Researching Retirement

Hello qbngirl,

Welcome to Expat.com😀

To help narrow down your choices, could you tell us a bit more about the type of retirement lifestyle you and your husband are envisioning?

For example, are you looking for a quiet, peaceful setting or a more vibrant city atmosphere? Do you prefer a warmer climate or somewhere with seasons? And what activities or amenities are most important to you, like proximity to healthcare, nature, or cultural experiences? The more details you share, the better we can help guide your search!

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

Hi Cheryl,

My husband and I have actually compiled a list of several countries which we are considering. We are researching them all to try to narrow it down. We are looking forward something coastal, warm weather with a more relaxed atmosphere, but we still want access to restaurants, etc. We are coming from the United States and speak both Spanish and English. Some areas we are looking at are Spain and Portugal. However, we are also researching Belize and a couple of South American countries. We’re also looking into Thailand. Once we narrow down our list, we plan to spend a couple of years traveling to get a feel for our choices. I have been to both Spain and Portugal on vacation, but only to the major cities. Thank you!

@qbngirl

There are lots of popular and affordable retirement spots. And there are plenty of websites (including International Living) which are devoted to describing and ranking them.

There are some great options in Central and South America, and these are geographically quite convenient for North Americans. You could consider Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Panama. Most (all?) of these have pensionado-type residence visas.

Asia has popular options like Malaysia, Indonesia (Bali, especially), and Thailand.

I have ended up back in Europe, and there are lots of pluses to living in an EU country. (A neighbour, Turkey, also has a nice climate and beautiful beaches and is also very popular.) The Romance countries (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal) are deservedly popular. Spain and Portugal are especially popular with retirees as they both have easy retirement residence visas (No Lucrativa Visa in Spain and the D7 in Portugal). Greece and Cyprus are nice Mediterranean options too.

I spent many years in Latin America, and there are some beautiful spots. It's definitely a pleasure to live on a tropical beach for a couple of years. You can - and many do - live out your retirement there. Personally, I always had reservations about being a gringo, frustrations with bureaucracy, and concerns about crime and health care access.

I spent a couple of years in Asia and, of course, there are pluses, including relatively low cost.

In the end, we decided we wanted to come back to Europe, and specifically the EU. In general, these countries are safe and civilized with minimal gun crime, good government services, functioning bureaucracies with little or no corruption, and excellent public health provision. There are also good integration pathways, so you're guaranteed residence rights and (potentially) healthcare rights. There is fairly easy mobility within these countries, and plentiful low cost flights.

I still have legal residence in Cyprus and Spain, but we've ended up mostly in Bulgaria. Mainly because it's the most affordable (both for property and living) and we can easily access excellent (and very inexpensive) healthcare here. (But Bulgaria has many pluses, it's cheap AND good.) We often fly to Cyprus and Spain (and elsewhere, such as UK and Greece) on Ryanair and Wizzair, the low-cost airlines. We have permanent residence rights, public health coverage, and an EU driving license and EU health card (EHIC). My partner even extended this to getting a new EU passport. Overall, we enjoy a lifestyle here which would be WAY out of our reach in almost any other country I've mentioned.

As you're American, and I know that over there healthcare and property taxes are both extraordinarily expensive, I'll mention a couple of my Bulgarian costs (Spain's a bit higher). My annual public health payment is $250. My copay to see my GP ("primary care physician") is $2. If he think I should have an x-ray my copay is $2 (and I'll get the x-ray within 30 minutes). A consultation with a specialist/surgeon (any discipline) is less than $75. The annual property tax on our house is $100, and our monthly electricity is typically around $30-$40.