If they post a sign:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
it’s a trap!
Since a lot of people retire to Mexico and other places with a lower cost of living, it would seem to me that yes, a person can take their pension with them. It would be strange if they couldn’t, you know? That’s money they are entitled to by paying payroll taxes and contributing to their employer’s pension plans and whatnot.
Someone like my sister doesn’t want to have to work until she’s in her mid-70s, but that’s likely what will happen if she stays here. However, she could retire in her late 50s and 60s and live decently in a country like Ghana while preserving her middle-class status. Comfortable in another country > poor in your home country.
Seems reasonable to me, monstro, I just wondered if there were any peculiar tax implications of taking a pension out of the country. If you’ve contributed to it via payroll deductions, I’d expect it to be paid anywhere I chose if it was legal to do so!
There’s a lot to be said for your sister’s idea. A couple of friends retired to Eastern Europe many years ago, they have a much simpler and far less stressful life and certainly money goes a lot further for them. They have both found work that suits them, they can do it from home, it covers the bills and keeps food on the table. They have no desire to travel far from their new home, and are certainly enjoying the life they’ve chosen.
On his TBS show, Conan O’Brien sometimes does episodes in foreign countries, and these are usually interesting, to see what the country looks like, the culture and also whether they recognize him at all. One such show was in Ghana, during the Year of Return. (Among other things, he visited the forts on the coast from which the slaves were taken to the new world. Obviously, he didn’t joke around during this segment.) One of the people he met there was the American actor Sam Richardson, who played Richard Splett on VEEP. His mother is Ghanaian and he spends time there. One unusual custom in the country is that people are buried in elaborate, custom coffins.
One aspect of retiring to another country: I remember Florida retirees in the early 1980’s discussing the “peso prisoners”, retirees who moved from the United States to Mexico, including their bank accounts. Then they saw their savings ruined by a devaluation of the peso.
(NYT Oct 26, 1982: unfortunately paywalled.) Here is a personal account: I Survived an Economic Collapse - Mexcico Devaluation