The 10 best places to retire with only a Social Security check (retiree, benefits)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Doubt anyone living overseas (especially on SS) has any intent, desire, need to brag.
And Healthcare (which you WON'T get in USA, pre age 65) supplemental post age 65 will soon be MORE than an overseas comprehensive policy.
It is not at all EZ to live overseas, and most of us would prefer our homeland, just that our homeland is making that impossible.
$25k income will get you into a few countries, some have a lower bar, many require a bundle of investment.
Some of us just must 'stay-on-the-run' avoiding Obamacare fines, and keeping ahead of immigration authorities. Changing countries every 60 - 90 days.
Why do this instead of living the RV life? Get a New Mexico annual non-resident camping pass ($225 yr) and if you want electric it's $4 a day, for a total of
$1685 a year for rent and utilities.
You will have to move every two weeks...to another campground, many with lakes. Use a mail forwarding company (rates vary, but about $10 a month) as your residence (so you can have a bank account, etc) from one of the states that don't have income tax, get your driver's license from that state and you're set. And have Obamacare. And it's all legal. No rule says you must live in a house/apartment.
Lastly, I don't understand the sentence I bolded above....it seems to read that you won't get healthcare pre age 65; but might read that you don't get supplemental healthcare pre 65. I don't know what supplemental healthcare is....nor why you couldn't get it.
If you google the historical records, I bet that every state has one event of frost in August in the past 200 years.
That does not mean it is likely during your lifetime.
Probably not Florida .
FWIW - people get all different amounts of Social Security. From next to nothing to > $2600/month at full retirement age in 2016. So it depends. You can live ok in my metro area if you earn > $30k/year. Probably many others as well.
I am pretty much against retiring outside the US. Because Medicare doesn't work outside the US. Low income seniors can get pretty good deals on things like Medicare Advantage Plans (which I normally wouldn't favor) inside the US. Robyn
Maine has 986 townships, of which 44% [432] are incorporated or in theory 'organized', and 56% [554] are un-organized.
Being incorporated adds layers of municipal expenses and possible services, all paid for via the municipality budget. It is interesting to watch from the side-lines as towns compete amongst each other, in adding services. Every year there are many local town ordinances on the ballots for increasing services and taxes in some manner.
For decades there had been a push for the state to subsidize the biggest cities to help fund all of their municipal services under a program called 'revenue sharing'. That extra free money came partly from the un-organized townships [UTs] who were not eligible to receive any of it.
Our current governor is a fiscal conservative, he has stopped 'revenue sharing' for the most. So the cities are whining because the UTs are no longer subsidizing them.
Without lots of municipal employees the UT taxes have always been low. Now without our taxes going to subsidize the cities, our property taxes have been dropping.
Very interesting. Thank you for explaining that. Part of the reason our taxes are so insane in NJ is the duplication of services and personnel. This is especially noticeable in the education realm, where every town has its own school superintendent, no matter how tiny their school population is. And every town has a police chief, etc. Salaries and pensions for these employees can add quite a bit to the local budget. We don't have "revenue sharing" per se between cities and towns, but we do have something called "Abbott districts" for school funding. A topic I will not touch with a 10-foot pole.
A lot of times the cheapest places to live in retirement is where you are already located. That is provided you live in a paid for and efficient house. The other plus to staying put is you don't have to get new doctors, find new mechanic etc.
So funny you mentioned finding a new mechanic. That is one of the things that pops into my head when hubby and I contemplate where we will live in retirement. We really like and trust our mechanic, who inherited the business from his father, who we also really liked and trusted. These are the kinds of guys that will never tell you to make a repair just because it will make them some money. They take the long view, and make recommendations on what you need and what is safe. I always think, where will we find someone else like that? I'm sure they are out there; finding them is the problem.
So funny you mentioned finding a new mechanic. That is one of the things that pops into my head when hubby and I contemplate where we will live in retirement. We really like and trust our mechanic, who inherited the business from his father, who we also really liked and trusted. These are the kinds of guys that will never tell you to make a repair just because it will make them some money. They take the long view, and make recommendations on what you need and what is safe. I always think, where will we find someone else like that? I'm sure they are out there; finding them is the problem.
Wow. You're letting an auto mechanic decide where you're gonna live!?!?!
Harlingen, Tx. is the winner. Think I will stay in Houston.
I don't agree. Housing prices have gone way up, both for renters and homeowners. Property taxes are huge and rent is quite high. We also have a pretty steep sales tax and our roads are heavily tolled with little to no public transportation options. Houston is not as cheap to live in as it initially appears. I've lived here most of the past 28 years. Access to amazing healthcare is a huge advantage, however.
Whooops! Forgot to mention corruption in Panama. Not just having to keep an extra $20 or $40 in your wallet for the cops. Lawyers notorious for stealing their client's properties (especially if purchased by foreigners who are absentee). Prosecutors laugh when foreigners are involved in lawsuits and almost never take them seriously. International Living should be called International Lying. Grocery prices are 30% to 50% higher than what I paid in my recent trip to Orlando, FL. Meals in decent restaurants (these close on a very regular basis), close to New York prices. Real estate prices are much higher than many locations in the U.S. And there are "gringo prices" for everything ... from cable tv, to cleaning people, taxi fares, and whatever else you can think of. Add $50 a month to your budget for bug spray, extra $200 for food; electricity is very expensive and you will want to run it 24/7. And former President Martinelli living it up on his $1 billion dollars which he stole from the country. Therefore country is too poor to have decent roads (more tire stores than I've seen anywhere else on earth, maybe 4x as many), constant water supply (poor cows die of thirst all over the country), reliable internet, no pizza delivery, especially at night, as there are no street signs or names outside of Panama City. Outside of the city there is almost nothing to do ... unless you are a surfer (there are no lifeguards), but you will have the ahem "pleasure" of seeing 60 and 70 year old women and men on the beach in bikinis and Speedos. Don't expect to learn Spanish here, you will not recognize it when they speak it. International Living in general is no good for anything. Panama is a great place if you like dumb blank faces staring back at you and not bothering to move their lips.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.