The Frog in the Well: Is Your South African Retirement World Smaller Than You Think?

There is an old Japanese proverb:

“A frog in a well does not know the ocean.”

Imagine a frog that has spent its entire life at the bottom of a well.

It knows every stone. It knows where the sunlight falls and where to shelter from the rain. When it looks upward, it sees the sky.

As far as the frog is concerned, it knows its world.

There is only one problem.

It has never seen the ocean.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for those of us approaching retirement.

The Retirement Well

Most people spend their working lives living where circumstances require them to live.

We live where our careers take us. We commute because that's where the jobs are. We tolerate the climate, traffic, taxes, expenses and frustrations because that's where our lives have been built.

Eventually, familiarity begins to feel like inevitability.

Then retirement arrives.

And for perhaps the first time in our adult lives, something fundamental changes:

We may no longer need to live where we needed to work.

Yet many people automatically retire in the same country—and sometimes the same town—where they spent their working lives.

Not because they compared the alternatives and consciously decided it was the best place in the world for the next chapter of their lives.

But because it is home.

The walls of the well have become invisible.

What If You Looked Over the Wall?

This isn't an argument that everyone should leave their home country.

Children, grandchildren, friendships and community can be enormously important to a happy retirement.

But there is a profound difference between choosing to stay and never seriously considering the alternatives.

If you no longer need to commute to work every morning, why should yesterday's employment determine tomorrow's geography?

If you've spent 30 or 40 years building savings, investments, pensions and property, shouldn't you at least investigate where those resources might provide you with the life you actually want?

Perhaps the greatest luxury retirement gives us isn't money.

It's choice.

• The choice of where to wake up.
• The choice of climate.
• The choice of surroundings.
• The choice of how complicated, or simple, you want your life to be.
• And ultimately, the choice of which country you want to call home.

Beyond the Well

Thousands of kilometres from Europe, Africa and North America sits a small tropical island surrounded by the Indian Ocean.

Mauritius.

Most people know it as a holiday destination.

Far fewer have ever seriously considered living here.

But beyond the beaches and luxury resorts is a modern country where people live, raise families and retire.

There are modern shopping centres, private healthcare facilities, restaurants, banks, golf courses, apartments and beautiful homes.

English is widely spoken. Mauritius has deep historical connections with Britain, France, Africa and India and an extraordinarily diverse population.

And, of course, there is the climate, the outdoor lifestyle—and that magnificent ocean.

Mauritius will not suit everyone.

No country does.

Island life has disadvantages. Family may be thousands of kilometres away. Imported products can be expensive. Bureaucracy can be frustrating.

So the question isn't: “Is Mauritius better than my country?”

The better question is: “Which environment is better suited to the life I want to live now?”

Come and Look

I'm not suggesting that you sell your house, pack your belongings and move halfway around the world.

I'm suggesting something far less dramatic.

Come and look.

Spend a few weeks in Mauritius.

Don't spend the entire time in a five-star resort.

Rent an apartment.

Buy groceries.

Drive the roads.

Visit different parts of the island.

Talk to people who have already retired here.

Investigate residency, healthcare, housing and the cost of living.

Experience an ordinary Tuesday rather than just a beautiful Saturday on the beach.

Then go home and decide.

You may discover that Mauritius isn't for you.

That's perfectly fine.

Because the objective isn't to convince everyone to retire in Mauritius.

The objective is to make sure that one of the most important decisions of your life is actually a decision.

The frog wasn't foolish.

And the well wasn't necessarily a bad place.

The frog simply couldn't compare the world it knew with the world it had never seen.

Perhaps retirement is finally your opportunity to climb high enough to look over the wall.

You may decide that your old well is exactly where you belong.

Or you may discover that the world available to you is considerably larger than you ever imagined.

After all: A frog in a well does not know the ocean.

And here in Mauritius, the ocean is right outside the door.