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How much money will you need for medical costs when you retire?

Unfortunately the medical costs burden is much higher than many might imagine: a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2019 in the US will need to have saved $280,000 between them in order to meet the health and medical costs they will face through their retirement years.*

Individual retirees face a similar financial burden: $150,000 for women and $135,000 for men. These figures contrast sharply with what people predict they will need: around half expect their medical costs will be below $100,000 and 33% said they have no idea how much they will need.*

Retirement planning for most is about ensuring that we are safe, secure, happy and, hopefully, free of financial worries in our later years, while for some it is also about providing a legacy for heirs, whether family, friends or charity.

But in the United States achieving these goals is notoriously difficult. Not only do US citizens have to worry about the cost of healthcare, they also have to deal with a demanding Internal Revenue Service that can sometimes seem to undermine their goals.

It’s little wonder then that many of the most enterprising and adventurous Americans choose to retire abroad. Not only can such a move be a rewarding new chapter in people’s lives, it can also offer practical financial benefit – for example, access to free or affordable healthcare and a wealth of investment opportunity, especially in regard to pensions. It can also improve health in other ways as countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan and the Nordic and West African nations all have national diets that are proven to be very healthy – by contrast the US ranks last among industrialised nations in terms of the healthiness of its diet.