Travel with Angela Lansbury: Where will you retire? When?

Retirement In The USA

I am from the UK and have lived in the USA. In the USA, Florida was, and still is, the major retirement area. What of Venezuela and other retreats? You need safety, and a friendship network. Some people advise you to move to your retirement area a decade before retirement, so that you have a network of friends, and speak the local language, and feel at ease.

Retirement In Europe

After my father retired in the UK, my parents lived in Spain in the winter, which was cold in London, but light, bright, and warmer in Spain, in a one bedroom flat in a condo in Marbella. Spain was a place where your retirement income stretched further.

In the UK an influence was in which countries your UK pension allowed your pension to be index linked.

Retirement In Asia

I retired in the UK at the age of 60. My husband worked in Singapore for 20 years so we are semi-retired here, especially in the winter months. We now have to consider how long we can cope with 14 hour flights back to the UK to see our grand-daughter. Or will the family be prepared to travel once a year or regularly to meet us? What about travel insurance, and medical bills, and access to hospitals?

Cashew Heights condo in Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

But the UK retiremnt age has changed. As the world population gets older because of better health, the same is happening in other parts of the world.

You can easily find out a summary of previous and current retirment ages all around the world. At SGI toastmasters meeting our theme was retirement.

What benefits do you gain in the UK on retirement? I get a state pension, a heating allowance in January, free travel in London (and my friends who are resident in Yorkshire get reduced travel there), free prescriptions for long term conditions, but not for one off illnesses. Free hearing tests. Free sight tests. Free hospital stays. Free hospital consultations if I can get a doctor's letter, but there is a long waiting list. Free library service, run by volunteers. Free ambulance service in an emergency.

Languages

It helps to retire somewhere you can speak the language, or learn it quickly. If you speak English, countries which would be easiest would be the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand.

If you speak French, France, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium.

Useful Websites

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

Singapore

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/05/908080/experts-hail-extension-retirement-age-65

Belize

https://www.socialsecurity.org.bz/long-term-retirement-benefit/

Worldwide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_age

https://internationalliving.com/the-best-places-to-retire/

LANGUAGES IN THE USA

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12471713/map-common-lanuages-america.html