Retiring to a third world county? (rental, condo, big house)

[Hopes]

I've wondered about this too. There are areas in the world where it's possible to live on very little money.

Can an American collect social security while living overseas?

[Philfun]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I've wondered about this too. There are areas in the world where it's possible to live on very little money.

Can an American collect social security while living overseas?

You can live on "very little money" in many places, but it depends on the lifestyle you want. In the Philippines, where I live, I know Americans who live on $500 a month, but this is in rural areas and doing without many of the luxeries that you would be used to in the USA. On $700 - $1,500 a month, you can live very well indeed. The main cities, like Manila & Cebu are more expensive to live in, but medium size cities like Cagayan, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, etc, are cheap to live in, particularly if you don't want to eat imported foods for every meal.

Americans can have their social security sent directly to their bank accounts in almost every country in the world. The exceptions are places like North Korea, Iran, etc. There is a list of the countries you can have it sent to on the Social Security web site. Of course, you can also have it sent to your American bank account and just transfer money as you need it.

[pigeonhole]

Tagbilaran,
Isn't it on Cobol isl near the "Chocolate Hills"?

[jm31828]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Those are the two best articles I have read on this subject in a long time. I am sick to death of people who move to another country and expect it to be "just like the United States" and are disappointed when it isn't.

At least the article showed that there are good places to live in the world that don't have an American accent. I would LOVE to live in a third world country. I'd do it in a heart beat if my mother wasn't elderly and need me. Maybe one day I will go! LOL

20yrsinBranson

One major thing to keep in mind with 3rd world countries, though, is simply the fact that they are 3rd world! Culture/language aside, they are night and day different from our 1st world countries- so many places are filthy, run down, standard of living is so much lower that only the truly rich people can have even a hint of what many of us here in the US consider normal living (MODERN home/apartment with hot water, clean drinking water, central air conditioning, central heating, etc) And it goes beyond that to city/national services that are provided, quality of modern health care if you need it, safety, etc. There is a lot to consider. I have spent some time in Asia (China and Thailand), and both were beautiful places, with the major cities being fairly well developed, but that is all relative- when you get down to ground level you see that it's still a far lower standard of living for most people than what we have, and there are a LOT of shortcomings..... even in the nice modern areas.

[vantexan]

I've been researching living overseas for 10 years now. Haven't been anywhere other than Canada and Mexico, but I have found excellent forums on the 'net for specific countries with active participation by expats who actually live there. The single best forum for a country I've found is the Thai Visa Forum, which is huge. Yahoo Groups has huge excellent forums for the Philippines, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Ecuador and others. If you Google a country's name, or a city, and the word forum you'll turn up quite a few. Dumaguete has a good forum. These are expat forums that discuss every aspect of life in a given place. Living in the Philippines Yahoo Group had over 17,000 members last time I looked!

Regarding living on $500 a month. Most families in most 3rd world countries get by on less than that but it's not a comparable life to the U.S. or Europe. If you have a hard currency like the Dollar, British Pound, the Euro, Japanese Yen and a few others, and enough of it, you can live in nicer neighborhoods where the wealthy of that country live. Not everyone in 3rd world countries is poor and you can find areas in most cities that approximate 1st world living. But better figure minimum $1000 a month and it can go way up from there. Then there are the special cases. Some countries like Argentina are just about first world but have poor economies. Next door to Argentina is Chile which is very close to 1st world status, is very safe, has the best police force in Latin America, and has minimal corruption. Which also makes it the most expensive country in Latin America, but you get what you pay for. Costa Rica and Panama are the expat hotspots of Latin America, with Ecuador up and coming. Why? Costa Rica for many years had an amazing lifestyle and offered excellent incentives to foreign retirees. Real Estate speculators like the folks at International Living and Escape from America sensed an opportunity and heavily promoted it on their websites. Hundreds of thousands of comparatively wealthy people moved in from all over and caused huge problems for poor locals who couldn't compete. Prices, and crime, soared. The retiree incentives were discontinued. Eventually many expats wanted to get out and Panama became heavily promoted. And the same scenario has been repeated there for several years, although I think Panama is handling it better. Costa Rica is still a nice country, just not what it was. For the person who asked, the central plateau of Costa Rica has one of the world's best climates. No A/C or heat needed!

I've explored thru forums and guidebooks pretty much every country in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Most countries have at least one or 2 cities I believe I'd enjoy but ultimately I really want to live in a place where I don't stand out in a crowd. Foreign cultures are fascinating and in places like Thailand and Malaysia you get the added benefit of incredibly good food. For my money though I'm heading to Argentina. Best steaks in the world, biggest mountains outside of the Himalayas, a world class city in Buenos Aires but also many smaller places with an excellent quality of life. It isn't perfect, there's corruption, poor gov't management, red tape. But unless the U.S. gov't destroys the Dollar, a real possibility, I'll be able to get by comfortably on my small pension, even better when Social Security starts.

[pigeonhole]

To Vantexan : the problem with Argentina is the climate, only the extreme north has all-year round warm weather, the rest is temperate/chilly. Coming from Europe, I 'm searching more of a tropical/subtropical place, a good idea would be to stay 3 months in each country I envision to live in and then make my decision.
But Argentina wouldn't be on my list (too far away in the Southern Hemisphere).

[vantexan]

Originally Posted by pigeonhole

To Vantexan : the problem with Argentina is the climate, only the extreme north has all-year round warm weather, the rest is temperate/chilly. Coming from Europe, I 'm searching more of a tropical/subtropical place, a good idea would be to stay 3 months in each country I envision to live in and then make my decision.
But Argentina wouldn't be on my list (too far away in the Southern Hemisphere).

You're right, the weather isn't perfect although I hear Salta has a pretty nice climate. It's up in the NW area you mentioned. Having grown up in Florida and spent many years in Texas I'm trying to avoid humidity. Loved the air in the Rockies. There's a small city in southern Mendoza province, San Rafael, that looks good. Temps in the winter get into the mid-30's for lows. It's got flat terrain(although it's close to the Andes), very shady streets, and low humidity. Due to all that using bikes for transportation is very popular and there are more bikes than cars on the streets. It's a real outdoor lifestyle type place. There's even whitewater rafting and some of the country's best skiing nearby. San Rafael's economy is mostly agriculture, primarily vineyards and orchards. It's got about 170,000 in the area and Mendoza, with about a million people, is 143 miles away, You can get to Santiago, Chile in 4 hrs. Mendoza is supposed to have just about everything, even Walmart. Are you looking at Brazil? I know those beaches are great but the crime stats really throw me. I was interested in northern Thailand but it seems their gov't makes it difficult to live there. I am planning to spend some time in the Philippines looking for a wife. Who knows, might end up staying, but I'm thinking Argentina is it unless it becomes much more expensive. One other place to consider for $500 a month living, Guatemala. Americans are doing that in Quetzaltenango, it's 2nd largest city, also known as Xela, pronounced Shayla. Gets cold at night during the winter as it's about 7000' high if I remember right. Has new mall with 5 screen multiplex, even a new Wendy's. Guatemala has serious crime issues. Probably best place to avoid crime in Guatemala is Antigua, which is very nice, near perfect weather, beautiful scenery, but considerably more expensive than Xela. An excellent forum is Xela Pages. Can't remember the name but there's a town on Nicaragua's Pacific coast that's gotten popular with expats. Grenada is also popular but from what I read has boiling hot weather. That's the Nicaraguan city, not the island. Having lived several places on the Mexican border I'm a little turned off of Mexico, although I hear there are some pretty nice cities in the middle of the country. I moved to the border to work, and had planned to head south to explore. I literally for several years read everything I could find on Mexico. But I encountered so much anti-Anglo bias that I decided to look beyond Mexico in hopes that people would have a more favorable view of Americans. In primarily mestizo countries there's so much crime, corruption, poor infrastructure, disease, red tape, etc that you've got to be willing to put up with alot. Not saying that it's all bad, there are some great places in most countries. But what draws me to Argentina is that most of those issues are minimal, and being such a large country I can enjoy travel in it and Chile next door, as well as Uruguay and the far south of Brazil, comfortably and safely. In places like Ecuador and Guatemala people are often forced off the road, including busses, and robbed. Women raped while the men were on their knees with guns at their heads. Not an everyday thing, but not rare either. You either spend your time in certain safer areas, or you stay behind locked doors and barred windows. I'll take the cold air!

[Badger]

I heard that in Ecuador you can get a 6 month tourist visa and simply live there for that amount of time. If you're retired and just want to spend a few months (2-6) in a country (without moving permanently) this might be a possibility.

is this a standard length tourist visa for most countries? are there any limitations to how often one can get a tourist visa in a certain time period?

I'm not sure I would want to move full-time but could see wanting to spend several months at a crack in a foreign locale.

[Bob-666]

I beleive a number of countries will let you live there 6 months per year as a tourist. You may be able to buy property and rent it out for half the year to holiday makers and live in it yourself for the other half of the year. But each countries rules are different so you need to check with their embassies.

[azoria]

The standard length of stay on a tourist visa is 90 days.