Choose Your Ideal Retirement
Date: 01/12/2008Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008
Read more about retiring overseas in International Living Postcards--Sunday Edition
My French friend Etienne doesn't drink alcohol. He never had a drinking problem, he just saw the harm alcohol does--car crashes, destroyed marriages, early death, and so much unhappiness. So he decided not to drink.
I like it. Etienne and his wife Monique decided to do what they could, in their own lives, to protect themselves. They made a commendable choice, one they feel improves their lot in life.
The late Harry Browne calls this “the direct approach.” He explains this in the first chapter of How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: “Suppose you live in Los Angeles and the smog, noise, and so on, drives you nuts. You can take an indirect or a direct approach to the problem. With the indirect approach, you try to make others in Los Angeles change their ways. You coerce people to drive less, to build less, to play less music, and in general make Los Angeles the place you'd like it to be.”
Or you can choose the direct approach and move.
So Etienne and Monique, and Vicki and I, use the direct approach. Rather than change the world around us, we choose to change ourselves. We ask not what we want others to do, but what we want to do to make our lives better. If we're unhappy being retired in Los Angeles we can move to Lima, Peru, if we wish. With the direct approach, we have the power to make changes that get us what we want in retirement.
I recommend you do the same.
Be prepared to accept tradeoffs. You'll find a certain amount of unpleasantness wherever you go. Vicki and I tend to love the convenience and dynamics of living in big cities. It's our choice to live there, so we graciously accept a certain amount of congestion, noise, and pollution. It comes with the territory.
You need the confidence to make your own choices, in your own lives, in the direction you want to go. So often in life, the making of a choice is more important than the choice itself.
Paul Terhorst
Roving “Retire Early” Editor, International Living
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