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Anyone ever retire out of the country, lived anywhere else. America is to expensive! Any idea's?
Check the threads further down the list. A lot of them deal with overseas retirement opportunities. I have been living in Malaysia ~13 years and plan on retiring here. There is a Malaysia, My Second Home program that was fairly decent in terms, but is becoming harder to recommend due to the increasing price requirement for home purchases. Do a google search on the above phrase or its acronym: mm2h. C-D doesn't allow the posting of links.
Anyone ever retire out of the country, lived anywhere else. America is to expensive! Any idea's?
Michelle:
The United States is a pretty large and diverse chunk of land. While I understand the appeal to finding an inexpensive paradise somewhere else, I suspect of bit of research, and honest number crunching, would show that there are plenty of places in this nation where you could move, live a less expensive lifestyle, and have a lot less hassle then moving to another nation.
Most of the places folks talk about when seeking their mythical “cheap to live” paradise are third world countries. Yes, if you live like a native, have modest expectations and are willing to put up with a degree of lack of services that most of us here would find unacceptable, then go for it.
One site I’ve found most interesting is named “Tales from a Small Planet.” I’m not permitted to put the website address here, but I’m sure it’ll pop up if you put that name in your search box. The site is designed for State Department folks and others who spend a year or more in a foreign land. Many, many nations are listed (hundreds?). The reviews are most revealing. Indeed, a few of the places I’ve fantasized about running off to turn out to be less then desirable locations, base on the experiences of the site’s reviewers.
My husband and I retired to COSTA RICA five years ago. We live in the Central Valley overlooking the city and just love it.
We are close to everything...airport, concerts, plays, doctors, hospitals..yet never need heat or air conditioning. Property taxes on 4,000 sf home are $200.
Unfortunately due to a hospital error, he is having breathing problems and we live at 5,000 feet which is too high for him, so we must move.
My husband and I retired to COSTA RICA five years ago. We live in the Central Valley overlooking the city and just love it.
We are close to everything...airport, concerts, plays, doctors, hospitals..yet never need heat or air conditioning. Property taxes on 4,000 sf home are $200.
Quote:
Unfortunately due to a hospital error, he is having breathing problems and we live at 5,000 feet which is too high for him, so we must move.
I left the United States when I was forced into retirement by an injury. And it was one of the greatest things I've ever done for myself. I returned recently to the U.S. for a month-long stay to see if now that i am a decade older, and a decade more worn down, if relocation to a retirement place in the U.S. would be a good move. I quite frankly could not stomach the tenor of life in the U.S., and felt I would be losing so much of the quaiity of life that I deeply love that I would be miserable.
Having said that, I would not recommend even thinking about moving abroad if cheap living is your only motivation. Yes, you can live cheaply here (or many other places in the world) - but not in the same way you do in the U.S. However, to uproot yourself from the culture you are used to and to try to transplant in a foreign country is no easy thing. The Americans that I have met in the EU who have made a happy adjustment amounted to two - and I am one of the two! The rest had turned into unhappy whiners, always complaining that wherever they were wasn't like the U.S., or wasn't easy (a chronic complaint), or needed to change, etc. What a rotten way to live! We Americans think we are a hang-loose bunch of folks, but in fact we only "go with the flow" when the flow goes the way we want it too.
If you are starting out with the pluses, the positive attractions of living elsewhere - backed up by plenty of research and some on-the-spot testing - you are on the right track, I think. We Americans are used to living very cosseted lives filled with stuff and gadgets, and you are highly unlikely to be able to translate that to any foreign locale and find it is cheaper. You definitely can make or find a cosseted lifestyle, but it will be a much different one and you will have to change many of your ideas of what the Good Life is.
There is a joke in the town where I live about Americans (Americans are liked, so it is meant good-naturedly): When American couples visit here two things happen - the man never sees his female companion, and she never sees the town. Why? Because American women spend their entire time here wandering from drug store to drug store in a search for their favorite hair care product.
I think RichCapeCod's comments above should be taken to heart. (But not by me )
I could retire tomorrow if my husband and I were planning on remaining in the UK (we will be moving to the USA). We have no debt and the cost of living here is not that bad. Health care is not an issue at all.
And it is a truly beautiful country with easy access to the continent. I would not consider moving to the US if it weren't for my daughter who lives there.
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Retiring outside of us.
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