Dream Yacht – Source from Bravadoliving.com

Does retirement mean that I will no longer be undertaking any economic activities?

I know this question may seem a little silly, but it just seems really important to explore. Maybe, it is just me and my distorted perception, but my initial thoughts of retiring are not correlated to actively generating income. Maybe it’s the mental picture of an all cash-out retirement with the big yacht parked in front of the grand Tuscan that has caused my blindness. I’m unsure. But, this changed the other day as I was reading through the “temporary residency” requirements of a few countries that I have been researching.

Interestingly, I learned that many of these countries are actively seeking retirees and inviting temporary residency applications conditioned to investments and real estate purchases or rentals. At the same time, virtually all of these countries were opposed to granting temporary work permits. Each country stated their determination to maintain and stimulate employment for their national citizens over foreign workers. One story even told of a foreign entrepreneur that started a business abroad and was nearly deported for having been found working in the business. The foreign national could own the business, receive income from the business, but is excluded from working directly in the business.

As I read these requirements and stories, a clearer picture began to form of retirees not as workers, but as investors and entrepreneurs. For all intents and purposes, intended or otherwise, the requirements of temporary foreign residency highlighted the very sort of retirement that many of us would aspire to. Instead of a retirement plan that looks to be modeled like a cash-out reverse mortgage, this retirement model looks to invest in assets that are intended to continue appreciating.

Perhaps, retirement doesn’t have to mean that all economic activities cease going forward. Maybe retirement is really no different than owning your own business and assets and applying these to hopefully appreciate while enjoying more of our most valuable resource – time. Perhaps, retirement is more of a cash-in model or a cash redeployed model.

If this is really the case, then again I wonder, why not retire today?