{"id":7998,"date":"2016-10-24T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.paladinregistry.com\/?p=7998"},"modified":"2016-10-24T07:45:17","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T14:45:17","slug":"do-you-want-to-retire-to-a-happy-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/retirement\/do-you-want-to-retire-to-a-happy-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Want to Retire to a \u201cHappy\u201d Country?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retirement is habitually pictured and presented as a happy time in our lives.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cthe golden years\u201d evokes images of carefree retirees golfing under blue skies or walking along the beach enjoying their newly found free time.\u00a0 I doubt if many of us visualize happy retirees wearing parkas and trudging through slushy streets. Most of us tend to associate a happy retirement with either moving to or vacationing in a sunny climate, certainly not retiring in colder, northern Scandinavian countries where the sun may not even rise for three months during the year.<\/p>\n

However, when the United Nations (UN) ranked the 10 happiest countries in the world<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, 8 out of 10 were located in higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, and five were in Scandinavia.\u00a0 Sweden was ranked #10 and Denmark was #1. (Sweden, by the way, is the best country in which to grow old).\u00a0 The two exceptions to the colder climates were Australia and New Zealand. The United States ranked 13th<\/sup> overall.<\/p>\n

What makes these countries happy is multi-factorial (and blue skies don\u2019t seem to matter). The UN considered countries based on dynamics such as equality, per capita GDP, social support, life expectancy, perceptions of corruption, individual liberties and how citizens rate their own lives within their home country. Many of the top 10 share certain traits like generous social benefits including health care and education.\u00a0 The countries also are electoral democracies where civil rights are abundant and revered.\u00a0 Other traits are small populations and ethnic homogeneity.<\/p>\n

Some economists think \u201chappy\u201d is too touchy-feely to define, so the Legatum Institute<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, a London-based nonpartisan think tank, set out to rank the happiest countries in the world through the creation of a prosperity index. Each country is ranked on 89 variables sorted into eight subsections: economy, entrepreneurship, governance, education, health, safety, personal freedom and social capital. And once again the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland and Sweden led the pack equally with Switzerland and the Netherlands close behind.<\/p>\n

In addition to reasons previous stated, the Legatum research found another important \u201chappiness\u201d factor which is key:\u00a0 the fostering of entrepreneurship and opportunity. Legatum\u2019s researchers concluded that a country\u2019s ranking in this area is the clearest proxy of its overall ranking in the index. This translates to low business startup costs, lots of cellphones, plenty of secure internet servers, a history of high R&D spending and the perception that working hard gets you ahead. Wow! To me, these countries sound like a Bernie Sander\u2019s pipe dream.<\/p>\n

Good luck, though, if you want to retire to any of these \u201chappy\u201d cold climate countries. Most are homogeneous and discourage immigration because they don\u2019t want to pay healthcare for older U.S. retirees. I know this because I had a retired client whose daughter and son-in-law moved to Australia, one of the happiest countries. My client wanted to move with them but could not because Australia did not want to pick up her healthcare tab.<\/p>\n

Regardless if you live in a cold climate country or warm climate country, we know our happiness is much more than our day-to-day weather or having prosperity.\u00a0 In my profession, I\u2019ve seen people with a lot of money live in lack and people with little money live in abundance.\u00a0 Happiness is ultimately about enjoying good health.\u00a0 After all, \u201chealth is wealth.\u201d It\u2019s having independence and being able to take care of yourself.\u00a0 I think we\u2019d all agree, though, whether we\u2019re donning snow boots or flip flops today, that happiness is as simple as having good times with your friends and family.\u00a0 In my next blog, I will discuss countries which welcome American retirees.\u00a0 Hint:\u00a0 the weather is warmer, and your dollar will stretch further!<\/p>\n

To learn more about Jeffrey Bogart, view his Paladin Registry research report<\/a><\/span>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retirement is habitually pictured and presented as a happy time in our lives.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cthe golden years\u201d evokes images of carefree retirees golfing under blue skies or walking along the beach enjoying their newly found free time.\u00a0 I doubt if many of us visualize happy retirees wearing parkas and trudging through slushy streets. Most of us tend to associate a happy retirement with either moving to or vacationing in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":8000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retirement"],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Want to Retire to a \u201cHappy\u201d Country?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you want to retire to any of these \u201chappy\u201d cold climate countries note most are homogeneous and discourage immigration for older U.S. retirees.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/retirement\/do-you-want-to-retire-to-a-happy-country\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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