There's literally a world of opportunity when it comes to where to enjoy your non-working years.
Particularly for those who've lived and worked overseas for a long time.
How do you choose?
Whether you're near retirement or not, choosing where to spend this important life transition is a huge decision.
You may want to be near family.
Be ideally located for global travel.
Or simply head 'home'.
Your investments and pensions are likely vast, complex and varied.
But this also gives you the luxury of choice.
So, if you don't have your heart set on a specific location, where do you start?
We're all living longer and birth rates are decreasing.
So, are some places better equipped for older demographics, than others?
Enter the Global Retirement Index (GRI), which examines retirement in a quantitative way.
It looks at 44 different countries and considers 18 factors, grouped into four categories:
- Health: Health spend per capita, life expectancy, and non-insured health spend
- Quality of Life: Happiness levels, water and sanitation, air quality, other environmental factors, and biodiversity/habitat
- Material Well-being: Income per capita, income equality, and employment levels
- Finances in Retirement: Government debt, old-age dependency, interest rates, inflation, governance, tax pressure, and bank non-performing loans.
You can view the full methodology here, but an analysis of the factors above results in a percentage for each country.
The best country to retire in is...
Perhaps in contrast to the typical ideal of endless sunny days, sipping from coconuts in a hammock...
With an overall score of 81%, Norway comes in at number one as the most retirement-friendly country on the list.
This was closely followed by Switzerland with 80% and Iceland with 79%.
What contributed to Norway's win?
Not only did it achieve the highest score in the Health category, largely because of its high average life expectancy (83 years old, 9 years longer than the global average)...
But Norway also has the highest score of all the countries for Governance, gauged by assessing corruption levels, political stability, and government effectiveness.
Interesting, Switzerland had the highest overall score for the Finances in Retirement category (74%).
So, there you have it.
European countries dominated the top 10 in 2022, so if mountaineering is your passion, or perhaps you dream of magical fjords and the aurora borealis, then perhaps Norway is for you.
Outside of Europe, Australia ranks 5th, New Zealand 7th, Canada 15th and the U.S 18th.
All pretty high.
Transitions are constant and inevitable
Retirement is one of the biggest life transitions many people will ever make.
Yet most people are not prepared and need assistance in not only planning for retirement, but also living in retirement.
The vast majority get retirement planning wrong and often only find out far too late.
The key is to identify what you want early on and have a cashflow plan that helps you understand whether or not you're on track.
Retirement planning is a holistic approach that doesn’t just cover you financially, but helps you make better lifestyle choices to achieve your ideal future.
You can start your retirement planning at any point in time; the earlier the better.
As an international executive or business owner, you'll need to get your financial house in order, because your financial arrangements are likely to be complex and require review.
We'd be happy to help.
