Barron's On Retirement Planning

Once or twice a year Barron's devotes an issue to retirement, including planning, products and whatever else strikes their fancy.

You will need a subscription to read the articles. There were two that caught my eye because I think they play into what I have been writing about on this new blog. One article was about moving to another country and the other profiled a fictitious couple and real advice from three different financial planners.

I was encouraged to read more of a shift to thinking outside the box. While I would not suggest that anyone move to Croatia per se, exploring different ideas along these lines can be worthwhile. Most of the destinations in the moving article probably do have a lot to offer in the way of lower cost of living and tax breaks.

Perhaps splitting time between one of those places is an option? Or perhaps living there for a few years until maybe age 70 and then coming back when you are likely to need more medical care could be an idea. I am not an expert on this subject and there are flaws to what little I have in this post but the point is to explore these idea and see if any of them can be applied in some way to your retirement plan.

The planning article also had a little outside the lines thought with consulting during the first few years of post-retirement, monetizing a genealogy hobby and eBaying stuff.

On a somewhat related note a neighbor of mine has a vehicle kind of like this one that he uses to plow the road and people's driveways.

I mentioned him on my Big Picture blog in passing. For some reason he has been plowing me out for free. He could reasonably charge $40-$50 for the 2 minutes it takes to plow me out.

There are easily 50 people that he could plow out and charge for the work. On our mountain we average about five snowstorms per year. Assume only 25 people hire him at $40, it works out to $5000 per winter. That could easily cover one month's expenses for someone with a modest lifestyle.

Two or three things like this to cover expenses for two to three months out of the year can reduce the demands placed on a portfolio.

Buying a snowcat is very capital intensive but buying a big plow blade to put on the front of your pick up or SUV is not.

Again the idea is not for you to plow your neighbor's driveway. My neighbor has a snowcat and can potentially make money from it. His idea is capital intensive and the much cheaper plow blade is an easier spin on the idea.

Focus on process not product.