Starter Kit. Idea 380 of 500. Cluster 18
Retirement-at-home services for Sri Lankans abroad who want to come back at sixty and do not know how
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
The first step
Talk to 10 Sri Lankans abroad in their fifties at one association event and ask what stops them retiring home: health care, housing, pensions, tax or loneliness. Price a first consultation that answers those questions for their district, with viewings of suitable housing arranged. One booked consultation from a couple planning to return proves demand.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan couple abroad nearing sixty who want to come home and do not know how their pension, health care and housing would work.
- What leaves today
- Retirees now spend their pensions abroad; a return service brings that income, and the experience that comes with it, back to the island.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what returning retirees may bring home and what they must declare.
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask how a pension paid from abroad is taxed here.
Check before you spend
What you may advise on and what belongs to a lawyer or tax adviser, and how you hold any deposit taken for housing viewings.
Find out these three numbers
- What stops people in their fifties retiring home?
- What would a couple pay for a first consultation?
- What does suitable housing cost in their district?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.