Having too many assets but not enough cash is a situation many people find themselves in as they get close to retirement.

It is a situation that I cannot see changing dramatically, whatever the Government of the day tries to do to encourage us to save more, particularly when we are young.

The very time we are told that we need to start making provision for our long-term financial security occurs around the time of mortgages and children, when financial survival tends to be more of a problem than retirement planning.

Home ownership is probably the one major long-term financial planning exercise a large proportion of us have been involved with at some time in our adult lives.

Over the longer-term, our bricks-and-mortar assets have made many of us asset rich, although - due to the restraints many are under bringing up a family, paying for our homes, etc. - many of us end up struggling to exist, even though on paper we could be relatively well-off.

The usual way round this has been either to sell and buy-down, releasing capital or by way of one of the many equity release schemes around. But just recently I have been seeing a different, more radical trend.

Only this week, I came across three different instances, not involving just those who are retired. These were three groups, aged between 40 and 60, who were planning on moving to warmer pastures overseas.

One lady, in her mid-50s, was so fed-up with having to work just to survive, she had sold her house here and was moving to Spain, where she already had an apartment, knowing she could live comfortably over there on about £150 a week or less.

Not only is the climate arguably better, but the cost of living is so much cheaper. Her ground rent, which included the upkeep of a swimming pool and all the gardens on this primarily Spanish-owned small apartment block, was only £250 a year. Even her satellite TV was only the equivalent of about £30 a year.

Another couple I saw were going to buy a holiday caravan at a local park that was open from March 1 until January 1 each year and an apartment, again in Spain.

They felt that they could have a much better standard of living over there than over here, and they would have a base to return to here in Sussex.

The third person this week who was planning an exit from these shores was aiming to have some property in the United States, on the Florida Keys.

Although he was not selling up and moving over there, he was using some of the equity in the rising value of his house to buy some land and build a couple of properties. The finance had been put in place with the help of a US bank.

It looks as if there could be a mass exodus away from these shores.

But life is not always greener on the other side of the world. Look at Ronnie Biggs, he wanted to return to this green and pleasant land.

What an asset for us he is!

lGarry Spencer is a specialist with Wilbury Financial Management of Worthing, a member of IFA Network Ltd, which is regulated by the Personal Investment Authority. Tel: 01903 213222.