Best countries/cities around the world to retire on $600k?

[Nycginger]

Any opinions on this?

Anyone actually doing this?

I'm 38, have 600k saved, and I can work remote. Since I love my work, I'm already retired in that sense.

I'd like to live somewhere fantastic (probably outside the US) where I can retire off the 600k but continue to save from my remote job.

Time zone is somewhat important so I'm giving favoritism to North, South America, and Europe and Africa.

Thoughts? Ideas? Favorite spots to do this?

[Dave1442397]

Portugal and Vietnam (Da Nang area) are two areas I've looked at that are pretty cheap and have good medical facilities.

If we moved out of the US, I'd probably go to Portugal at this point because I would like to be able to easily travel around Europe and I prefer the climate. It also suits our lifestyle better.

[aloevera1]

What do you envision your lifestyle to be? Your question is impossible to answer without those details IMHO. Retiring abroad and leading the life you despise is probably not your goal.

[roomtempmayo]

Drawing 4% from 600k gives you 24k/year.

That's double the median income for Uruguay, which would be the first place I'd look given your stated preferences.

[GilesMM]

Here's a list https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/baby-boomers/articles/the-cheapest-places-to-retire-abroad-on-1-000-per-month


I recommend Malaysia.  One lady on here did it and it worked for her for a few years, then she moved to Italy I think.

[ROF Expat]

What do you envision your lifestyle to be? Your question is impossible to answer without those details IMHO. Retiring abroad and leading the life you despise is probably not your goal.

Exactly this. 

There are places many people retire to (and love) that would be miserable for me and places that other people wouldn't consider that I think are great. 

Personally, I wouldn't want to retire to any country where I couldn't learn to speak the language pretty fluently within a couple of years.  I already speak several languages, and learning something easy like French or Portuguese wouldn't be a problem.  Learning a new "hard" language like Vietnamese beyond courtesies and simple sentences just isn't in the cards.  Being able to interact naturally with people is an important part of a positive expatriate experience for me.  I've spent about 30 years of my adult life living in 12 foreign countries and only spent about two years of that in a country where I couldn't communicate in a local language.  That said, I am moving soon to a country with a "hard" language that I probably will not learn to speak very well in the several years I live there.  We'll see how that goes. 

I value outdoors and wilderness more than I value urban amenities (which are still nice to have), and I have a relatively high tolerance for violent crime and corruption.  A place like South Africa would work fine for me, but I wouldn't recommend it to people without them being fully aware of what they'd be getting into.  I'd love living in Kasane, Botswana, where warthogs graze the grass at the gas stations and you have to watch out for elephants passing through town to drink at the river when you go for a run.  Many people would find life there stultifying after a week. 

Your ability to work remotely gives you a great opportunity to move almost anywhere for at least  a few months at a time to see what works for you.  If you give us an idea of what your previous experiences are and what you think you're looking for, you'll probably get better responses. 

[ChpBstrd]

To spin the question around, there are places in the U.S. where you could pull off a $600k retirement. In small-town Mississippi, Arkansas, or West Virginia (median incomes $45k, $50k, and $52k respectively) it is possible to buy a nice house outright for $150k or less, apply your remaining $450k to an annuity or bonds yielding on average 6%, and thus having a safe $27k per year income for groceries, utilities, transportation, and entertainment/travel. The cost of living structure in such areas is similar to Mexico.

A lot of people would say bleh to that lifestyle, but it would be a much easier transition than learning a new language, a new set of cultural customs and laws, and dealing with visa/citizenship issues. Any thoughts that "those people are so different than me" are unrealistic in comparison to moving continents away. I get that it's more intriguing to explore a new way of life in Paraguay or Thailand, but I'd wager your odds of feeling isolated and friendless would be lower in a small city where lots of people are interested in outdoor activities.

To supply concrete examples, here are some houses you could buy in Heber Springs, AR and Hot Springs, AR. Both towns are situated near large freshwater lakes, trail networks, mountains, museums, and various natural attractions. Of the two, I'd consider Hot Springs more fun due to its lively downtown district, horse racing track, and national park. Do some Zillow and Google map searching for more info.

Heber Springs
3/2, 1520sf, good shape, asking $105k
2/2, 1392sf, good shape, asking $115k

Hot Springs
4/2 duplex, 2280sf, commercial or residential downtown, asking $142k
2/2, 1182sf, good shape, asking $93k

Even on your low budget, you could probably afford a basic boat for the lakes if you lived in these places.

[uniwelder]

Drawing 4% from 600k gives you 24k/year.

That's double the median income for Uruguay, which would be the first place I'd look given your stated preferences.

I don't know if it was you or another person, but there was discussion about Uruguay in a different thread a few months ago.

To spin the question around, there are places in the U.S. where you could pull off a $600k retirement. In small-town Mississippi, Arkansas, or West Virginia (median incomes $45k, $50k, and $52k respectively) it is possible to buy a nice house outright for $150k or less, apply your remaining $450k to an annuity or bonds yielding on average 6%, and thus having a safe $27k per year income for groceries, utilities, transportation, and entertainment/travel. The cost of living structure in such areas is similar to Mexico.

A lot of people would say bleh to that lifestyle, but it would be a much easier transition than learning a new language, a new set of cultural customs and laws, and dealing with visa/citizenship issues. Any thoughts that "those people are so different than me" are unrealistic in comparison to moving continents away. I get that it's more intriguing to explore a new way of life in Paraguay (you might have meant Uruguay since that was a country mentioned here and Paraguay was not) or Thailand, but I'd wager your odds of feeling isolated and friendless would be lower in a small city where lots of people are interested in outdoor activities.

I've never been there, but Uruguay does intrigue me.  It has a higher democracy ranking than the US, similar lifestyle/culture as Europe (it's populated by Europeans), extremely safe, great healthcare, and cheap.  As you point out, it definitely means learning a new language and customs, but it's not nearly so foreign as other low cost countries.  In some ways, compared to living in a LCOL area of the US, OP might might not feel so foreign. 

I've lived in a very poor area of the US for 16 years, and I'm not sure I'd recommend moving to my former town just to save money.  Certainly, you gave some examples of places that may contradict my experience, but do you have personal experience living there and not just visiting a short stay?  Normally a place that has great amenities wouldn't be so cheap.  Typically the main industry that made it a city has gone away and there is high unemployment, drug use, nothing to do, etc.  If it's been revitalized, I would think property prices would be higher, so I wonder want makes Hot Springs an exception to this general trend.

[ChpBstrd]

I've lived in a very poor area of the US for 16 years, and I'm not sure I'd recommend moving to my former town just to save money.  Certainly, you gave some examples of places that may contradict my experience, but do you have personal experience living there and not just visiting a short stay?  Normally a place that has great amenities wouldn't be so cheap.  Typically the main industry that made it a city has gone away and there is high unemployment, drug use, nothing to do, etc.  If it's been revitalized, I would think property prices would be higher, so I wonder want makes Hot Springs an exception to this general trend.

These two suggestions are sorta like resort towns, with the large lakes generating revenue for local businesses through local tourism and retirees spending their cash. Either place is great for anyone who enjoys boating, fishing, scuba diving, hiking, camping, mountain biking, white water canoeing/kayaking, etc. The much bigger Hot Springs additionally has an active downtown night life, a lot of history, a racetrack/casino, some very nice restaurants, microbreweries, the only sake brewery in the US that I'm aware of, and various festivals/cultural events.

Each place has other industries and neither is an industrial-bust town. During recessions, the people cutting back on local tourism are replaced by out-of-state tourists looking for something cheap to do. For a WFH employee or retiree, each location represents a way to retire on very little or sock away a majority of one's paycheck, while not getting bored.

That said, if you buy one of these cheap houses is it likely nobody on your street has a college degree? Yes. Are lots of the people religious authoritarians and racists? Yes. But is finding your tribe in such an environment a much easier adaptation to make than moving to South America, where you don't even speak the language fluently? Absolutely. 

In efficient markets, things which are cheap are assumed to be cheap for a reason. However I just don't see it when it comes to regional differences in cost of living. It might cost twice as much to live in Phoenix, AZ as it costs to live in Branson, MO, for example, but is it really twice as good to live in a place where the heat kills hundreds of residents per year and water supplies are near emergency levels? Is Newark, NJ built upon a fountain of happiness that justifies it being two or three times as expensive a place to live as Hot Springs, AR? Is it better to live with six months of winter and hour-long commutes in the Chicagoland area, or to live in four-seasons of Heber Springs, AR?

What exactly does one buy with the corporate salaries available in HCOL areas? A big house? A houseboat? A couple of new cars? College for the kids? Well, middle class folks are purchasing those things in LCOL areas right now. It's less "you get what you pay for" and more like completely different economies with different inflation rates. I see no evidence that people in one or the other type of economy are actually happier.

[GilesMM]

I've lived in a very poor area of the US for 16 years, and I'm not sure I'd recommend moving to my former town just to save money.  Certainly, you gave some examples of places that may contradict my experience, but do you have personal experience living there and not just visiting a short stay?  Normally a place that has great amenities wouldn't be so cheap.  Typically the main industry that made it a city has gone away and there is high unemployment, drug use, nothing to do, etc.  If it's been revitalized, I would think property prices would be higher, so I wonder want makes Hot Springs an exception to this general trend.

These two suggestions are sorta like resort towns, with the large lakes generating revenue for local businesses through local tourism and retirees spending their cash. Either place is great for anyone who enjoys boating, fishing, scuba diving, hiking, camping, mountain biking, white water canoeing/kayaking, etc. The much bigger Hot Springs additionally has an active downtown night life, a lot of history, a racetrack/casino, some very nice restaurants, microbreweries, the only sake brewery in the US that I'm aware of, and various festivals/cultural events.

Each place has other industries and neither is an industrial-bust town. During recessions, the people cutting back on local tourism are replaced by out-of-state tourists looking for something cheap to do. For a WFH employee or retiree, each location represents a way to retire on very little or sock away a majority of one's paycheck, while not getting bored.

That said, if you buy one of these cheap houses is it likely nobody on your street has a college degree? Yes. Are lots of the people religious authoritarians and racists? Yes. But is finding your tribe in such an environment a much easier adaptation to make than moving to South America, where you don't even speak the language fluently? Absolutely. 

In efficient markets, things which are cheap are assumed to be cheap for a reason. However I just don't see it when it comes to regional differences in cost of living. It might cost twice as much to live in Phoenix, AZ as it costs to live in Branson, MO, for example, but is it really twice as good to live in a place where the heat kills hundreds of residents per year and water supplies are near emergency levels? Is Newark, NJ built upon a fountain of happiness that justifies it being two or three times as expensive a place to live as Hot Springs, AR? Is it better to live with six months of winter and hour-long commutes in the Chicagoland area, or to live in four-seasons of Heber Springs, AR?

What exactly does one buy with the corporate salaries available in HCOL areas? A big house? A houseboat? A couple of new cars? College for the kids? Well, middle class folks are purchasing those things in LCOL areas right now. It's less "you get what you pay for" and more like completely different economies with different inflation rates. I see no evidence that people in one or the other type of economy are actually happier.

We lived in South America for six years and loved every minute of it. Never mastered the language but managed just fine. I would definitely take it over most poor areas of the US (and many not so poor areas in the US).

[roomtempmayo]

What exactly does one buy with the corporate salaries available in HCOL areas?

I think a fat salary in a big city allows you to exist at the intersection of all the amenities and insulation from social dysfunctions.  You get all the things without having to interact with society's underbelly.  Or at least that's the unstated hope, hence all the gnashing of teeth over vagrancy, school rezoning, bike trails, and bus stops.

[spartana]

OP why live anywhere specific right now? You're 38, I'm assuming you're single and child-free and with no other obligations like a house or pets tieing you down right now. That means you can "try out" as many places as you want for as long as you want. Even VHCOL areas if you're willing to rent a small or shared apt. Think slow travel rather than settling somewhere permanently. I did that my first 2 years of FIRE (age 36) and it was a great way to explore the world (fairly cheaply too) as well as try out new locations. My personal choice - and where I ended up for awhile - was Europe...specifly Spain. It wasn't particularly cheap but I didn't own a car, had a shared rental flat, and it allowed for very easy access to all the more expensive countries in Europe as well other regions. 

ETA: I have dual citizenship US/UK so staying in Europe was less of a hassle for me - but be aware of visa and time limits forvstays in most countries. That makes slow travel rather than a permanent change in residency easier.

[spartana]

Also make sure you have enough to come back to the US if you change your mind. Lots of stories here and throughout the FIRE blog-sphere about people trying the lower cost expat life and then, when it doesn't work out, return to the US and often being priced out of their former area (NYC I believe in your case). But sinice you have the option to leave your $600k alone and live off your remote working income (Coast FIRE) you'll likely be fine.