few folks obtain!

The first P – is for PURSE! Well it is the most obvious one I guess. Will you have enough ‘cash’ to see yourself (and of course your nearest and dearest) through your later years. Many folks seriously underestimate the amount they may need. The twin terrors of inflation and an ‘ageing perspective’ on the value of money, can lead to a rude awakening one morning soon after your 65 birthday. There is a useful calculation you can do to get a ‘good estimate’ of the ballpark your savings or investments need to be ‘playing in’ if you want to be as sure as possible of being ‘comfortable’ throughout your dotage. Due to limitations of space here – suffice to mention that house prices have typically risen by a factor of tenfold over recent 25 year periods. So for someone planning to retire at 65 – the price your house is valued at when your are 40 will be 1/10 of the value of the property you are likely to be in (at least) when you retire! Amazing though it seems – what seemed like a huge retirement fund of a ‘quarter of a million’ (pounds, dollars or euros) not so long ago, won’t last for long these days!

The second P – is PLACE. We have outlined the dream scenario above…but just where do you REALLY think you would be happy. What would it need to offer. If you are a sun-lover then you might seriously be looking at the type of place you have enjoyed for a vacation in the past. BUT there is a big difference between living somewhere for a week or two…and living there for years. On the positive side it is still the case that with a bit of wise selection many ‘sunny climes’ still offers great ‘retirement property opportunities’. For those with a Caribbean passion – the Dominican Republic is an excellent option for many reasons, not least the ‘still accessible’ level of prices that real estate can be purchased for – especially away from the ‘hottest’ of the tourist development ‘hot-spots’

The third P – is for PEOPLE. If you are like me (and not everyone is) I’d be only too glad to be ‘mixing in’ with the locals, learning a new language and hardly ever seeing any other ex-pats like myself. But for many folks it can be important to feel that they will have a group of ‘mates’ near at hand. For most ‘retirees’, it is nice to know that a few like-minded folks, who have the same reference points, and topics of interest reside not too far away. You need to know that you are choosing to retire somewhere that there will be ‘people you’d like to be with’. Someone you can sip a glass of ‘Château de what-do-you-call-it’ with, and clink your glasses over a toast of ‘who’d have thought it’. This makes the enjoyment of your twilight years in the sun all the more likely! Many have made the mistake of moving so far away from what they have been familiar with they have found themselves in a lovely place but feeling miserable, and homesick!

The final P is for PASTIMES. Once you have gotten over the ‘holiday feeling’ of being retired (usually after about 6 weeks!!) you then need something to ‘do’ with your time. Again people often fallen foul of this problem by failing to give some thought to what they might actually do with the 40 to 60 hours a week that they used to spend working! For some the answer is simple – once again the privileged few who retire to Caribbean climes, like the Dominican Republic, may have a whole range of superb golfing amenities, or maybe scuba diving courses, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, or even kite-boarding (!!) to take advantage of. Once again if you pick an area too remote, or lacking in development, it might be so boring it could literally drive you to drink…You would not be the first person who became a literal alcoholic, to the great detriment of their health and enjoyment of retirement years, thanks to putting too little thought into just what they were going to do with their time!

Proper attention paid to the four P’s in good time, as part of formulating a strategic retirement plan can pay dividends in ensuring that you have many enjoyable years after you withdraw from the world of the daily drudge. These days it is perfectly likely that you could retire at 60 (with a bit of good financial planning) and have another 25, or even 30 years or more, to look forward to – which should be spent doing all the things you ever wanted to…Don’t end up being one of those who failed to put some time into thinking ahead EARLY ENOUGH in life. If you make sure you plan your retirement properly and implement that plan, in good time, one day you could be waking up to the tropical sunshine, the azure sky and the sparkling sea all for real!…

[tags]retirement planning, retirement plan, retirement property, dominican republic, golf courses[/tags]

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