All other things being equal, cost of living is often relatively higher on islands because of the high cost of transportation of imports.
Well to be sort of blunt about it, alzheimers isnt particularly life threatening, nor would there be an issue if she remained unmedicated [she would simply go crackers faster] Her alzheimer med is the only one she is currently taking that is prescription - she takes otc for arthritis, and she likes to get some assorted vitamins and minerals, and stuff like fish oil.
According to this site, Belize can be done if you’re frugal enough. Plus there is the benefit of a more-or-less English-speaking country and what I’m told are unusually dense populations in certain areas of the fascinating fer-de-lance :D.
OTOH, that can resolve the challenge with medical expenses as one ages. You live cheap until you get unlucky, then you’re gone in a couple minutes. Problem solved.
You could live comfortably off that for a very long time in Thailand, even in Bangkok. In fact, you could live like a king for a very few years. Change the venue to Phnom Penh, and you could probably live like a king forever.
There are dangers, however. I know of one Westerner who “retired” to over here with a large sum of money in his 30s. He felt certain he could last maybe 20 years. And he probably could have, but he settled in Pattaya and let his libido run wild. He was broke in only two years and had to return to the US. But man oh man, did he have one helluva two years, and he probably still has that grin stuck on his face wherever he may be, which was Utah the last I heard.
True, but realistically, I’d wager that most of those in the US who have $150,000 in savings HAVE worked for at least 10 years and thus qualify, and will therefore get at least $10K-$15K per year, which isn’t nothing.
If you’ve got a paid for house and only SS or no other pensions, you probably shouldn’t have sold the house.
I’ve been told that there are many ex-pats and quite an artistic community in Guadalajara, Mexico. You can have a very high standard of living. Wherever you live, make sure your money is insured wherever it is invested and live off the interest. Don’t touch the capital.
Personally if I was in that situation I’d pick Indonesia. It’s seriously seriously cheap if you get away from the major tourist areas. As long as you’re willing to live on local food that is… but the local food is pretty tasty…
You can leave very cheaply in Lombok, the next island over from Bali, in a tropical paradise and have all the western comforts a half hour ferry ride away in Bali for occasional splurges.
I could recomend the Philippine Islands, I live here for the last 10 years and in my place of residence in the Central Visayas/ Negros Island we have a very large Population of Expats from any place you can imagine.
Living expenses are moderate, the official language is English, the Womans are very pretty, “the Man not so” the climate is Tropical and staying as a Imigrant cost’s only 10U$ a year.
Define “comfortable.”
I live in western China and I make around $100 a month (though my housing and medical care is paid for.) It’s not a luxurious living, but I eat at restaurants, have money for manicures and massages, can do some close-by travel, etc. Non-volunteer foreign teachers get around $400 a month, and they are pretty much rolling in dough. You can buy an ok apartment in a not-to-fashionable city for 5k. An nice apartment in a nicer city might be 30k. So even with medical expenses, I think you could retire fine on that money. It’s no beach paradise, but it’s an okay place to live.
You could probably do well for yourself in Cameroon on that money- you could buy a nice big house near a beach, have some household staff, join the country club, etc. You would have to be happy to eat local food, since imported stuff is crazy expensive (I’ve seen $20.00 boxes of Popsicles in ex-pat stores) and medical care would be a problem because you’d need to leave the country for anything too complicated.
I wouldn’t recommend either one of these, since there are surely plenty of more comfortable places to live. But they’d both be possible.
I lived in San Cristobal de las Casas in southern Mexico for a couple of years. Rented a house for $140 a month; a very old Spanish villa affair, thick stone walls, rooms arranged around an open courtyard. Live-in Indian cook / housekeeper got $15 a week; she and her six or seven year old son wouldn’t use a bedroom … they slept on a mat on the floor in the kitchen. I gave her $3 a day to go the market for food and we ate very well on that.
Though the house was very nice there were differences living like a local rather than trying to live an American lifestyle. No washing machine or dryer; but Maria did the laundry on a stone washboard built into a sink in the back of the house. No refrigerator, but she went to the market every day … she couldn’t imagine eating food that was picked a week ago. Sometimes there was no gas for the stove or water heater; if the truck didn’t make it up the mountain that day, that was that … nobody to call or complain to, no emergency delivery … you just wait, just like everybody else.
The key to living cheaply in third world countries is to live like the locals. Living an ex-pat lifestyle in an ex-pat community like in Guadalajara or in Costa Rica is much more expensive. Having a car costs pretty much the same as here, but the buses go everywhere, down most every mountain or jungle lane.
Going to a doctor was cheap, $5 or $6 dollars, I think … even less for the medicine he prescribed. I once went to the pharmacy to get a prescription filled and it turned out to be an injection … when he saw the look on my face as he handed me the syringe he offered to give me the injection … shrug, ok, live like the locals.
All in all, yes, it is still possible to live very cheaply while still living well, but to live like an American in another country costs far more than to live like the locals.
Please email me immediately letting me know where I can get 5% on my savings. (Some CDs are now paying 0.5%. That would be $62.50 a month.)
That’s a number I pulled off the top of my head. What is the best interest rate you think you could get? It’s a fairly easy calculation, we could run some numbers if you want.
By the way, my ING savings account earns 2.5%. It shouldn’t be too hard to beat that.
You should check it again. My ING Orange Savings Account has dropped the interest rate five times since December 30th, and is now at 1.65%.
Holy crap, you’re right! :eek: I looked at my December statement because that’s what was handy.
Update: At 1.5% interest, $150,000 will last you 20 years yielding $193/month, or $187.50/month forever. You know, if the extra $4.50 a month isn’t a deal breaker.
Actually, I messed the calculation up.
For capitalized costs
P*i=A, which is the monthly payout.
i=1.5%/12=0.125%,
P=$150,000, so
A=$187.50. (Monthly yield forever)
For capital recovery,
A=P(A/P, i%, n), where
(A/P, i%, n)=[i(1+i)^n]/[((1+i)^n)-1].
i, P, and A are the same as above, and n=240 months (20 years).
This makes A, monthly payout, $723.82. (Monthly yield for 20 years)
The difference isn’t so trivial, after all.
Also, if you want the account to last indefinitely, you need to include the effect of inflation and taxes on any earnings.
Typically, the real return on CDs after inflation and taxes is about 1%. And the stock market, over “normal” times, is about 3-4%.
Another point to consider is that over the next 20 years, the costs of living in all these third world locations will be going up, as wages and other expenses there rise.
Hell, in a decade or two, Chinese people may be moving to the U.S. for its low cost of living.
You could likely get a 6% annutity. That’s about 900/mo + Soc Sec is another $1500 or so.
$2400/mo can easily be lived on.
For an American I would define it as not this.