If I retired right now, where is the best place to live?

Careful...!!!!

1. Investment income fluctuates, sometimes dramatically.... How stable is that $800?

2. While cost of living in places like China is currently low by our standards, the economy there is in flux. COL will rise, probably substantially...

A stable country, off the tourist path (a moving target at best) would be your best bet perhaps Europe someplace. Anyplace where the economy is on the move is bad news from your perspective. After all things change. It is only environmental freaks that think that stasis is actually achievable.

What do you need to include in that $800 a mo? Food, clothing, shelter? Having fun?

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It is possible to live in Costa Rica on that amount. You'd still have to be frugal and give up many things you may take for granted here. Unless you speak Spanish, language is a barrier.

Living there, even speaking English is doable but I wished I'd known Spanish. I lived there for 2 months last winter. I opted to stay in a beautiful two bedroom home. This cost more than your budget. One bedroom apartments are available for $300-$400 per month. Food/beverages will set you back under $20/week but keep in mind this means shopping carefully at the farmers markets. Meat is only slightly cheaper than Canada but fruits and veggies cost mere pennies. Local transportation puts Canada to shame. It is unbelievably cheap and is available everywhere... to anywhere.

$800 is a small budget. I'd recommend nothing less than $1000.

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MasterBlaster said:

........ than here.

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"Here" being an operative word. If "here" is a major city... If you have a portable income you can live very cheap in certain parts of Canada, namely where unemployment is a serious problem. Recently I found a 3 bedroom house, five years old, in rural Newfoundland for $5000 (that is correct -$5k)..... If you were to grow your own... food that is.. it might be do-able.

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MasterBlaster said:

The income would be stable.

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Uhhh... oops... Repeat after me: INVESTMENT INCOME IS NEVER, NEVER, NEVER STABLE. If this is a fundamental plank in your plan, you could been done right now....

How about Mexico?

MasterBlaster said:

T Europe is more expensive than here except for Portugal (I have been told).

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In overall terms, this might be true, BUT it is a gross generalisation. "More expensive" depends on whether you are in Raincouver, Toronto or Baie d'Espior (Nfld). Like Canada, European countries vary within themselves. Each has areas of greater or lesser prosperity - for what you plan to do, specific regional knowledge is essential. I have an old friend living in France for some years now on less than your budget, but then they did their own homework region-wise in contrast to what they had "been told".

Yeah, I want to know how you figure your investment income has been rendered invulnerable to the ravages of fluctuation and inflation.

guytoronto said:

How about Mexico?

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Mexico has been a popular solution to this question for Americans and Canadians for a long time.

martman said:

Mexico has been a popular solution to this question for Americans and Canadians for a long time.

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i myself would like to retire in baja mexico, but $800 / month probably isn't going to do it and there's the health care issue

i would need to sell my current home and re-locate to a condo not on the waterfront (too expensive)

ideally i would like to go down there for 4 months and back in Canada for the rest of the year

even rentals down there aren't cheap anymore
meat is as expensive as here, seafood a bit cheaper, but very plentiful and fresh
local beer is better priced than here
gasoline is controlled by the gov't so you pay the same no matter where you are in mexico

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in San Miguel de Allende, México. This is a community with a significant population of Canadians (and Americans) year-round... a real retirement community. Lots of culture, fabulous restaurants, entertainment, etc. Definitely worth checking out. The ex-pat community has invested heavily in the city - it's one of the cleanest, most english-friendly places in the country. It's central, not too close to the beaches, so the tourism is not of the beach & bar variety. Very nice parks and plazas. Nearby thermal springs. Very comfortable! It's also the home of the Centre for Global Justice.

CubaMark said:

It's central, not too close to the beaches, so the tourism is not of the beach & bar variety. Very nice parks and plazas. Nearby thermal springs. Very comfortable! It's also the home of the Centre for Global Justice.

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Sounds nice! What are rents like? (I'm packing already! ) :lmao:

CubaMark said:

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in San Miguel de Allende, México. This is a community with a significant population of Canadians (and Americans) year-round... a real retirement community. Lots of culture, fabulous restaurants, entertainment, etc. Definitely worth checking out. The ex-pat community has invested heavily in the city - it's one of the cleanest, most english-friendly places in the country. It's central, not too close to the beaches, so the tourism is not of the beach & bar variety. Very nice parks and plazas. Nearby thermal springs. Very comfortable! It's also the home of the Centre for Global Justice.

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I've also heard of this place, except as a well-known artists' colony attracting Canadians galore. Lots of painters and sculptors there. A friend of mine has stayed there and wants to retire there. However, her take on it is that it's not cheap.

I would have suggested the Mayan Riviera - especially ten or twenty years ago, before the tourist trade discovered the charm of the peninsula.... betcha real estate was insanely cheap then and the reefs hadn't yet begun to die out. Nowadays the beaches there are deluged with the plague that besets most tropical beaches - noisy, effluent-spewing motorized craft like personal watercraft and jetboats galore. The reefs are paying for this leisure activity.

San Miguel de Allende: Some real estate links

ABC Realty
San Miguel Guide
Re/Max
San Miguel Residential


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