[imagesource: Kirill Makarov]

The pandemic has done little put a stop to the South African ‘brain drain’ that’s seen many of our professionals and highly skilled citizens moving overseas.

Apart from leaving for work, a number of South Africans have gone in search of greener pastures elsewhere, or are planning to retire on another continent.

In theory, retiring abroad might sound like a grand idea, but if you haven’t planned properly up until the point that you hop on a plane, you could find yourself spending your final years scraping pennies together instead of living the holiday.

The first step to countering that is to start planning at home. Your best bet, considering the scale of what you’re doing – moving overseas is no easy task – is to hand your financial planning and decision making over to an expert who can take charge of growing your wealth.

Next up, you need to take into account the average cost of a comfortable retirement in the country that you plan on emigrating to.

Ladders put together an analysis of the cost of retirement around the world. Let’s see how the average savings needed for retirement elsewhere compares to the savings needed here.

Depending on who you talk to, Hong Kong (R12,7 million) and Switzerland (R12,3 million) are considered the most expensive places to retire, but Ladders found them to be the third and fourth on the list, with Bermuda coming in at the priciest.

Bermuda (R15,6 million) is in the top spot because it’s geared towards those who live lives of leisure, which means that you’ll pay a hefty sum for basic things like a meal at a restaurant. Singapore (R13,9 million) comes in second.

Find a larger version of the above here.

Pakistan is the cheapest country to retire. You would need around R2,7 million to maintain a comfortable lifestyle there.

If you’re keen to move to the UK, you’ll have to have set aside R7,6 million, Australia will require a similar-sized nest egg, and retirement in New Zealand will cost an estimated R7,9 million.

Which brings us to South Africa.

Find a larger version of the above here.

Compared to the rest of Africa, retirement here isn’t the most pricy or the lowest on the continent. It still amounts to a fairly large sum when you put it in context.

To retire comfortably here, Ladders reckons you need to have put away R4,5 million. That’s higher than Pakistan, but considerably lower than Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

You should also view that amount as a starting goal, but aim to save as much as possible for as long as possible to adjust for inflation.

BusinessTech breaks it down further if you’re keen to read more on that front.

If you’re looking for one of those experts I mentioned earlier, who can take the reins and ensure that your retirement starts out on the right foot, we highly recommend bringing Consequence Private Wealth into your decision making and planning.

They believe that “the consequences of decisions made today will unfold over a lifetime based on the sound principles applied at their inception”.

In other words, they want to help you plan for your future now, so that you can enjoy the best possible financial outcome when you retire.

[source:ladders]