I'm sure you've heard the old saying that "old age ain't for sissies." Once you get old, you'll see the truth in that statement, and it's not just about the physical infirmities brought on by aging. Here in the good old U.S. of America, we turn 65 and qualify for medicare, only to discover that it's not enough to cover you against many of the health problems the elderly face. Forget dental coverage, and if you start to go blind, that's just tough shit . . . unless you can afford the expense of taking care of all that. And even when it comes to sickness or surgery, you find that medicare often won't pay for more than 80 percent, which means you've got to get supplementary insurance. My experience with supplementary insurance is that it gets increasingly expensive and won't cover much. But forget for a moment the problems with dealing with physical infirmities and think just about the cost of living here in the U.S. For people on a fixed retirement income, that's often a helluva problem . . . like it is with me.
If someone had told me that I'd end up with a retirement income of over $45,000 a year, and not be able to make it on that, I wouldn't have believed them. Add in another forty grand from what my wife makes from social security and a job she still works at, and we still barely make it. Yeah, right here in rural America, the hill country of central Texas. So perhaps you're thinking we live to extravagantly, spend too much money. Nope, not the case. We pinch pennies, don't take vacations, don't spend a dime on recreational things, don't buy much of anything we don't need. We don't do those things because we can't.
About this time of year my mood turns a little dark because it's tax season. That means we'll shuck out about $6,000 on property tax, and another $3,000 on income tax (more than what they've already taken). I wouldn't know how to estimate how much sales tax cost us this past year, but about 8.5 percent of every dollar we spent. I could go on and on about that, but I sat down recently and figured out how much we pay each month on various insurances, utilities, and taxes . . . and it came to about $33,000 a year. Housing and transportation costs (house payments and car), another $18,000 a year gone. After food and gasoline and various other things are bought, we break even . . . and are lucky to do that.
I discovered, via research, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico many years ago . . . always wanted to go there. Unlike most Americans, I like Mexico for more reasons than just an occasional vacation down there. Mostly what I know about Mexico comes from visits to border towns, and that's usually not a pretty picture. A lot of Mexico isn't exactly wonderful, but some places are better than others, and lots of American expats have discovered that. Here's a for instance for you: If I lived in San Miguel de Allende and owned a $350,000 house (which would be a nice one), my property taxes would be
about $300 a year. Here in Texas, mine are about $500 a month, quite a difference. My utilities there, even for a large home, would be no more than $100 a month. That's a tenth of what we spend here. OK, I'm no math whiz, but right off I'm seeing a savings close to twenty grand a year. Figure in that other expenses there are much less, and the savings figure goes up. But what about safety concerns? Nothing much to worry about. What about health care? From what I read, it's good.
I wake up mornings thinking, "What am I doing here? Am I totally stupid? Why don't you get off your tired old ass and go down there and see for yourself?" I can drive all the way there, if I chose to do that, via mostly four lane roads. I could fly and rent a car for a week. Or, I could just accept things the way there are, bite the bullet, and stay here to die. And all I'd leave behind would be just problems of disposal for our kids. Oh, well, I just answered my own question. I am stupid, but I might be starting to wise up a little.
