How to Retire Without Money
WHERE TO RETIRE (page 4)
CASE HISTORY No. 2. Alan and Ruth Silletoe I met and became friends with in the little town of Soller, on the north coast of Majorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands. Alan had been in the British army in Burma during the war and had picked up a bug that shows no signs of leaving, even almost fifteen years after the war has ended. British disability pensions are nothing near as adequate as American ones. Alan got something like $50 to $55 a month.Under similar circumstances, the average American couple would undoubtedly have gone to work as best they could. Alan taking some part time job, such as watchman, and Ruth going into teaching for which she once trained in England. However, Alan and Ruth aren't average, and Alan isn't American, although Ruth is. Instead of spending their life wearily in some London slum, they took off for the sunshine of Majorca and made a life there while both tried to break into the writing field, Ruth with her poetry, Alan with his novels. They didn't do very well, but they were doing what they wanted to do, and that is what counts.
Their house, when I knew them, cost 550 pesetas a month which at that time came to $13.75. Prices have gone up a bit since then, but at the same time the Spanish peseta has lost value so that if you are using either American dollars or British pounds, prices are about the same.
Your first reaction is going to be, "Only $13.75 a month! They must have lived in a pigpen!"
To the contrary, their home was lovely. It had three bedrooms (one of which Ruth converted into a study), a living room, a dining room (which Alan converted into a study), a large kitchen and pantry and a modern bath. There was a patio and a wealth of flowers. The house came completely furnished even to dishes and linens and had a view which would be difficult to surpass in the States no matter what your financial position.
They had to be careful, there is no denying that. However, Ruth had a servant come in three times a week for half a day, thus getting her basic cleaning and her laundry done. Ruth also had to make a considerable amount of her own clothes, but luckily she finds relaxation in her needle and likes to sew.
They bore up their end of the entertainment in the Anglo-American colony of Soller, having occasional cocktail parties and inviting friends in to dinner from time to time. Possibly they would have eaten more meat and less fish if their income had been better, but fish is wonderful in the Mediterranean and fruits and vegetables so cheap that even the most limited budget could afford the best.
Besides their work, there were long hours to be spent on the beach since swimming in the Balearics lasts for about nine or ten months of the year. There were hikes into the mountains and picnics to be held in the deserted ruins of old Moorish fortresses and towers. There was fishing and skin diving and occasional boating trips along the Majorcan coast, termed the most beautiful in the world by many travel authorities. And there were wonderful evenings of plain, old fashioned conversation with their fellow English speaking neighbors, both American and British. Since entertainment is so cheap in Spain, everyone could indulge in it and the Silletoes spent comparatively few evenings at home.