Some readers of our 2015 Asset Allocation Guide have discovered an unsettling reality: They don’t have enough assets to fund a comfortable retirement. For these folks, conventional investment recommendations aren’t enough. They’ll never achieve the high returns they require in the short time windows they are in.

If you’re one of these people, don’t despair. You have options. One of the best is moving overseas.

The Wealth Builders Club contains an essay series for people in this predicament. It’s called “Retire Next Year.” In it, Mark shows subscribers how to forge otherwise “impossible” retirements. They do so by living in places where the cost of living is far below the U.S… but the quality of life is as good, or better.

In the excerpt below, Mark shares one way to retire next year: Run an overseas bed and breakfast (a “B&B”)…

 

Opening a B&B is not for everyone. But it does meet the requirements of a Retire Next Year occupation. For one thing, it is something you can do in a year. It also works best if your B&B is somewhere you’d like to retire—a tropical seaside, for example, or a mountain retreat.

Another advantage is that it doesn’t require any specialized skill or experience. There are basically three aspects to this business: selling rooms, managing the property, and hosting the guests.

Selling the rooms is much easier than you might expect. Managing the property in most overseas destinations is cheap and easy thanks to the availability of inexpensive labor. And hosting the guests is something you can do—if you enjoy it—or something you can delegate to someone else.

Take retired art dealer Frank Stegmeier, who was recently featured in International Living’s Incomes Abroad. In 1998, Frank bought 100 acres of Panamanian land for $17,000. He built a few cottages for friends to stay in when they visited. But as time passed, he decided to rent them out for extra cash.

It didn’t take long for a small business to blossom. El Rio Encantado is now an in-demand art lovers’ retreat.

Frank’s “office” is a tropical oasis, with lush gardens, hot springs, a river, and a waterfall. His customers are appreciative guests escaping the hustle and bustle of their busy lives.

Frank’s fee: $70 a night in the rainy season and $110 during holidays. This allows him to entice guests with low prices while making enough to live comfortably.

Sound a little better than your daily grind?