The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

26 MAY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Judith Bryan and her husband, Daniel Bezol, at the family wedding in central Mexico that led to their decision to retire to Mexico City. Retiring Overseas Mexico City When FSO Judith Bryan and her EFM husband started thinking about retirement, they made a list of places to consider, including several places in the United States, two in Europe and two in Mexico. Most of these locations were either places they’d been posted or places where they had friends and family. They planned to narrow down the list to four cities, put everything in storage when they retired and spend a year traveling, with a few months spent in each candidate city. But six months before retiring, they attended a family des- tination wedding in central Mexico and stopped in Mexico City, where they’d been posted twice. When they returned home, says Judith, they “both admitted that our hearts were happy, and we felt at home in Mexico City.” And that was that. It’s been more than four years, and they are still enjoying the “gorgeous weather, low cost of living, good health care, friendly people and interesting culture, and a good group of friends, both retired FS and locals.” To fund the purchase of a retirement home, Cortese says there are two main strategies. “One is to own a rental property or two that you purchased during your working career, then sell those to use the equity to launch into this next phase and buy your retirement dream home. The other strategy is to forgo real estate earlier in your career and invest in a well-diversified portfolio.” COURTESYOFJUDITHBRYAN Do you need to put more than 20 percent down on a home if you’re no longer working? Cortese recommends that rather than focusing on how much to put down on your home, you examine your total spending and liquidity in retirement. “The advantage of not having a mortgage is that you lower your fixed expenses, which gives you more flexibility in down markets,” he explains, but “if the majority of your withdrawals are flexible, like travel, entertainment or dining out, you can adapt more naturally” to market fluctuations, making a mortgage possible. If you are retiring at an age where you cannot or should not yet access your TSP, Cortese recommends that you keep plenty of cash and investments in a taxable account at your disposal. “I would hesitate to put all my liquid savings into paying off the mortgage,” he says, as you need to first test out this new location to ensure it meets your needs. Having financial options, he says, is key to a successful retirement. Put Down Roots Now Several retirees recommended putting down roots before retirement, and even early in your career if possible. While on assignment in Ottawa, Ali Jalili and his spouse took the plunge and bought their “forever house” in Burlington, Vermont. The couple visited periodically and started to settle in, meeting other former Foreign Service members, as well as others “who are engaged in all sorts of different nongovernment, non-FS careers.” Jalili retired in 2020 and lived there throughout the pandemic. He’s now the trailing spouse in Sarajevo but plans to move to Burlington permanently after his wife retires. Jack Dootzie, a retired FSO, and his spouse bought a house in the Colorado mountains when their children were young teens. “We wanted them to build strong ties to the mountain West,” he says, because that’s where the couple planned to retire in the future. They returned to the town for home leave and R&R trips, sending the kids to a nearby summer camp each year. Their kids now attend college in Colorado and use the family home as a “base camp” to gather with friends over breaks. “We’ve worked to build a community now that we can rely on when we retire.” Ambassador (ret.) John Ordway’s family has been in California since the 1850s, so that’s where he wanted to live—near the cabin his parents built in the mountains 50 years ago. He and his wife, MaryJo, found a house not far from there and bought it while on a break from an assignment in Armenia. They used the proceeds from the sale of their Virginia home to pay for the new house, which they rented out until it was time to retire. He recommends putting down roots in a place early, especially if you have kids. “Find somewhere that feels like home, or at least ‘home-ish.’”