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Show ""'travel on invested capital is low. tax-fre- e Anyone who seeks to live in a totally society can try such Caribbean islands as Nassau, the Bahamas, and the Caymans. Taxed in many of the other scenic islands are small, and Havens to Fit Your Retirement Funds there are incentives galore for investments. If you choose to build a guest house in Grenada or St. Vincent, for example, the government lets you operate free of income tax for five years. Puerto Rico lures retirees in the Caribbean just as Mexico lures them south of the border. Sunny skies and inexpensive living are luring retirees to Mexico, Guatemala, and island paradises By JULIE SMITH who had left A cago toengineer settle in Puerto Vallarta Chi- RETIRED was asked why he picked Mexico to live. "Simple," he replied. "Puerto Vallarta has the greatest climate of all the places I've been. But Mexico has even more appeal: the low cost' of living. My savings and pension checks stretch like rubber here. I rent a villa for $60 a month, us and we have a live-i-n maid for $25. Food is plentiful and cheap." An estimated 75,000 retired citizens of the U.S. now have taken up residence in Mexico. They range from the affluent who haunt the sands at Acapulcc to the adventurous who rough it in the jungles of Yucatan. The majority, however, are Americans of modest means who shun the big cities and sleek resorts. Instead, they seek out the mountain villages and fishing towns, where living is easy, and the family food bill can be measured in pennies per day. Typical Is th American colony which has grown up around Lake Chapala, 80 miles south of Guadalajara. Here, most Americans have the official status of "immigrant retired," granted by the Mexican government to those of 55 and over who have incomes of at least $240 a month per man (and $80 for his wife and every child of 15 and over) . These retirees can bring household effects and car into Mexico duty-free. fJ: I Condominium homes in Chapala, Mexico, offer U.S. retirees luxury living for as little as $8,000. A retired schoolteacher from Hartford, Conn., built a home on the shores of Lake Chapala seven years ago at a cost of $14,000. Skilled artisans, working for $15 a week, completed the job in 11 months. The result is a show place. While Mexico leads the way, there are other places in Central America where the retired American has found u home. Most popular are the shores of Lake Atitlan and the old capital of Antigua in Guatemala. The cost of living there is even less than in Mexico, and the income tax A condominium apartment in San Juan is a bargain, but the best buys in real estate are out on the island. Purchase prices for American-typ- e housing with gleaming kitchens and a view of the sea begin as low as $8,000. Asmerkans who seek something still cheaper than Mexico or the Caribbean might make their way to the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa. Spotless boardinghouses in Las Palmas and Santa Cruz accommodate guests at $5 a day with all meals. Away from the towns at places like La Orotava on Tenerife, Brenabaja on Las Palmas, and Arrecife on Lanzarote, room and board run as little as $3 a day. Beautifully furnished houses with large airy rooms and flower-fille- d patios rent for $50 a month. who Anyone really wants to cut corners can to the isles of Greece. A fisher' retire always man's cottage on Hydra, for example, rents for $35 a month. Better still, you can buy a cottage of your own for less than $500. But remember, it's wise to live in a place before you buy or rent Sample the social life, climate, and cost of living preferably out of season, when prices are low and tourists are few. Check out details: Is the water pure? What about medical care? Is milk pasteurized? Do servants speak English? What is the duty on household effects? Will American appliances work on local current? How much red tape to acquire residency status? What about taxes? Settling abroad often requires infinitely more patience and flexibility than settling in Miami Beach or Palm Springs. But people who have done it say that there's no better way to develop a new interest in life and get some real living out of your retirement funds. Some secrets are not worth keeping, and the rest are far too good to keep. Jack Herbert QUIPS AND QUOTES Instant Facts of Lifa Time was when Papa painfully Told fables of the bird and bee And hemmed and hawed and filled the void With quotes from Darwin and from Freud. Bnt that was in the long ago, When sons and fathers both were slow. These days it's simpler; modern dads Just let 'em read the movie ads. Betty Billipp 14 Family Weekly, March S, 19SS A tourist in the y section of San Francisco noticed a hippie lazing in the doorway of an aging building. "Young man," he remonstrated, "wy don't you get yourself a job?" "Why, man?" the hippie asked. "Well, you could earn some money that way." "Why, man?" the lazing hippie asked again. "If you worked hard and earned money, pretty soon you'd have a bank account. Now, wouldn't you Haight-Ashbur- like that?" "Why?" "For goodness sake!" the exasperated tourist shouted. "With a hefty bank account, you could retire, and then you wouldn't have to work any more." "Crazy, man," the hippie said. "But I'm not working now." Frances Benson A psychologist believes a man shouldn't keep too much to himself. And so, too, does Uncle Sam's tax collector. Dorothea Kent The artist kissed his model passionately, then told her, "You're the first model I've ever kissed." "Really?" she asked. "How many models have you painted before I came along?" "Six," he told her. "A tree, an apple, an orange, and three vases filled with flowers." Flora Rand |