There are certain areas all over the United States or any industrialized nation that are economically depressed. Some of these locales are in breathtakingly beautiful regions. Because of their economic woes, the people in these areas make every effort to improve the recreational resources of the region in order to attract sportsmen and vacationers. They float bond issues and obtain federal grants for this purpose. The efforts applied may have not yet worked their economic magic, but the result is a beautiful area in which to retire with a very low cost of living. Many of these low-cost-of-living areas are recreational paradises with nice golf courses, tennis facilities, boat docks, hunting lodges, lakes developed with fishing and water skiing opportunities, and the most amazingly beautiful scenery.
This is an example of a problem that is also an opportunity. Economic distress of such an area is a problem for those who have always lived there, but it is an opportunity for the person who is trying to accumulate the resources to retire. Prices tend to chase the amount of money circulating in an area so these regions have low costs of living. Property taxes are lower because property values are lower and tax rates are lower. The cost of auto insurance, based partially on the number of accidents per capita in a region, tend to be lower in one of these areas. Houses can be purchased for a fraction of the cost for the same house in a booming area. The equity in your existing house may be enough to buy a house like it for cash with money left over. Imagine that you then pay off your car loan and the two largest components of your debt are gone!
You can retire in such a place with less money than required elsewhere. You may be able to build your retirement nest egg much quicker simply because you need a lot less money to live. This is a way to go up by going down. Ask for assistance in any good library or large bookstore and you will find several books about retirement locations. These books deal with the cost of living and every other factor you would need to consider in deciding on a place to retire. One such book I found, for the USA only, is “Retirement Places Rated” by David Savageau.
There is an emotional cost to "plummeting to prosperity" that most of us are probably unwilling to pay. A beautiful, low cost retirement area may be far away from beloved friends, children, and grand children. (Of course, the children are probably not ever going to come see you anyway.) You may forfeit the social contacts you have cultivated for several decades in order to "plummet to prosperity". It is, nevertheless, an option to consider as you build your retirement plan. If it is so late in the day for you that your situation (as to preparing for retirement) is desperate, you may decide that you have no choice and must "plummet" even with the emotional cost.
This low cost retirement area might even be the very county in which you grew up. Millions of folks long to get away and go to the big city to seek their fortune. The economic vacuum left causes a region to be financially depressed and this produces a low cost of living and low property values. Then later in life, the same people sometimes long to live in that same place they were so desperate to escape when they were young. It is one of the ironies of life.
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