According to Gallop polling, the percent of Americans expecting to retire okay is about the same since 2008 (slightly more, actually), and the % of retirees saying they are okay has been relatively steady for over 20 years.
As Gallop notes, the % who think their future retirement will be good or bad largely tracks their current views on the current economy. Incredibly, unemployment is very low and interest rates are likely to come down – and we are not in a recession – yet 50% of the country thinks unemployment is very high and we are in a recession!
Against that backdrop, America’s nonsense news organizations run a weekly barrage of stories about Americans retiring abroad because America is awful and too expensive. The reality is that less than 1% of Americans will retire abroad, and about half who do already have dual citizenship, or a right of descent residency option, or family living abroad.
Further, American’s are eligible for Medicare at age 65 – but that does not cover health care outside the U.S. If you do not pay Medicare premiums, then your Part B premiums will increase by 10% per year, for each year you did not pay. If, ten years later, you move back to the U.S., you’ll be paying a 100% premium every month for Part B. Optionally, you can pay Medicare premiums while abroad – but to use Medicare, you must return to the U.S. This is another reason that in the real world – and not the world of media doomers – very few Americans will retire abroad.
