GROUP No. 1. Let us say you have an income of from $1000 a month up. I have no idea what the source may be. It might be a pension, military or otherwise, or it might be social security or even investments in stocks, bonds or what have you. You can retire on this income and live a full existence without ever doing another lick of work in your life. But you cannot do it on a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses basis. And probably you can't do it in your present locale, since the majority of we Americans today live in the big cities or in their vicinities and this is exactly where prices are such as to be prohibitive. Your first step, then, is thoroughly to investigate those places both in our own country and abroad where you can live on such an amount. In this book we have already indicated a good many foreign countries and American bargain paradises and art colonies where $1000 a month is a notable amount of money. Probably the descriptions of one or more have interested you. The job now, then, is to investigate these further. Go all out, to find everything you can about those localities. Do not go off without further investigation. My description of Spain might have absolutely inspired you, but it is quite possible that once there you would find you hated the place. Why? I don't know, because I don't know you as an individual. But suppose, for instance, that you are a very fervent Baptist. You'd have a dickens of a time worshipping in Spain. The state religion is Roman Catholic and it dominates the government like no other country in the world. You can't even marry a Spanish girl in your own church in Spain. You're a Roman Catholic, or else. That, of course, is just one example. Perhaps you might dislike the fact that it is seldom that a movie is run in the local theatres in English; that there is no TV; that newspapers in English don't get to Spain until three days after they were printed. Perhaps you'll find that you don't like Spanish food—it's delicious, in my estimation, but many Americans like the food they're used to and refuse to learn any others. I think the point is made. You might absolutely hate Spain. I don't think that you would, but it's possible.
|
Last Updated: