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There are plenty of nice places I'd like to go to when I retire in about 10-15 years, but I prefer to be around my children and grandchildren. That's what's important to me.

---That is soooo true!
Trust me these adventurous baby boomer will soon or later come crawling back to the U.S. when reality kicks in for them after living there for a while, unless they are the types like Alec Ballwill(?) and Barbara Streisand who promised us to leave if Bush was elected!!
The U.S. is still the best place in the world to live in. And this comes from a former Scandinavian with the so called "best" welfare in the world but also a tax rate exceeding 50%!!!

Everyone has their own retirement situation...here's mine...maybe something will be useful to others here:

I retired at the age of 28 and that was abut 35 years ago. At the time I was working at UCLA and decided that University life was not for me....too structured, too confining....and I was a conservative with little hope of achieving my dreams in a liberal fish bowl....

By "retired" I do not mean that I would live the life of no work..just that I would live where ever I felt like living and and not work for anyone but myself.

I became a writer and investment advisor and slowly built up my investment poke...In the 1960's and 1970's I lived in CA beach communities like Seal Beach, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and then I moved to the mountains...Mt Shasta, Yreka ...and then I realized that CA was an expensive place to live and was taxing me to death ...so in the early 1980's I moved again to a no state income tax state...

I ended up in the Black Hills of South Dakota...eliminatng CA income taxes was the best thing I ever did in my life....living costs are low in SD...and the living is slow paced and easy.

The money I saved on CA income taxes covered the cost of my home, sending my three children to good colleges and bought the good life...and a lot more.

About the wealth stuff...I have now given most of my money away to others...but I have saved enough for myself to provide a very comfortable life (I live the life of a typical subscriber to WORTH magazine)...how???? Well, as I said...I became a writer and investment advisor and the US of the past 40 years has been a great place for savvy investors who understand how compounding works.

If you do not know how compounding works...visit the library.

Presently, I live most of the year in pine covered mountains at about the 3700 foot level and escape to milder climates when the winter winds come...we do not get much snow in the Black Hills but can get very cold temperatures...for brief periods of time.

The point of all this is...you only get one chance to live your life...so think it out carefully. Do not wait until normal retirement age to plan, to figure out what is best for you....and your family...and to act. Do not choose or get stuck on a foolish path...one that purposefully diminishes all that you can be.

In the USA you can live an extraordinary life...if you want to!!