Where you can retire for $1,200 a month
 

I recall a few GFY'er have tried/live there over the years...

BIG BUGS

no thanks

I have a thing about moving to Costa Rica as a long term plan - but I suppose Panama is another option now CR is getting more expensive every year.

I just don't see it as being very stable and 'a bit dangerous', but to be honest I have nothing to base that on.

I will do some research - Thanks!

1200/mo is not enough to live LIKE A GRINGO in Panama, Costa Rica, or even fucking Nicaragua.

A lot of people I know in their retirement age are getting second houses in these places located in equatorial areas.

Just about every story you will read online about living somewhere cheap is bullshit. What it means is you can live there LIKE A LOCAL for that amount. If you want to have a real life, a nice place, in a good area, it takes money. Yes, it's usually cheaper than where you're from, but living abroad for pennies on the dollar is usually a pipe dream.

Another thing these stupid articles never mention is how much you may pay for a Visa, real medical costs, the cost of paying double in some places because you're foreign, and so on. It's ALWAYS much more expensive than any of these articles ever lead on. Makes me wonder if the idiots who write them actually live abroad or not, or are they just some dirty back packer living in a hostel making extra money writing this crap.

But if you want to live like a local, yes, you can get by on whatever dreams they are selling in those stories.

Nicaragua yes depends on the area

PANAMA is the new CAYMAN ISLANDS...

Their Banking system is the new paradise.

I know when we used to go down to Mexico for YP there was a bunch of Americans who lived down there... They could live dirt cheap and drove back across the border once a month to collect their checks.

Here is a great resource for such things.

http://internationalliving.com

The first story I read - http://internationalliving.com/2012/...ved-to-belize/

I love fishing and this almost reduced me to tears - Now I am moving to Belize - At least until I read another article...

Its enough to retire in half European countries, so definitely enough in Panama and almost any other South/Central American country

Thats true - The state pension in the UK is about 440 UKP - Thats about $700 and people do live on it.

You would get free health-care and possibly some benefits, but its very low.

Yea and those people live like shit. I live in Costa Rica for a few years, have been to Nicaragua, while you could live there on 1200 it would be foolish.

I have a friend here in San Jose, CR who pays 300 usd/mo for a small 2 bedroom apartment, it's a cockroach den and hot as fuck, if you guys WANT to live like that, have at it? I pay 600 for a tiny Tico as fuck style 3 bedroom, I have no security, crack heads and bums ring my doorbell nearly every day begging, and it came completely unfurnished so then you get to deal with non-1st world priced appliances and furniture costs which is a bitch as well. After utilities and food I would be fucked on 1200/mo and I have a hood rich Tico neighborhood, definitely not 100% gringo quality living by any means.

Yep..

A nice house here will cost you 200k or so and up to about 500k. While beef is cheaper, other things like electronics and things cost almost 2 times the amount.

I live in european country with almost twice higher GDP per capita (not most accurate, but some idea for cost of living) than costa rica or panama and I could live VERY GOOD with 1200$ per month.
I would suggest him move in here if he can not live good with 1200$..
Unless you are stupid enough to pay double prices as a foreigner or something like that.

Incorrect. 1200$ is more than twice avregare salary in Panama. So to live like a local you do not need more than 400-600$

You must be one of the people who write for those magazines. ;-)

Like I said, what they don't tell you is what you're going to pay for a visa, that you are going to pay double, sometimes triple, what the locals pay for just about everything, electronics will probably be at least double, some countries are 10x higher due to import tax, cars are often more too, you usually may pay more for for electric and internet bills, good medical may not be as cheap as you think it will be, and so on. That $1200 will be reduced to $600 faster than you know what hit you. Believe that. Yes, it's cheaper than where you may come from, but $1200 a month isn't shit in most countries unless you want to live with the bare minimum, which is what most of the locals do.

I'm sure there are some deals to be had and the longer you live in a place the cheaper it gets, but the dream of packing up and moving to some place cheap on just a little bit of money is a backpacker dream or for someone who is going to spend his time fishing and reading books, probably living in a not so safe part of town in a shitty apartment.

Now, say you move somewhere, buy a house and land outright, get your car and whatever else you need, THEN you could probably squeeze by on a minimal income and hope nothing goes wrong where you need more money. But to have a nice life you usually can't do it the other way around.

Like I said I know first hand that you can live GOOD on 1200$ a month in half of the Europe, and most of that half has higher cost of living than Panama or Costa rica.
Of course here you do not pay double or triple prices as a foreigner, you pay the same prices. One of the reasons to retire in cheaper parts of Europe rather than in some "wild" places.

Retiring cheap is a shitty goal.

Retiring well should be the target.

$1200/ month sounds cool...

www.wildmagnum.com

you can rent a place just down from me for $500.00 per month..
that leaves 700.00 for food and bug spray...
http://www.shemp.com/house.jpg

Europe is mostly civilized and is not a retirement destination. Not sure why, but going to guess it's more difficult to get a retirement visa to stay in European countries. And then there is health care.

Where are you living a good life in EU for $1200? That is $300 dollars a week, which isn't much at all. Recent rates excluded, the dollar has not gone far in Europe for some time.

You can say the same about Costa Rica yet the younger people who speak English and possibly college graduates are making 900 - 2000/mo and they are just barely getting by themselves when they want to have things like apartments and/or a car.

The only way you're getting by in Latin America on 1200/mo is to live in a neighborhood you shouldn't, eat rice and beans every day and never have any fun. Some retirement that sounds like.

lol prison break is amazing...

how was the black guy boss in that prison? can't remember his name, it was a funny nickname..

ah yes now i remember, LECHERO in spanish it means "The MILK MAN".. :1orglaugh

Fuck that, my plan is to buy a house in my hometown and retire there. You can get a nice house for like $20K with 1/3 acre.

Name some of that coyntries please
:)

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece (basically all eastern Europe)

That is insanely cheap.

I can show you parts of sunny Tampa where you can live for $1,200 also but you won't catch me there.

Where is that?

average income in CZ is about $1000, i know many who have less than that

No shit, I was just in Clearwater a few weeks ago and $1200 will get you a lovely trailer and all the meth you can smoke...

This article might've been true, 5 years before everyone started doing it.

This man speaks TRUTH

Feel free to stop by and borrow a hand gun next time you plan to visit that area.
.

China.

Forget the shitty mainland parts, move to the island of the south that belongs to China, but is an SEZ. Find it yourself I'm not telling you, fucked if I want hundreds of expats flooding the place heh.

$1200 USD per month is 7560RMB per month. You can live a very comfortable lifestyle here on that. I live here, married here, have a bricks and mortar business here as well as online.

The average monthly income, with two income earners is around 3000-4000 pm. They also have kids and other shit to deal with, extra expenses related to that, plus rent. So if you're single on $1200usd pm you're laughing. The more you make the better life style you enjoy of course applies.

Apartment rental:

2 bedroom, 1 tv room, 1 dining room, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom/toilet, 1 balcony, gated community, ocean water front views, 2500RMB per month. Utilities (gas/water/power + parking fee) additional 300RMB pm. Total: 2800RMB pm.

Getting around:

Taxi: Flag fair 8RMB, 20mins drive around: 20-25RMB.
Bus: 1RMB. Sit on that fucker all day like a hobo, still only 1RMB.
Motorbike taxi: 6RMB.

Do what I did, buy an electric power bike/scooter thingo. Buy second hand, one time price, 2000RMB or less. Full battery recharge 1RMB. Takes 3 days to use up all the juice, re-charge and drive around like a boss again. Top speed 45 km/ph. Hard to do that in heavy traffic, so just use the footpaths like the locals do, fuck the police!

Food:

You can eat the most delicious, freshest food daily, cooked by mom/dad small shop front operations for cheap. 2 people can walk away bloated like a fat kid at MC Donalds for 30RMB. Or you got to a local fresh produce market and buy the same thing, but cook it yourself at home for 10-15RMb, so half price.

Pro tip: Get a wife, give her money, she will go out and do this for you. She also comes in handy with visas, see the next section.

You can also eat out at fancy ass western restaurants, top Chinese fine dinning, silver service and the price range is not much higher. Per person, 50-100RMB.

Visas:

Arrive on an L tourist visa. Get it extended max two more months. During that time get married (most simple as fuck, non effort process I've ever done in my life. Thailand for example is a cunt when dealing with visas), get a 1-2yr marriage visa, pay 800RMB per year/2. Sorted, easy as fuck. Carry on with your life.

Medical/Hospital:

No medicare, no safety net. User pays system. Private hospitals are shit, avoid like a 20RMB whore.

Stick to the government hospitals. If you are white, you are elevated to god tier. You will pay for it, but you will get all the western trained doctors, and not some janitor that is wearing a white lab coat. (Think I'm joking, I've seen it myself).

I got a nasty ass, puss infected, white goop dripping, throat infection. Went to public hospital, got diagnosed within 20mins, 5mins to pay for meds, all done under 30mins. It took me longer to park the bike, chain it up so some fuck don't knock it off and pay the parking management auntie 1RMB.

Internet: Slow compared to most first world countries, but I get 4mbps down and fuck all up, but it's good enough for me. Bring a VPN you will need one if you want to do facebook, youtube, white people things, oh and work on your adult shit.

For the people here that just do mainstream shit, (like me these days), you hardly need a vpn at all.)

Other great things about the place. 8 million locals, 300 expats, a non existent police system (you see them but they do fuck all) no road rules, no breath testing (if you drink and drive you are a fucking cunt though, think of others and their families before you get behind the wheel), no in your bedroom/life gov policies, no tax on world wide internet income (at this point in time), they love Australians, English & Americans are ok. If you are Russian, you are below a black person and they dislike those and if you are Japanese, you will be lynched in the streets.

600ml beers are 4RMB each, bbq mystery meat on most street corners after 10.30pm at night and the weather is tropical warm 11months of the year. No pollution/smog in the air and all round great living conditions. You can fuck whores till your dick falls off for 200RMB a pop or get wanked off during a relaxing massage for 100RMB. Or you can get married and fuck for free, but end up spending all your money on Taobao (Chinese Ebay) lolol. :thumbsup

not for me

In Panama...

You can live in Canada for $1,200 per month.

Get off the grid, build a small house a short drive from a small town (even most of the smallest towns have Canadian Tires, No Frills, Rona's, and WalMarts...), grow most of your own food... After an initial investment, you can live dirt cheap if you don't give a crap about useless technological luxuries (which are insanely overpriced in this country, anyway...)

I own my own house, but I could easily live by myself for $1,200 a month in Scarborough if it wasn't for my kids being in college and insane cell phone and cable TV bills. Shit, when I move I'll rent the house out for $1,200 a month and live for free. Its a small house...

My aunt lives just outside Campbellford, ON, owns our old family home, and her bills do not come anywhere near $1,200 a month (not including gas and insurance).