Reply #33: We retired four years ago...

[Thirtieschild]

and moved from Atlanta to the southwestern corner of NM. Fortunately we have a small retirement and social security, plus a smallish (much smaller than it once was) 401K that we converted to an IRA. We have supplementary insurance, that so far pays $10 a month for each prescription. We're also 80 miles from Mexico, for major dental and optical care, and prescriptions if our insurance tanks. (My sister's bridgework would be $7,000 in Atlanta, can get it in Palomas for $1,000 - no contest.)

We worry about our children (ages 48, 46, 44, 40), know there's no way they'll have an easy retirement. We urged our son to come out here after he lost his job in the .com mess - 20,000 people looking for 20,000 fewer jobs in Atlanta. He rents a small (as in miniscule) apartment here for $200 a month, plus utilities, which aren't that much for such a small apartment. He can live on minimum wage out here; no way he could live on it in a major city. If he had a family to support, I can't even imagine how tough it would be.

Our daughter in the U.K. (Halifax) complains constantly about the price of everything over there, but does have a job, is learning to live without a car, hangs her laundry outside on the clothesline (just like her mother once had to do), has the advantage of universal medicine.