Understanding Social Security When Retiring Outside of the United States

For a long time economists formulated their theories on the assumption that investors behave rationally and make explicable decisions. In fact, this belief helped underpin the very notion of the Efficient Market Hypothesis; a theory developed by Eugene Fama (University of Chicago) and Ken French (MIT), which states that share prices reflect all information which is readily available

Nowadays, even the proponents of EMH know that randomness and irrationality are constant features of investor behaviour, if not the market as a whole. However, such behaviours are likely to prove detrimental to an investors’ long-term financial goals and are precisely why a wealth manager or financial advisor should be considered as an essential part of the investing journey. Professional advice brings discipline and guards against the kind of irrational and emotionally-motivated investment decisions that have the ability to undermine even the best-laid plans.

Retirement planning for most is about ensuring that we are safe, secure, happy and, hopefully, free of financial worries in our later years, while for some it is also about providing a legacy for heirs, whether family, friends or charity.

But in the United States achieving these goals is notoriously difficult. Not only do US citizens have to worry about the cost of healthcare, they also have to deal with a demanding Internal Revenue Service that can sometimes seem to undermine their goals.

It’s little wonder then that many of the most enterprising and adventurous Americans choose to retire abroad. Not only can such a move be a rewarding new chapter in people’s lives, it can also offer practical financial benefit – for example, access to free or affordable healthcare and a wealth of investment opportunity, especially in regard to pensions. It can also improve health in other ways as countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan and the Nordic and West African nations all have national diets that are proven to be very healthy – by contrast the US ranks last among industrialised nations in terms of the healthiness of its diet.