Life coach Tony Robbins said, “Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.” As an International Living reader, you’ve already made a decision that will certainly change your life (for the better). You’ve decided to explore a move overseas, or—at the very least—how to spend more quality time abroad, without breaking the bank. But where to go?
Each month in these pages we bring you more and more options in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe…and so deciding on the location that’s right for you can be challenging. To help, this month we reveal the results of our Annual Global Retirement Index.
This is the 28th year in which we’ve ranked and rated, compared and contrasted the best retirement havens in the world. Using our extensive network of on-the-ground contacts, we’ve crunched the numbers, analyzed the data, and drilled down more than ever into the nitty gritty of living overseas to bring you the top 25 countries around the world for an overseas retirement.
Places like Malaysia, which topped the healthcare category in this year’s Index. When Kirsten and Mark Raccuia moved to Penang, good healthcare wasn’t a reason for choosing Malaysia. “But since living here,” Kirsten says, “we’ve realized that the top-notch healthcare at affordable prices is one of the reasons it’s so attractive for retiring expats.” Read Kirsten’s assessment of Malaysia’s healthcare system here.
Or Costa Rica. This year, that country topped the Healthy Lifestyle category. Stephen Day and his wife Christine live in the Lake Arenal region of Costa Rica. Because of the affordable fresh produce, “we now eat more healthily than ever,” he says. Up north, stress is a common cause of health problems. Stephen doesn’t worry about that anymore. “The Costa Rica lifestyle is slower and less stressful than our lives in the U.S. And we believe our decision to move here will give us many extra years of discovery.”
Then there’s Mexico…just one of four countries IL Editor Dan Prescher has lived in over the last 18 years. As a seasoned expat, Dan firmly believes that living overseas can change lives for the better. “Every country on the Global Retirement Index represents a chance to see how livable, how enjoyable, how packed with adventure and opportunity the world is.” Read Dan’s thoughts on why now is the best time in history to move abroad here.
We created the Annual Global Retirement Index almost three decades ago to help readers like you find their top retirement haven. So, let’s get started…
I stop to watch as Senhor Melro, aka “Blackbird,” meticulously paints a ceramic plate. I’m hooked, knowing I must return to buy for sale in the ticket office. But at the moment, I’m eager to explore Conímbriga, a walled former urban settlement and the site of one of the largest excavations in Portugal...
I am fortunate that my business takes me back and forth between two very appealing—but very different—beach worlds in Belize. Years ago, I chose Placencia, in the south, as home, and I’ve recently branched out and opened a business on Ambergris Caye.
The Himalayas are the highest mountains in the world and have a special fascination for independent adventurers.Seeing them once, maybe even setting foot on their base, is the dream for many travelers. There probably aren’t many bucket lists worthy of the name that don’t feature the mighty mountain range straddling central Asia from Pakistan, across Tibet, Bhutan, India, and Nepal...
Palladium is a precious metal, but it serves an industrial use. The metal works in catalytic converters in cars to cut down on emissions. It is a catalyst that turns noxious fumes into benign gases.The silvery-white metal is the choice for gas engines. In contrast, diesel engines most often see platinum used.The clean diesel narrative that carmakers were pushing just a few years ago turned out to be a fairy tale...
With a pastor father who used music to inspire, an actress mother who was a stand-in for Joanne Woodward and sang in the theater, and a brother who founded folk-punk favorite Violent Femmes, Glenn Gano’s DNA has music running through it. “My brother and I loved to sit around and listen to my father play,” says Glenn. And now, after moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, Glenn has the time to reclaim his dormant talents...
The road from Nuevo Arenal to La Fortuna is one of the best two-lane roads in Costa Rica. Our house is located down this road. It’s only eight minutes from the center of town, up a steep, paved driveway, and it brings you to a vista that will take your breath away the first time you see it. From it, my wife, Christine, and I have a view of Lake Arenal, from the whirling wind turbines of Tronadora...
Imagine owning your own dream property in Italy, the land of olive groves and terracotta roofs, Renaissance art, and divine food and wines. From the Alps to the sun-kissed hill towns of Tuscany, breathtaking beauty surrounds you at every turn...
San Miguel de Allende, in the mountains of central Mexico in a region known as the Colonial Highlands, has a long legacy of expat education. After World War II, veterans discovered that they could use their GI Bill to attend the famed Instituto Allende; there were—and still are—a variety of art classes and Spanish-language lessons...
Why am I content living in Portugal? I was often asked that question by family and friends in the States when I moved here in 2012. Here’s what I wrote then: “A herd of goats files into the pasture below my patio. It’s 10 a.m., but I only know that because that’s when the milking finishes in the animals’ ancient stone quarters across the road. Distant bells from the village church are also a clue...
If you’d told me years ago that I would be taking an art history class in Medellín, Colombia (and in Spanish, to boot) I’d have said you were crazy. And yet that’s exactly what I’ve been doing at EAFIT University since the middle of August...