Cheap Retirement Living

Posts Tagged ‘Social Security’

Direct savings are any monies put away for the purpose of saving them, usually for the proverbial rainy day. These include 401k’s,superannuation and retirement funds, insurance policies which mature, savings accounts at banks and building societies, piggy banks, money in the mattress and so on.

The basic concept is simple: You put money you can spare from your day to day expenses somewhere that it will be both safe and make money for you in the form of interest. The more interest paid, the higher the risk although we are focusing more on saving rather than investing here.

This means the interest rates will be modest but there is little to no chance of losing your money, or at least of losing your initial investment.

Offshore accounts can keep your money away from the Taxman but these usually cost a lot and require large enough sums deposited to make the fees worthwhile. We also advise you don’t avoid or evade your tax obligations but you should do all you can to minimise the risk of paying a penny more than you legally are obliged to. Taxation in itself can be looked at as a form of saving. Taxes fund welfare and pension programs in countries where these are available and it also funds infrastructure you can avail of when retired; so pay your fair share but not a penny more.

We will look at not only saving money but moving it around at the minimum of cost and risk. When you retire, particularly if you relocate to another country, you will most likely have to move fairly large sums around and there are numerous laws in place (to deter money laundering by drug cartels and terrorist groups) as well as procedures that make things a little more complicated than they were even a decade ago.