Cost of living, coupled with longer life expectancy and the continuing depreciation of the South African Rand relative to major international currencies is putting a different spin on retirement for those expats living and working abroad. No matter how old you are now – stop waiting for those retirement annuities to mature at age 55!

By the time you reach retirement age the value of the one-third lump you can transfer abroad won’t convert to a small fortune and neither will your monthly annuity by the time it reaches your international bank.

The new reality we’re all facing? Retirement is a yesteryear concept – there are better ways to plan for our ‘one days’ and we’ll all be working for longer than we once dreamt.

Before 40 becomes your 60 – now is a good time to re-think life and to plan that second or third career rather than wait out your 55th birthday. Where to from here?

1. There’s little sense in hanging-in for your retirement policies to mature because it’ll almost certainly be a case of too little too late!
2. In international terms the cost of debt will more than likely outweigh the ‘growth’ in pension investment
3. Cash-in your policies early and transfer the full capital abroad
4. Invest in residential real estate – buy your own home or leverage and acquire a second property with the view to rental income servicing the mortgage
5. The smart way to put an end to the ongoing depreciation of your retirement investment

There’s no harm in doing the simple math. You’ll find when comparing apples with apples it is a no brainer; and no reason why you can’t manage your own portfolio and be in control of your own destiny, knowing exactly where you stand and where you’re going.

Remember as a South African living abroad you are fully entitled to cash-in your retirement annuities before the generally accepted retirement age of 55 and have the full capital value transferred abroad – the days of compulsory one-third lump sum and buying an annuity can be something of the past!

Next step? Get your free personal South African financial report to discover exactly how much seed capital you have sitting in South African retirement annuities waiting to start your own investment portfolio in your new home country.