Retirement Outside of the U.S.

Keep in mind that the US tax man follows you for life if you are a citizen or even just a permanent resident who has lived in the country sufficiently long.

I have looked into retirement outside the US. I've read a lot and watched videos on Youtube. Central America seems best to me because it provides a low cost of living and is close to the US for trips home.

Some Americans have moved to Central American countries because they are in their late 50's and have lost their jobs and have no medical insurance. Medical care is very cheap in many of these countries. And you can live a nice life on a small retirement income. Living on Social Security alone in the US is brutal.

I would never BUY property in any of these countries. Too many things could go wrong, and the courts favor natives and those who give the biggest bribes. Renting would be the only way to go.

But I'm not moving. These places are nice to visit, but I love the USA and I have enough retirement income to live her comfortably.

There is something to be said for working and saving for retirement in the Unites States (where wages and COL are high) then retiring to someplace like Mexico (where wages and COL are low) which can be quite pretty.

I have talked that over with my wife when I first heard about people doing this (from Southwest US). She was open to be idea and sort of intruiged, assuming sufficient safety existed for her in a non-US place like Mexico.

Mexico can be hit and miss. One of the national pastimes is kidnapping Americans. Costa Rica is attractive for many reasons. Young women are legal earlier, for one. You could have been El Chapo's neighbour for another.

What about retiring to Thailand? They love you good. Real long time.

I'm still about 20 yrs away from retirement, but the thought of retiring outside the US has crossed my mind - there do seem to be communities of expats in places like Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, etc, where entire fairly upscale areas may be mostly Americans.- but I "think" living in an Americanized area means one would probably be paying premium prices closer to US costs vs local-costs.

Being that I'm fully fluent in Spanish I feel I could immerse myself fairly well and live like a local instead of an expat gringo - I may also consider the Dominican Republic b/c one's $$$ can go very far there, warm climate _ beaches, and lots of willing-and-able hos, although the standard of living there is not too high but I'd be a jump & a skip away by plane from Miami & could shuffle back and forth (and I'd have Medicare and could fly to Miami for serious medical treatment) - I also would not mind retiring in Rio but IDK if that eould feasible & I'd have to learn Portuguese - either way I'd probably prefer to live like a local w/ low expenses and have $$$ for young pussy vs living in an expensive expat community.

What's the situation if you renounce your citizenship? Given they will even go after permanent resident who never became citizens, my hunch is it will not enough to make the US tax man go away.

All of it makes no ethical sense to me, but I guess when it comes to international affairs what the US says goes right or wrong.

Plenty of people here retire to Baja California.

Ecuador seems to be the most friendly to US citizens. Your dollar goes 3 times further there. I can live the same there on $36k as I do in $100k here in the US, and the healthcare caters well to outsiders being friendly to the US.

I would miss too much what I have here, so my plan is to get rid of all my debt, and downsize to a smaller house in a more rural/secluded part of America. Then I can have a low cost of living area with the means to travel to places like Ecuador for a couple months out if the year. Retiring to any lower cost of living area tends to be the most common formula after working in a high cost of living area. This way your post retirement benefits are based on your pre-retirement earnings, allowing to do much more than you ever thought. It is the second childhood that you get to live out. Pussy saturation will be at its highest, with a hot dolled up, Stripper quality beauty no more than a few hundred feet away at all times willing to suck you dry.

Bogota is a nice place to retire, Its better than living here in the USA

Yeah, all that Filipina pussy. I'm constantly getting hit on by them. All they want is that Green card. I'll fuck them if I ever go there, but fuck that Green card bullshit.

We own property on the ocean on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. The same parcel on the Oregon coast would have been impossible to purchase no matter how much we worked and saved.

Lots of people from California retire to the lower costs of Nevada, Arizona, or New Mexico. But people say that the growth place will be Mexico. Some have even said that the tide of immigration will eventually reverse. It won't only be retirees seeking the lower costs.

People say that the things Americans don't like about Mexico will eventually change, like the crooked cops.

Also lots seem to go for the moderate country Costa Rica.

I would suggest though going to a place you think you would enjoy, lower cost or not, rather than specifically seeking lower costs.

I will be often in Mexico in the years ahead. So as the years go on I might want to spend more and more time there. I think it is a really neat place. But not everyone will see it this way, and not everyone wants to be going there.

Are there places you have been spending time, besides your primary residence?

SJG

Lol

I have spent a lot of time in Mexico, primarily the east coast like Playa Del Carmen and Cancun but it is tough if you are not a Mexican citizen you have limited rights in many of those countries like Costa Rica also have been to Panama lots of expats there but I still feel safer in the good old USA.

I think has to do with realizing that some are getting priced out of things so sometimes thinking outside the box is useful.

SJG --> "I would suggest though going to a place you think you would enjoy, lower cost or not, rather than specifically seeking lower costs." --> end quote

^^^This is generally very good advice.

Hey, what happened to my post about the Phillipines? The one Vince was responding to. Is someone screwing around again?

I know, that's weird mikeya02. Maybe it's someone looking to avenge SJG's outing of his true identity, and mistook you as the culprit?

From now on I'm going to refer things like that as "Lloydisms". Lol!

Or a "Lloyd Braun" as in the Lloyd Braun character from Seinfeld who ended up in a mental facility. Remember the episode where Kramer is trying to convince everyone that Lloyd Braun is not insane, yet Jerry ends up mistakenly giving him $100 from wearing those glasses, and Lloyd Braun brings him $100 worth of gum.

This scenario I shall consider as a parody of "Lloydism" whenever SJG goes fucking insane on this website.

my goal is tijuana and margaritaville .

Not a fucking chance. I visited a retired co worker in an American community in Lake Chapala near Guadalahara, Mexico. Yeah it was chap but the stuff he has to put up with is not worth it.

Besides I want to be near my family. Currently I live in a retirement community in a suburb of Atlanta. I do not pay any state taxes and the property tax on my 1500 sq ft house is only $414/yr.

tj is an 8 hour drive to the furthest of my kids and three of my grandchildren.

Show of hands, please. Who among Tusclers is actually an ex-pat ? Not interested in being one at this time. Curious what n7 finds so nice about Bogota ?

n7 has posted in the past he has no qualms about hitting all kinds of places including Venezuela which in the last few years has had one of the highest murder-rates in the world

Murder is not the end all, one can always return as a ghost.

minnow, I'm not an ex-pat, nor have I been outside the US except for one school trip to Canada, but it is getting increasing expensive to live in the U.S.

Guadalajara has a sizable American community. Times have changed, but the standard of living is less than the USA.

There's one other possibility. Buy a boat and live on it. I bought a Mainship 39, which has pretty decent living accommodations, $120,000 for a 14 yo boat in virtually new condition. Dockage in Maryland costs only $5000 per year for a marina with great docks, responsive management, pool, tennis courts, fitness room and laundry. I could choose to winter over in the water, or I could move farther south.

There are all kinds of possibilities. You could take up residence in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas. You could spend at least the early rears of your retirement cruising the Intracoastal Waterway, alternating anchoring out and tying up.

With all of this, you would still be in the USA.

Maybe we could build a TUSCL retirement home behind Follies

I had considered this one ATAC but its a lot more expensive than just dockage, there's maintenance on a 39' boat like a Mainship would be a minimum of $10k annually plus dockage in Florida where I live is well over $125. per foot annually plus utilities, on a live aboard can be kind of steep, insurance goes up every year, plus you need a safe harbor, paid for in advance in case of a major storm or hurricane, and quite a bit more in other costs. Cruising the intra-coastal runs for a boat that size maybe $70-$90 per hour plus tie up fees to use marinas other than your home base, certainly its doable but not really a low cost alternative.

Boats have a definite appeal, but they also have lots of collateral costs. Not for everyone. And they are not as big inside as they look in the catalogs. Small kitchens amenities, and the hull usually runs right where the floor and the cabinets meet. Pictures only show one interior corner at a time. Need to learn about boats before planning to go that way.

SJG

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Atlanta, GA (Follies) sounds nice, but how about Tijuana, Mexico?

(tuscl.net) ^^^ Sounds safe, right? He can walk around at night. But maybe it's not affordable (Versus Atlanta)

@25:

Of course there are expenses other than dockage, but there are also expenses other than the mortgage costs as well.

Maintenance costs can be largely avoided if you do the really routine stuff yourself, like oil changing, winterizing & reconditioning, bottom painting, etc. Example: My boat needed a rudder angle indicator and autopilot at the lower control station. I purchased the control head, built a housing that conformed to the existing console, and wired it up. Total cost was less than $450. Had I let the people who supplied the unit mount and wire it, I would have been looking at about $1500. In the interest of full disclosure, I have a degree in naval architecture and marine engineering.

For marinas, you might need look outside the traditional areas. For example, my marina is 17 miles south of Annapolis. My slip in Annapolis would be $10k to $12k for a marina that is not as commodious.

Safe havens from hurricanes are obviously an issue. However, I would point out that, unlike a house, a boat can be moved out of the path of a storm, or hauled up on shore.

Is living aboard a cheap way to live. It can be if you want to live a very denied life. However, for maintaining a reasonable standard of living, it will be generally less expensive than living ashore.

$70 to $90 per hour is a huge amount of money, and implies that you are using a lot of horsepower to move fast. My 390, a trawler, uses just 2 gallons per hour at 7 knots, plus about another quart if I'm running the generator. Total price today, less than $6 per hour underway. The engines of today will run 6000-8000 hours before they need major maintenance.

YMMV!

I hear ya ATAC but I don't want to live that type of a lifestyle if I were to do a liveaboard at my age, I want all of my creature comforts around me I know that engines have improved quite a bit since I owned a 37' Pacemaker with a 10' beam but I remember my twin diesels burning around 4-10 gallons an hour depending on weather I was usually a fairly heavy throttle about 10-12 knots out to reach the fishing grounds, or maybe because I was running heavy seas as is found around LI, NY and dragging a wide beam boat. but I cannot imagine living aboard that boat I wouldn't be comfortable living on less than a 45 footer and they get pretty expensive. One other thing buddy you are a better man than me, if you are hauling that boat yourself to scrape the hull and repaint it periodically, I did it as a kid of twenty, with a 12 meter sailboat that I owned jointly with my cousin I'm not up for that anymore at 62.

Meat72, that Seinfeld reference is spot on! LOL

Just saw this VLOG on Yahoo not sure of accuracy but it is food for thought uverse.com

The trick is finding the spot in the US where your retirement income will comfortably support you with the lifestyle you desire. Naples/Ft. Myers is too damned hot and too damned expensive. The southwest US is too damned hot. Elevations above 5000, cause an increase in death less than a year after heart surgery. No matter what, no where on Earth provides you the security and standard of living that the US does ... for now.

I lived in Dallas for a few years and I found it to have a great balance of quality-of-life vs cost-of-living (at least it was this way in the 2000s when I lived there) - only thing is I found it a bit too slow/boring for me and I do not particularly like being land-locked - and one can find very cheap places to live if one chooses to live a bit farther away which should not be too much of a big-deal if one is retired and does not have to do a daily commute - I think most of TX overall offers good value.

I don't intend to retire permanently outside the US but I do plan to live abroad for several years when I do retire there are upsides and downsides, sort of like anything else.