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I think the bottom line is, if you can acclimate your lifestyle to that of a third world country, you can live there very cheaply. Probably $3-400 a month, for a safe neighborhood, private dwelling with simple comforts and adequate, tasty nutrition and lifestyle freedom. If you can't, your cost of living "American style" will probably be more than in the USA.
As a traveler, I can live in a lot of countries in the third world on $300 a month, paying by the night for a decent room and paying by the plate for my meals.
The fact is, you can live in a third world country for about as much as you are now paying for cable, internet, and cellphone. Or, about as much as it is costing you to have your own car. Can you do without those?
I do agree with your basic premise that living in third world countries for retirement generally aren't worth it. Not unless the person actually likes the said country and the culture.
I've never understood the people who've never had any desire/interest to ever go abroad, then suddenly retire, and decide SOLELY to go abroad, SOLELY because of financial reasons.
Those types of people will be in for a major shock.
But, for others, who are attracted to another country, and want to be in a particular country for almost any other reason besides the financial, than the move can be a good one. In short, it depends on the circumstances.
I'm not taking issue with the many informed and thoughtful postings that people have made about living in less developed countries, but I would point out that the OP (Datafeed) began the thread simply on the (usual) point of "America" vs the world, i.e. -"living abroad."
Living abroad, I assumed was what is otherwise known as "the rest of the world," and not restricted to developing countries.
As for cheap vs. expensive, it's about your lifestyle and other factors not item by item price comparisons: I figure I pay four to five times what an American pays for a gallon of gasoline - don't mean jacksh*t to me. The small town/city I live in has an inexpensive, well-developed, frequent bus service in clean, up-to-date vehicles; most public services and the shops I need are within walking distance; no stop-and-start traffic, etc. A tank of fuel lasts me forever. I pay four bucks for a 100 km train ride with a choice of ten trains a day in the summer, less in the winter. A huge TV screen on the wall and a zillion channels of rubbish, four-wheel drive, boat, snowmobile (I don't even see snow!)a Blackberry and the vast array similar items that Americans love to love.....pfffffft. Not my style. Enclosed restaurant with a/c and American style food...spare me, oh Lord from these thy "gifts" . Cigarettes and alcohol are waaaaaaaay below U.S. prices here, but I don't use either....so all these concerns are irrelevant, to me.
But I do want an ocean view, and I want it to be mine, not just rented....and that's not possible for me in the U.S. I get it in Europe, but then quite clearly I do not have a very American lifestyle nor American considerations
Thus, my intent in making my previous posting was to point out that contrary to what Datafeed's susequent postings state you can live in a decent-sized apartment, live without fear of crime, eat local food that will not poison you - in countries that are not underdeveloped and/or impoverished....and do so less expensively than in the U.S., and even enjoy things that might not be affordable to many there (such as myself.)
It depends. One can live on much less money than in a lot of places than they would need anywhere in the US, but in terms of living the "American lifestyle", especially the "American family lifestyle", the U.S. is probably the cheapest or at the bottom of the list. By "American lifestyle" I mean a combination things that are unique or almost unique to the U.S. (although some of them are characteristic of developed countries in general) and can be afforded by (at least some of) the middle class: 3,000 ft² houses with as many bathrooms as bedrooms, private car transportation to every destination, abundant electronic goods, relative safety (absence of fear of kidnapping, thieves, etc.), (ideally American) food cooked to American sanitary standards and served in enclosed, air-conditioned restaurants that are up to American design standards, owning and using a boat/s, four-wheeler, snowmobile, etc. If you try to replicate the American lifestyle abroad, you'll probably be overcharged or overburdened, probably both.
On the other hand, if you do not seek after the American lifestyle but prefer walkable cities, domestic servants, etc. - things not particularly common in the U.S. - than a lot of places will be cheaper than the U.S., if not much cheaper.
I think the bottom line is, if you can acclimate your lifestyle to that of a third world country, you can live there very cheaply. Probably $3-400 a month, for a safe neighborhood, private dwelling with simple comforts and adequate, tasty nutrition and lifestyle freedom. If you can't, your cost of living "American style" will probably be more than in the USA.
As a traveler, I can live in a lot of countries in the third world on $300 a month, paying by the night for a decent room and paying by the plate for my meals.
The fact is, you can live in a third world country for about as much as you are now paying for cable, internet, and cellphone. Or, about as much as it is costing you to have your own car. Can you do without those?
You are not LIVING....you are existing....living as a transient in a guesthouse eating a plate of food....as I posted earlier, it is cheaper in america as you are living like a low class pauper and you can simply live under a bridge as the people do in Vegas and get free food from the food pantry.
And what is the 3rd world? Niger, Chad, the shantitowns of South Africa or the flavellas (Sp?) of Brazil....
What if you or your kid gets sick...find god?
I mean living the lifestyle that lower middle class westerner could tolerate.
Living "cheap" is relative to what you buy first of all, more than the cost of any single item or service. Without considering that and other factors, "cheap" simply has no meaning.
I transported my lower middle class life and retirement income & savings to southern Europe, and live far better than I could in any of the places I wanted to retire in the U.S. I've never lived any place here other than either on the beachfront, or with a panoramic view of the sea, and always with a warm climate. I couldn't begin to afford any such places in the U.S.
None of the homes or apartments I have lived in have ever had less than two bedrooms and two bathrooms, one had three and all had large to very large living rooms. One house had a pool. No house or condo apt. cost me anywhere near what you would pay in the U.S. for a similar location and amenities. But I have never lived in an enclave with expatriates.
I have made money selling each one, and have increased my savings by changing dollars to foreign currencies. By retiring to the EU I am living higher on the hog than I ever lived in the U.S. On the other hand, I buy no imported products and buy locally grown fresh produce; thus, my food costs are lower than I was accustomed to in the U.S., so much so that I eat my principal meal out every day....but I eat where local people eat.
Whether this is possible anywhere is very contingent upon what your total lifestyle is, and what you personally need to live a satisfactory life.
what country and what city...methinks the COL is higher in the EU than in the states...does alabama have a coast?...
I think eating naturally...having a small garden, maybe killing a chicken or two, you could live cheaper in some podunk town of the us than where you are...never been to portugal though.
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