“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds,” wrote essayist Francis Bacon, and it’s true that we make our own luck. Your world takes on the shape you give it. And that shape can be any you like…the options are endless. When it comes to retirement, it’s simply a matter of deciding what you want your life to look like…
Alan Worline swore that when he retired from his job in Denver he would never wear a jacket again. And he never has to now that he lives in a warm-weather destination. Alan’s close to supermarkets, excellent hospitals, everything is within walking distance or a $1.50 taxi ride. The cost for this perfect climate and convenience is low. Alan pays $400 a month to rent a three-bedroom house and his monthly medical bills including medications amount to $80.
Bang-for-your-buck destinations come in all shapes and sizes. We reveal the best ways to find affordable rentals on a tropical island fringed with gorgeous beaches. How affordable? You’ll pay from $235 a month if you know where and how to look for a rental. You have easy access to private and public hospitals, international restaurants, and an airport with international flights. Total monthly living costs? $1,800 to $2,200.
You could pay less, and still get great value. Expats in an up-and-coming destination that we reveal, report costs as low as $1,500 a month. You’ll find romantic cities, some of the world’s highest mountains, and what’s commonly considered the best cuisine in Latin America.
If culture and cuisine are what you’re after, you will discover an easygoing European base famed for its wines where food costs 65% less than in the States and, “is phenomenal,” according to expat Bill Wolfe.
It isn’t just in the realm of rents, groceries, utilities, and good food you’ll find high quality at a low cost overseas. Medical treatment is not something you want to hear described as “cheap.” IL Correspondent Nancy Kiernan describes the quality of the care in her adopted home, and just how happy she and other expats are with what they get for their money…
—Eoin Bassett, Editorial Director
“The best part of living here is that it is just a five-minute walk to the beach. We walk to the beach every day,” says Erin Scholnick-Lee, who lives in Da Nang, Vietnam. “Who doesn’t want to live five minutes from the beach?”
“The last time I went exploring by motorbike through the jungle, I saw an elephant just walking down the road. An elephant! Now that doesn’t happen in Canada,” says Michael Brown, who now makes his home in the Thai resort city of Hua Hin. “I have the time to enjoy my life, and there is truly so much to enjoy here.”
For my husband Mike and me, our new lives in Medellín, Colombia’s “City of Flowers,” could scarcely be more different from our old lives back in the U.S. Our cost of living is less than half of what it was in Maine.
"I used to watch the sunset on the Empire State Building. Now I watch the sunrise over the Caribbean, on the bay of Corozal,” says Nancy Naftchi-Medoro, 46. For Nancy and her husband Tony, 68, the move has changed their lives for the better.
"As the sun peeked over the horizon, I heard the bells of the cathedral ring out, welcoming in the day,” says Pat Buff of the moment she fell in love with Granada, Nicaragua. “I went out onto the hotel balcony to enjoy my cup of coffee and watched as the city came to life. It was in that magical moment that I realized this is where I wanted to live.”
It’s evening on the Cais da Ribeira, the waterfront quay. The lights from the many cafés cast a golden glow into the night. Lights gleam golden, too, across the broad expanse of the bridge spanning the Douro River, whose waters, black in the darkness, flow just past the Cais to the sea.
Peru is not on many people’s radar. It’s not on any top 10 retirement destinations lists; it doesn’t get much press at all, really. Mention “Peru,” and most people think of the wonder of the world, Machu Picchu, and…llamas. But during my recent visit, traveling the country, experiencing life there, and speaking with expats who call it home…I think I’ve discovered one of the world’s best-kept secrets.
As Peru is a big country, there are other areas you should consider, too. The following were on my list, but I didn’t manage to visit them during my recent trip. However, from what I heard from people on the ground, they seem to be worth checking out. And we’ll be checking them out soon.
The road was bone-shaking in places: unpaved, rocky, and pitted with potholes. I was driving along the Baja California Peninsula…in search of the next big thing to hit this coast. As I looked at the dramatic sea views in front of me, the waves crashing against the shore, I knew I’d found it.
Russia gets a lot of bad press. But savvy investors look through that. For us, it’s the cold hard facts about Russia, and specifically Russian stocks, that matter. Most people in the West have a negative view of the country as a result of constant adverse media reports.