Americans ditch suffocating healthcare costs and divisive politics to retire in Italy: 'It's the way they approach life'
05.05.2024 - 11:19
/ insider.com
Eric and Christina Schwendeman's relationship got serious the day he brought up retirement.
"I have a long-term plan," Eric, 53, recalled telling his now-wife nearly two decades ago. "I want to work as hard as possible and retire to Italy as young as I possibly can."
At the time, the couple lived in Naples, Florida, which is more than 5,000 miles and a 13-hour long-haul flight from Italy.
"He was like, 'That's my goal. If you're on board for that, then let's do this,'" Christina, 40, said.
The Schwendemans began planning for their life outside the United States about 17 years ago, but an increasing number of Americans these days are following their example.
The US State Department estimated that 9 million American citizens lived abroad in 2020, which is a jump from 5 million in 2010.
There used to be a seemingly clear-cut path to retirement in the United States.
People worked until 65, then left the workforce with the help of Social Security and personal savings. That began shifting in the 1980s when Americans gravitated toward defined-contribution plans — like 401(k)s — instead of defined-benefit plans like pensions. This has shifted more responsibility onto employees to determine how much to invest and save.
"Put simply, the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution has been, for most people, a shift from financial certainty to financial uncertainty," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote in a 2024 letter to investors.
Millions of baby boomers now struggle to cover their cost of living.
An AARP survey in April found that one in five Americans who are 50 or older have no retirement savings, and more than half of respondents were concerned they wouldn't have enough to support themselves if they retired.
So, as retirement in the United States gets bleak, some Americans are looking elsewhere. Specifically, they are looking to Italy, which ranks among the top 20 countries with the most generous retirement systems.
For the Schwendemans, the opportunity to leave the United States arrived in 2022.
Eric and Christina worked in the automotive industry, which was severely impacted by the pandemic. About 575,000 jobs in the industry were lost by the fall 2021.
"We could see that the automotive industry was going to take a turn around the same time that we were seeing it in the housing industry," Christina said. "We said, 'It's probably a good time for us to leave our jobs and sell our house.'"
They moved to Clavesana, a small town of less than 900 people in Italy's Piedmont region and purchased a home that sits on just under an acre of land. Eric and Christina did not share the exact cost, but said the home was about 150 euros — or $161 — per square foot.
Although moving to Italy was always a dream, the