The housing prices in California aren’t that unreasonable. Granted I’m from Boston, so that should be taken with a grain of salt. But I’m paying less for more than my brother is in a better town in California than he lives in in metro Boston.
You could move to Asia and live off your savings for a while. You can travel quite well throughout South/Southeast Asia for $400 a month, and settle down for a lot less. If you need to refresh your coffers, you can look in to some English teaching or other similer gig. A lot of people teach for a few months, travel a few months, and keep going indefinitly. You can live fine in India speaking only English, and some places are just spectacular (if I saved money, I’d live a few months writing a book or something in Kochi, India).
Besides English there isn’t much to go on. If you close your eyes and envision the perfect place does it have palm trees or oak? lush grass or cactus? Are the houses prarie style or victorian? Do you want to fly planes, drive sport cars or sail boats? Do you see snow or sand? Do you want a night life or quiet solitude? Is you next job at a desk or an oil rig? Do you want to care for a lawn or hunt on 100 acres? Scuba diving for lost treasure or 18 rounds of golf? Hills and mountains or flat as far as the eye can see?
The coolest retirement lifestyle I ever saw would be the perfect adventure. This guy built a boat big enough to hold a small car and a 2 place sea plane on the deck. He could run up and down the coast and when he stopped he could either drive the car off the boat or winch the plane into the water.
Belize is also english speaking and hurting for educated immigrants. And it has a large american ex-pat population.
I’m in Harrisburg, btw. Would you mind stopping by and picking me up when you go? 
Belize did cross my mind but … it’s very small. If it’s out of teh States you want I’d think New Zealand (Oz is a possibility but you’d need to research where, people have very different experiences in different cities).
Within the States I wouldn’t know except to say I really want to visit most of the places mentioned so far.
PS
- Argh even sven, this sort of thing hurts me
You may not have meant it to sound so casual but please if you consider this as an option get yourslef a teaching qualification of some sort - it’s only fair. Think of those who will be paying for your services, the reputation of the industry (ie those trying to make a living teaching EFL) - oh and it will make your life much easier.
Go overseas. Go to Egypt. Go to Morocco. Go to Greece. Go to Italy. Experience a different culture.
While you’re around the Mediterranean, come to Israel. We even (mostly) speak at least some English, here.
And if you have a liking for History, hot weather and beautiful girls in bikinis on the beach? Perfect!
(And things really don’t blow up here nearly as often as it would appear to you from watching the news, either)
What do you do for a living? It sounds like that is the least of your concerns, but money has to come from somewhere, and it’s a good idea to research what the job market is like where you want to go, compared to what you’d be leaving behind.
Stay away.
Go to Terlingua, Texas.
Donegal and Fermanagh counties in Ireland (Republic of and Northern resp.) are beautiful.
Jeez, and here my wife and I are seriously considering moving to PA. Although if your user name suggests you live in Allentown, well, I’m not considering moving there.
How about Bangalore? You can speak English and pick up my job when it’s moved there. I hear the climate’s a lot like San Diego.
What the hell? I didn’t recommend misrepresenting yourself. I didn’t recommend doing a job you are clearly unqualified for. I know a good number of people making their living this way in various situations. Some have state-side EFL training and work in actual schools. Some do stuff like teach Call Center employees California slang. Heck, I know people who have made a killing teaching Tai-Chi in Bangkok. I have been offered some of these jobs on-the-spot. Obviously you should be honest, professional, and have a really good backup plan if things don’t work out. But I don’t think you need to go through a state-side program in order to make a little bit of income abroad.