“Overchoice” is when we have a hard time making a decision because we’re faced with too many options. Let’s be frank, when it comes to overseas retirement destinations, this can be a real problem. All over the globe you have walkable cities…glorious beaches…highland retreats…historic colonial enclaves…lakeside getaways…places where you can live better for less, have fun, and feel secure.
Throughout the year, we make things even tougher by bringing you ever-more places as our scouts ceaselessly explore promising new havens and uncover new opportunities. Sometimes it’s just too much. It can be hard to know where to focus.
So every January, we tackle this dilemma head on. Our Annual Global Retirement Index is designed to help you compare and contrast the best retirement havens in the world today.
This Index is in its 26th year. It’s grown more sophisticated as we draw on input and judgment from our growing network of editors and correspondents all over the planet.
But I’ll be honest with you: You can crunch all the numbers you want—real estate statistics, cost-of-living budgets. You can examine weather patterns and evaluate healthcare facilities. You can talk to expats—just as we did. We interview lots of folks who are already doing what you’re thinking of doing.
I’m not saying the 24 countries ranked and rated here are not the best retirement havens in the world. They are all outstanding options if you’re looking for a place where you could live better for less overseas.
But ultimately it’s about making an informed decision about what’s right for you. Does long-term happiness for you mean living in a city or town where there is plenty to keep you busy and where the climate is mild and forgiving? Or do you want an expansive view of the ocean, warm weather, and days on the beach?
Use the index as a guide to proven options, then apply your own priorities. Give into your gut. Go try a place on for size, just as hundreds of thousands of IL readers before you have done…
—Eoin Bassett, Editorial Director
Let’s face it: Building or renovating a home is hard work. It’s time-consuming, stressful…and if you know anyone who has finished a major construction project on time and under budget, I’d like to shake their hand.
I was sitting on our cantilevered terrace, listening to birdsong and the river flowing below me. I pondered the 11,000-foot-tall Volcano Irazú in the distance.
So many of us have been there. We work 50 hours a week. Exhausted, we drive through Taco Bell and drop crunchy tacos all over ourselves as we eat in the car on the way home, because we worked through lunch and are starving.
The view from my seat looks out onto the sunny sidewalk covered with black-and-white-striped awnings, where smartly dressed couples break bread at umbrella-topped tables.
For just over a quarter of a century, IL has ranked, rated, and named the best retirement destinations in the world. Each year we’ve refined and improved the process, bringing new categories and considerations into play, gathering new data, and asking more and better questions of a greater number of expats.
“In Seattle, I had constant back pain,” says Denis Asahara of his life before moving to Mexico’s Pacific coast. “The cold, humid weather made it worse. Here, in much warmer weather, 90% of my pain is gone. Also, the almost constant sunshine means I’m almost unlimited in my choices of things to do.” Mexico is big, with mountains, jungles, deserts, and thousands of miles of coastline. So picking your perfect climate is part of the fun. If you love the heat, for instance, there’s the Yucatán. In the city of Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula, summer temperatures can hit 110 F.
Plain and simple, 2017 is the year for overseas real estate investment. That’s not something I say lightly. I’ve been in the real estate game a long time—scouting, identifying, and investing in real estate opportunities overseas is my business.
Did you know that, as a U.S. citizen, you can get citizenship and a passport from another country—without giving up your U.S. passport? And you don’t need a spouse or ancestor from that country to get it, either.
When I was about 12, I liked to sneak a cheeky peek at a British comic called Girl. I asked my father if I could subscribe, mostly because I wanted something to drop through the mailbox every Wednesday that was addressed solely to me.
Each night I leave the screen doors open and listen to the nighttime sounds coming from the forest and wildlife preserve surrounding our home. I have forgotten what it’s like to listen to the constant drone of air-conditioning units.