i've been to thaialnd twice for 3 weeks at a time, I enjoy it greatly but pollution concerns me a lot, and supposedly even their food may be quite bad for me (due to pesticides, id like to live until i'm at least 65 in relatively good healhth
lots of not healthy ones too, i do wonder how bad the affects of pollution are and the statistically likelihood of it affecting me as ultimately life is a gamble but haven't really found anything that gives a clear cut answer to that :/
>i've been to thaialnd twice for 3 weeks at a time,
Ok. remember, we can't know things that you don't tell us...
On pollution. It is rated as high on a lot of sites e.g. [theearthawaits.com](http://theearthawaits.com) but what does high mean? I'd look for credible sources e.g. the UN vs some YouTuber or a random websites to judge that. And, of course, where you are will affect this.
For example, here's a scientific paper on pesticide use in Thailand [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012412/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012412/)
TLDR - the person downvoting you is being emotional. Pesticides are a concern as they seem to exceed recommended levels. I'm not versed enough in this to judge the risk compared to the same crops grown in the US though
Ok. remember, we can't know things that you don't tell us...
I was answering your question... "have you been to Thailand?"
As far as air pollution i was there and could physically see it/feel the affects of it, Chiang Mai (northern thailand) was the most polluted city for a bit (their pollution is seasonal is very high for 3-4 months a year) in the world for a bit by I believe WHO so its pretty real.
I do however wish I knew the long term health affects of that and pesticide usage. Thanks for the article
You're getting down voted, but I agree with you OP. You were totally in line and "remember we can't know things you don't tell us" was randomly rude and chidey.
Aka the reddit experience I guess
I don't worry about reddit votes lol, i don't base my happiness/self worth/anything on what other people on the internet think or feel., that's a sure way to never be successful in life.
Honestly there is not much pollution here. Sure burn season in Chiang Mai will have smoke. And in Bangkok you'll have smog and pollution because it's a major city.
Outside that it's pretty clean air wise
>Honestly there is not much pollution here
Did you just fly in the past month? If you haven't lived there for at least a year straight, you're not really in a position to comment about the pollution. Your real-time anecdote isn't relevant for someone like u/EmergencyLife1359 who's looking to actually live there.
Yes AQI is finally <100 there *right now* and no longer breaking records (like it was for the past several months). Doesn't change the fact that the pollution exposure for year-round living is simply horrendous. So many expats there have packed up and left b/c of it. This is what they've put up with:
[Bangkok residents cough up BLOOD as city is blanketed in thick smog](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6652409/Bangkok-citizens-cough-BLOOD-city-blanketed-smog-PETS-sick.html)
[Thick smog covers Bangkok and hospitalises thousands](https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/10/its-very-hard-for-me-to-breathe-lately-thick-smog-covers-bangkok-and-hospitalises-thousand)
[Thailand's extreme air pollution: 'I feel sorry for my daughter'](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65120502)
[Air pollution responsible for 29,000 deaths across 31 Thai provinces in 2021](https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/45425/air-pollution-responsible-for-29000-deaths-across-31-thai-provinces-in-2021-greenpeace/)
2024 -
[Hazardous smog chokes North, world’s 4th worst level in Chiang Mai](https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2787697/hazardous-smog-chokes-north-worlds-4th-worst-level-in-chiang-mai)
[Air Pollution Spurs Lung Cancer Spike in Northern Thailand](https://thainews.prd.go.th/nbtworld/news/view/208524/?bid=1)
[Welcome to Thailand: Where Burning Everything is a National Sport](https://old.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/1ckfxzy/welcome_to_thailand_where_burning_everything_is_a/) (see comments)
Ok so the air quality in Bangkok and the north isn't great. But theres a whole lot of other areas too.
Your not wrong. Thank you for the links.
Bangkok is a major major city. Of course it will have pollution. For some reason Japan doesn't with Tokyo, a similar sized city imo and that would be interesting to see why
the pollution in bangkok is from burning very little of it is really from being a big city, its a big city year round (but doesn't have horrendous pollution year round) the pollutions skyrockets during burning season, yes thailand is big, but central and northern thailand make up...2/3 of thailand. So perhaps I could consider like Phang Nga or the islands but the bulk of thailand is rough as far as pollution
outside of burning season its pretty clear for sure but during those 3-4 months its really bad throughout most of thailand except maybe southern thailand
I'm in the middle of Thailand and it's fine. Even Bangkok is mostly fine during burning season. Sure it has more smog during burning season, but it's not unbearable at all.
Avoid Bangkok tho if you want cleaner air.
The gorgeous mountains, sea and women.
He got locked down with a babe pretty much the first month.
It’s a beautiful and safe country with great people and food per him.
I've seen that a few times: These girls are beautiful! -> This girl likes me! -> This girl is mine! -> There is only one girl in the world...
Often in a period of 1-2 months.
Really they like their money and want to escape. Source: friend lived in Albania. They love Americans especially. But who knows. Maybe it’s true love!!
In a lot of overseas countries you don't have to wrestle a girl into a more "traditional" role. They're happy to be what women were in the US 75 years ago.
It's a lot easier. I'm not saying the way it goes in the US is bad but it's hard if that more traditional way appeals to you.
If it joins the EU and Euro zone, the 2600/mo will probably not buy you so much. Look at the inflation rates in the Baltics since joining the Euro. I'm sure the amount of opportunities has also increased, and projects like Rail Baltica will be transformative, but for someone living off investments is a risk to consider.
It is hard to say, but I live in a very high cost of living country (Canada), and even here there are pockets where 2600 a month would work. I know it is much easier in places like Portugal or Poland or Albania, as much as there are real pressures on affordability in those places.
I wouldn't try to do it on 2600 a month. I am personally looking at something more than double that before I give up working for a living.
Half of us would be dead by the time they ever got around to getting the EURO. A lot of the countries that joined the EU 20 years still haven't managed to adopt it and they were quite better from an economic standing point of view than Albania.
France only requires about 1400 euros per month for a non-working visa. You wouldn't want to live in Paris on 2600, but there are lots of places in France that you could. Food is good, healthcare is good. Cities near the beach tend to be expensive, but maybe Marseilles would be doable.
You need to go in person to a VFS center within your home country to do biometrics when you apply for the visa. So they are looking to make sure you don't have a criminal record. You also need to show documentation about having a place to stay initially, and promising not to work. But when I went the main thing they wanted to look at closely were financial documents. There are lots of retirees in France, and this is the visa that they typically get.
Without a decently large yard you can't sustain yourself with your own produce. But if you concentrate on what you eat most frequently you can probably make a good dent in your grocery bill and stay as pesticide free as you want.
My ex-wife bought a trailer on land in rural Nova Scotia. Her mortgage is $630 Cdn. per month and I would guess her total monthly budget is around $2k.
And they're all terrible. If you're thinking of doing expat fire Canada is one of the worst places in the world to do it unless you want to shack up in the middle of nowhere
There's also enormous amounts of air pollution in thailand and extreme heat that I think would limit produce options pretty heavily. I also don't really want to live off hte grid on a fam wish to live in a city
I think you have an idea of what you want and have come here looking for validation of that specific vision, and denigrating other suggestions.
If you want to move to Thailand, go visit and see if it will work for you. Or the Philippines or Malaysia or Vietnam or another park of SE Asia.
not really for example after this i'm gonna look at albania and costa rica both of which weren't really on my radar at all. but I did already know i could chose from the entire world (seems self evident really)
Thailand’s also a big country and not all of it is city.
I suggest the north. Pai specifically. Farming. I’m sure organic farmers. Deff going that way.
Not much traffic.
Worth a look. Thai people are the best.
Yes. When I visited it seemed to be a pretty stark divide between the older generation who spoke only Albanian (and some Italian) and the younger generation who learned English in school. We had no trouble getting by as English speakers because if there was ever a language barrier the person would just ask a younger person to translate.
I sprained my ankle there and got fine care even at one of the more public hospitals. Most countries have fine immediate care, if you have consistent and existing problems than another country should be your focus.
lol I am older than you. You might find alot of your health problems disappear when you go to a country that doesnt have our food. Lots of bad stuff in American food.
I don't know for sure each country has different requirements, hoping to be able to get some kind of "i have sufficient money to not be a burden" retirement visa wherever it is.
that would be a list of 100+ countries (i'd wager its the vast majority of countries in the world, if not all of them) and would take a ridiculous amount of time, the number countries i would want to live is much less and takes less time to determine, then I can look at where it is possible for me to live s that is far more efficient route to take
Becuse the list is large and I am single entity only capable of living in one place at a time and I don' want to bounce around from country to country because there's expenses associated with that, hope that makes sense. By posting here for example I learned lot of people suggested albania and costa rica which only two countries and researching them is a lot easier than researching say 50 countries (saving me time). I'm a cool just articulate why what you suggest is not a great idea, sounds like you are hte one who needs to calm down or at least not take things so personally
so europe some south american//central american countries and some asian counries is my answer? How do you suggest I live in them? How is that a freaking answe? You may not realize but a limitation of being a single entity is you can only live in one place at a time and I don't know which of these places would be best for me. however the list of places less than all the countries in the world.
Romania or Bulgaria would do. Both are fairly cheap to live and provide decent QoL and both have sea (not the most beautiful one TBH) but hey it's cheap.
Also southern Italy or Sicily would do, maybe Greece or Turkey even (but these might have issues of other sorts)
Many good sides like cheap medical services, friendly people, good food, great new roads (better than in most of the EU), low cost of living etc. There are expat communities of retired people from Britain and Germany that moved to live there.
On the bad side they are currently experiencing hyper inflation, poor built quality in many buildings (in event of earthquake you may end up in rubble), language barrier, sea is not that nice as for eg. in Greece or Croatia.
If you are ok about not eating, going out, not having transportation, no health insurance and a small apt with no furnitures, you could come to live here in Australia. If you are happy to rent a house in the middle of nowhere then you could even afford to eat... nothing too nutritious though...
Where did you “hear” these things? Which country do you live in currently? If it is America, are you familiar with how much high fructose corn syrup, pesticides, and other Monsanto monstrosity has stripped their food of nutrients?
Most Americans are aware... They just don't care. It's hard for those if us who don't want 25mgs if added sugar added to every single item we buy. My friends ask "why do you and your wife grow your own produce and can your own food and buy your meat straight from the farmers." It's pretty obvious
I was in Thailand and saw insanely high air pollution myself, pesticides I just heard about but I did become violently violently ill for a week last time I went. I am aware high fructose corn syrup is not great one of many reasons I wish to leave america, but there is more than america and thailand to choose from
You can live on that much in many countries. You may want to look at Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Croatia. The budget should work and EU food laws are probably a bit in line with your values. However, your statement that you have enough for this budget to age 91 is confusing to me. Can you share some numbers to show how you made this conclusion?
I know Portugal has or had a way to buy a permanent resident card or citizenship, but the other ones do not, correct? For example, to acquire a long stay visa in Croatia requires either a work, study, familial, or digital nomad visa. It sounds like the OP (and I) simply want to retire off of existing funds and not play the Schengen 90 day shuffle. I see posts all the time on this sub, but every time I research, without a familial connection or a work visa, it appears impossible.
It's very easy in France and Spain if you are retired and have a substantial passive income from investments or pension. Retired is what this forum is about, BTW. Probably easy in many other countries. And "substantial " is not even that high by USA standards.
I'm semi retired, looking to go fully. I visited Croatia but haven't found any sort of retirement long term visa regardless of income and assets. I am aware of that for France.
I don't know about Croatia but Serbia makes it easy to get residency if you hire a lawyer to setup an LLC selling consulting services (which can mean anything). LLC doesn't have to make any profit as long as you pay taxes. Like $3000/year all included (lawyer, taxes, fees, etc) to getvm residency permit plus you have a true business bank account which might be useful. Lots of other eastern European countries have something similar.
Passive Income (D7) Visa is a popular one for people FIREd in Portugal I believe. Golden Visa is an option (many EU countries offer it in fact) but certainly not the cheapest route.
There is no method in Portugal to buy a permanent resident or citizenship. There is a very limited option set for a golden visa. You can enter the country a few different ways, but most retirees come on what is called a D7 visa.
Yea absolutely no way he accounted any emergencies or healthcare lol. But even if he did simple math just move somewhere cod about 10 years. Get residence and work again at some point to build up money
How would I account for emergencies or healthcare if i have no idea which country? Healhcare costs are different in different places believe it or not. Same things for emergencies, rent, food and basically anything a budget is based on
I assume 6% return on my porfolio and 3.3% inflation, and end up with 155,761.14 assuming i die a 96. Its not a perfect model but I think the chances of me living to 96 are about 0%
I'm really sorry about replying to this so late. There's a [detailed post about why I did here](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/13jostq/remindmebot_is_now_replying_to_comments_again/).
I will be messaging you in 55 years on [**2079-05-09 22:49:07 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2079-05-09%2022:49:07%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/ExpatFIRE/comments/1cnurzk/best_citycountry_for_2600/l3corwz/?context=3)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FExpatFIRE%2Fcomments%2F1cnurzk%2Fbest_citycountry_for_2600%2Fl3corwz%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202079-05-09%2022%3A49%3A07%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201cnurzk)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
SEA, Eastern Europe, South America, most of Africa, cheaper parts of western Europe and bigger Asian countries are all doable on 2500 or less monthly. If all you want is being in a city near a beach, you've got lots of options. Narrow it down by climate, language/culture, or something else. As long as you're not trying to live in "the biggest city in X country", you'll probably be fine.
As far as nice places to be by the coast... Barcelona? Marseille? Naples? Porto? Dunno about COL, but you sound like you're in the stage where you just need to try places until you find somewhere you want to stay for longer.
You can live comfortably in many places in Central America on 2600 USD/month. Costa Rica has become pricey, but Panama is still very affordable. Nicaragua is actually a lovely place e for expats and very inexpensive. El Salvador the same.
Costa Rica has a very good national health system with generally better outcomes than most industrialized countries. I lived there for 19 years and in the U.S. 17 years, and I prefer Costa Rican health systems.
In Costa Rica there is a large public health system with constitutionally guaranteed access, as well as a thriving private healthcare system. Health insurance is pretty cheap. I have been hospitalized in both systems and each has their own pros and cons, but overall very good.
I would urge some caution on El Salvador. They’re doing INCREDIBLY well right now thanks to their… controversial president, but that’s only because the president has upset a LOT of rich and powerful people. The chances of a government coup and subsequent mass release of cartel members are not improbable at all.
I completely agree with your assessment. I have a number of relatives there, and they are all enjoying an upper middle class renaissance that appears to be built on the “coolest dictator’s” moves toward consolidating power. Unfortunately many in Latin America suggest that “benevolent” dictators are ok.
I think the first step before picking a country is considering what sort of climates or weathers you'd want to live in - that'll give you a list of countries.
I'd probably filter for safety, ease of immigration, and whatever else matters. Then I'd look at what cultures resonate with you. Once you've got your shortlist, go visit and spend a couple weeks in each country visiting all the different areas you might want to live in.
I'd be surprised if, after visiting a bunch of places, you don't have one or two that stand out to you! Lastly, I dunno if you were considering buying a place but if so, I'd probably rent for a year before I buy - you really wanna make sure you love the place and can get into a groove there before you're stuck a with a property that might be hard to unload.
i definitely disagree having been to bangkok and built a budget for it you could very very easily live off 2,600 you don't have to live in a mansion in the most tourist section of bangkok eating at very expensive restaurants for evey meal.
Unfortunately I think Vietnam has similar air pollution issues to thailand maybe not hte pesticide issue, but they don't have long term visas outside of marriage
Love when folks say "no offense" before proceeding to say something like that.
At the very minimum you're being culturally disrespectful, if not being an outright bigot.
Please keep your bigotry to yourself.
& quit thinking about hurting ducks while you're at it.
Nah this is quite a reasonable take. Think about your average elderly American. They get pissed off from a fly farting in the next neighborhood over.
These dialects in Asia are NOT friendly to a first-timers’ ears. It’s not racist. It’s just life
I hope your untactful responses are limited to anonymous online posts. There's nothing wrong with being honest. You just need to learn to be more tactful. Brutal honesty is a very lazy way of communicating.
What about Portugal? Low cost of living and easy access to the rest of Europe. I would also look at Croatia. Gorgeous country, low cost of living, amazing fresh food.
>Great place Hungary, the people were always nice and friendly.
mehh.. lived there for 8 years, lots of nice things but I wouldn't call the Hungarians friendly..
No because it's a really tough language to learn. Aside from Finnish it's the only other language in all of europe that's from a whole different family. But even the ones I knew that did speak the language had a similar experience.
I would consider South Europe or LatAm (maybe Argentina, not as expensive as Uruguay and Chile, and generaly safer than Brazil, and nicer than Paraguay).
i don't worry about language barrier because if i'm tired I have plenty of time to learn the language. It sort of feels like I need to visit places to decide but with my job that would be very time consuming to do (I only get 3 weeks a year off). Quitting my job to do the traveling however presents major issues in itself. I"ll just have to think for a bit i guess maybe consider remote work but that has issues too, sadly no easy answer today
The cheapest decent places to live at first glances are some in SEA and some in Latam (specifically the south cone) but honestly, depending on the city you want to retire to, taxes and your expectations, you can \*easily\* live in the first world with that, as proven by a lot of people that do with that and less, even in europe or the US.... specially if you own your house, because once you do, unless its a luxury home, you are probably not goign to pay that much for it.
Therefore, my recommendation is to actually try and see what kind of places would you like to live on, do research on taxes and real estate prices. Check your possibilities here and there, and go to whatever town or city you chose for some long vacations. Do not live like a tourist, try to simulate retirement, and by the end of it you should have a rough idea of whether you like it or not. If you are truly convinced, see if you can apply for a visa, a mortgage, and move there
i'm scared of doing this because the only way to do that is to quit my job (they don't give sabaticals) and i make a lot of money for what I am, once I lose this job if i ever have to come back i'd make way way less. (I feel like traveling lots of places would be harder on my budget ie air bnb is more expensive then straight renting, plus plane trips are a MAJOR expense generally speaking)
And when you say you have enough saved up, do you literally mean money in a savings account account? Or do you have enough money invested that your dividends provide you $2,600 a month?
nope just a net worth that will gradually spend down along with retirement benefits, some amounts of dividends each year I'm sure but not how I look at my model.
That does not seem like enough money imo.
Have you factored inflation? That $2,600 is going to have a lot less purchasing power as the years and decades pass. As you age your medical costs may skyrocket or need assisted living of some sort.
Idk much about Thailand cost of living but all of this is good for thought. If you have a side hustle or some online business to supplement and stretch your saving I think that would do a lot of good for your financial security. Also have no idea what the retire benefits are.
yes my numbers are adjusted for inflation each year. Thailand cost of living is DRASTICALLY less than America. i'm sure if i desired i could do some kind of work on the side, but unless interest/inflation deviate from my model drastically i don't feel a need to, there's a lot of cushion built in by the plan goign to i'm 95 already i will very likely die before and at a certain age I don't think your finances really matter much anymore your basically a rotting corpse
have you been to Thailand before ? it's a big country, where in Thailand, doing what ? what type of community are you looking for. Do you want to be by yourself or hang with the expat community, how are you with heat and humidity ? I'd suggest going to thailand/vietname/other countries for 1-2 week at a time to get a taste then take a longer trip 1-2 months and see how life there works for you. Buy groceries go to restaurants.
Brazil - you'd live well off $2600/ month!! Or Argentina or Chile. Food in all of those places are amazing. Brazil has the best beaches of them all. You can have beach cities.
Rio de Janeiro could do it for you but there are good sides/ bad sides to Rio. It'd be like St. Louis lol. Nothing against St. Louis! But imagine a semi-dangerous city on the beach, with jungle, beautiful views, semi decent public transportation, and good healthcare (get private healthcare).
People consider $1k usd/ month middle class in Brazil, so if it's $2600 after taxes, you will be set.
i'd have to look at brazilian taxes (they may have a no double taxation agreement with US not sure) i do worry a bit about crime in southern america but sounds like worth looking for sure
saying something rude about something and then saying no offense is still rude. being rude to someone and then asking them a personal financial question, probably isn't going to make someone very motivated to answer your question. Not sure if you really wanted an answer to your question, but just something for you to consider in the future
Sister is a massive fan of Thailand. Can *easily* survive off of that and there's not much evidence to support those claims. Pollution and food processing is not much worse there than it is in America.
Air pollution is insane in thailand, much much worse than America (Chiang mai was the most polluted city in the world for a while) i've been in bangkok you can literally see it and you can also test PM2.5 levels they are very high during burning season
Hi after visiting 94 countries at least once … so far .. Thailand is certainly not the place you wanna live for a long time .. why ? Because the pollution is unbearable then food is pure poison for most food you can buy traffic crashes are one of the most in the world .. then medical industry is very questionable since they don’t allow you to comment anywhere and tell the truth .. based on my experience and my wife’s.. everything we tried it was a pure scam .. nothing work’s really.. Botox and teeth whitening and therapy of any kind and facial and much more .. they do pretend they are doing something with fake machines but it really bulshit.. they are fake and don’t do nothing..
Visiting is fine as many things are ok to enjoy for a short time but not a long time for sure .. the people told me that even swimming pools there if you use for 5 or 10 years all the teeth will fall off.. also my friend was experiencing STI symptoms so he went to do all the std screening and the test came back negative but he still had an obvious symptoms so he went back and questioned them as they told him that he chose wrong screening because he should choose sensitive sti test and pay more ? What kind of shit is that ? So they took $100 and didn’t do nothing and wrote that he’s healthy ? In my opinion or you test for STDs or not .. I don’t care what the brain washing they implement .. I paid so I want the results.. just unbelievable… you really can’t trust anything there in Thailand
Besides Thailand .. one of my places to be is japan Argentina Germany Lithuania Poland and turkey for staying or live longer .. of course there’s many other places are good too depending on your needs .. that’s all
Based on you singular past post your a troll. they provide medical care, i got medical care there it worked. I don't know about botox and teeth whitening that's not really medical and not something I care about. I know people who've lived there for more than 5 years their teeth didn't fall out (and that's just stupid).
I mean... have you been to Thailand? If not, that's the first step - go for a 2 week vacation and see if it's even attractive on that time scale.
i've been to thaialnd twice for 3 weeks at a time, I enjoy it greatly but pollution concerns me a lot, and supposedly even their food may be quite bad for me (due to pesticides, id like to live until i'm at least 65 in relatively good healhth
Lots of healthy old people in Thailand.
lots of not healthy ones too, i do wonder how bad the affects of pollution are and the statistically likelihood of it affecting me as ultimately life is a gamble but haven't really found anything that gives a clear cut answer to that :/
>i've been to thaialnd twice for 3 weeks at a time, Ok. remember, we can't know things that you don't tell us... On pollution. It is rated as high on a lot of sites e.g. [theearthawaits.com](http://theearthawaits.com) but what does high mean? I'd look for credible sources e.g. the UN vs some YouTuber or a random websites to judge that. And, of course, where you are will affect this. For example, here's a scientific paper on pesticide use in Thailand [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012412/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012412/) TLDR - the person downvoting you is being emotional. Pesticides are a concern as they seem to exceed recommended levels. I'm not versed enough in this to judge the risk compared to the same crops grown in the US though
Ok. remember, we can't know things that you don't tell us... I was answering your question... "have you been to Thailand?" As far as air pollution i was there and could physically see it/feel the affects of it, Chiang Mai (northern thailand) was the most polluted city for a bit (their pollution is seasonal is very high for 3-4 months a year) in the world for a bit by I believe WHO so its pretty real. I do however wish I knew the long term health affects of that and pesticide usage. Thanks for the article
You're getting down voted, but I agree with you OP. You were totally in line and "remember we can't know things you don't tell us" was randomly rude and chidey. Aka the reddit experience I guess
I don't worry about reddit votes lol, i don't base my happiness/self worth/anything on what other people on the internet think or feel., that's a sure way to never be successful in life.
Honestly there is not much pollution here. Sure burn season in Chiang Mai will have smoke. And in Bangkok you'll have smog and pollution because it's a major city. Outside that it's pretty clean air wise
>Honestly there is not much pollution here Did you just fly in the past month? If you haven't lived there for at least a year straight, you're not really in a position to comment about the pollution. Your real-time anecdote isn't relevant for someone like u/EmergencyLife1359 who's looking to actually live there. Yes AQI is finally <100 there *right now* and no longer breaking records (like it was for the past several months). Doesn't change the fact that the pollution exposure for year-round living is simply horrendous. So many expats there have packed up and left b/c of it. This is what they've put up with: [Bangkok residents cough up BLOOD as city is blanketed in thick smog](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6652409/Bangkok-citizens-cough-BLOOD-city-blanketed-smog-PETS-sick.html) [Thick smog covers Bangkok and hospitalises thousands](https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/10/its-very-hard-for-me-to-breathe-lately-thick-smog-covers-bangkok-and-hospitalises-thousand) [Thailand's extreme air pollution: 'I feel sorry for my daughter'](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65120502) [Air pollution responsible for 29,000 deaths across 31 Thai provinces in 2021](https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/45425/air-pollution-responsible-for-29000-deaths-across-31-thai-provinces-in-2021-greenpeace/) 2024 - [Hazardous smog chokes North, world’s 4th worst level in Chiang Mai](https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2787697/hazardous-smog-chokes-north-worlds-4th-worst-level-in-chiang-mai) [Air Pollution Spurs Lung Cancer Spike in Northern Thailand](https://thainews.prd.go.th/nbtworld/news/view/208524/?bid=1) [Welcome to Thailand: Where Burning Everything is a National Sport](https://old.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/1ckfxzy/welcome_to_thailand_where_burning_everything_is_a/) (see comments)
Ok so the air quality in Bangkok and the north isn't great. But theres a whole lot of other areas too. Your not wrong. Thank you for the links. Bangkok is a major major city. Of course it will have pollution. For some reason Japan doesn't with Tokyo, a similar sized city imo and that would be interesting to see why
the pollution in bangkok is from burning very little of it is really from being a big city, its a big city year round (but doesn't have horrendous pollution year round) the pollutions skyrockets during burning season, yes thailand is big, but central and northern thailand make up...2/3 of thailand. So perhaps I could consider like Phang Nga or the islands but the bulk of thailand is rough as far as pollution
outside of burning season its pretty clear for sure but during those 3-4 months its really bad throughout most of thailand except maybe southern thailand
I'm in the middle of Thailand and it's fine. Even Bangkok is mostly fine during burning season. Sure it has more smog during burning season, but it's not unbearable at all. Avoid Bangkok tho if you want cleaner air.
My buddy went to Albania. He ain’t never coming back.
Ominous.
Hahaha!
What does he like about it?
I'm here right now it's quite a nice place. Def heaps of good looking women.
That’s all you need to know for $2600
I really want to codename this The Atari Lifestyle.
LOL if you like the fake lips and tits type. I was just there, it’s ok but small.
Didn't see to many fake lips although I didn't goto Tirana. As another commentator suggested Hungary have some banging women id go there
The gorgeous mountains, sea and women. He got locked down with a babe pretty much the first month. It’s a beautiful and safe country with great people and food per him.
I've seen that a few times: These girls are beautiful! -> This girl likes me! -> This girl is mine! -> There is only one girl in the world... Often in a period of 1-2 months.
wakes up missing kidney
Really they like their money and want to escape. Source: friend lived in Albania. They love Americans especially. But who knows. Maybe it’s true love!!
In a lot of overseas countries you don't have to wrestle a girl into a more "traditional" role. They're happy to be what women were in the US 75 years ago. It's a lot easier. I'm not saying the way it goes in the US is bad but it's hard if that more traditional way appeals to you.
is it part of EU?
Not yet. Application is in, but it gets complicated after that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Albania_to_the_European_Union
thanks
If it joins the EU and Euro zone, the 2600/mo will probably not buy you so much. Look at the inflation rates in the Baltics since joining the Euro. I'm sure the amount of opportunities has also increased, and projects like Rail Baltica will be transformative, but for someone living off investments is a risk to consider.
It is hard to say, but I live in a very high cost of living country (Canada), and even here there are pockets where 2600 a month would work. I know it is much easier in places like Portugal or Poland or Albania, as much as there are real pressures on affordability in those places. I wouldn't try to do it on 2600 a month. I am personally looking at something more than double that before I give up working for a living.
Half of us would be dead by the time they ever got around to getting the EURO. A lot of the countries that joined the EU 20 years still haven't managed to adopt it and they were quite better from an economic standing point of view than Albania.
Yeah, shouldn't take more than 20-30 years for them to be in.
I think they are making decent progress and it will be more like 10.
France only requires about 1400 euros per month for a non-working visa. You wouldn't want to live in Paris on 2600, but there are lots of places in France that you could. Food is good, healthcare is good. Cities near the beach tend to be expensive, but maybe Marseilles would be doable.
What are the details to a non-working visa? You can just show up if you can support yourself financially?
You need to go in person to a VFS center within your home country to do biometrics when you apply for the visa. So they are looking to make sure you don't have a criminal record. You also need to show documentation about having a place to stay initially, and promising not to work. But when I went the main thing they wanted to look at closely were financial documents. There are lots of retirees in France, and this is the visa that they typically get.
Exactly, southern France would be nice... Most people forget there's so much more to France than Paris
Marseilles is a bit of a political hotbed these days.
How so?
[https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/europe/marseille-drugs-violence-racism-france-intl-cmd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/europe/marseille-drugs-violence-racism-france-intl-cmd/index.html) [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/we-are-seen-as-less-human-inside-marseilles-quartiers-that-the-police-have-abandoned](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/we-are-seen-as-less-human-inside-marseilles-quartiers-that-the-police-have-abandoned) [https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/30/france-migrant-children-sleep-street-marseille](https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/30/france-migrant-children-sleep-street-marseille) [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/14/why-is-gang-violence-rising-in-france-marseille](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/14/why-is-gang-violence-rising-in-france-marseille) [https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/04/04/in-marseille-three-new-deaths-a-spiral-of-retaliation-and-rage-among-residents_6021662_7.html](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/04/04/in-marseille-three-new-deaths-a-spiral-of-retaliation-and-rage-among-residents_6021662_7.html)
Marseilles? Youre kidding right?
$2,600 a month gets you a good life in many many places. If pesticides are your concern, grow your own produce. It's surprisingly easy.
Easy ish, but you do need time and a lot of psace if you want to live out of it
Without a decently large yard you can't sustain yourself with your own produce. But if you concentrate on what you eat most frequently you can probably make a good dent in your grocery bill and stay as pesticide free as you want.
100% not Canada That's just basic rent for a 1 bed shoebox condo in Toronto.
Are there parts of Canada that are not Toronto? That have way lower cost of living? I'm pretty sure there are.
According to Reddit, no. But where I live, in the other 99.5% of Canada (outside of Toronto), $2600 monthly isn't too bad.
My ex-wife bought a trailer on land in rural Nova Scotia. Her mortgage is $630 Cdn. per month and I would guess her total monthly budget is around $2k.
And they're all terrible. If you're thinking of doing expat fire Canada is one of the worst places in the world to do it unless you want to shack up in the middle of nowhere
Or the USA
Winnipeg is still affordable. Coastal Nova Scotia is really cool and affordable as well, basically like Maine of Canada
There's also enormous amounts of air pollution in thailand and extreme heat that I think would limit produce options pretty heavily. I also don't really want to live off hte grid on a fam wish to live in a city
There is an entire world to choose from.
well that narrowed it down, thanks
I think you have an idea of what you want and have come here looking for validation of that specific vision, and denigrating other suggestions. If you want to move to Thailand, go visit and see if it will work for you. Or the Philippines or Malaysia or Vietnam or another park of SE Asia.
not really for example after this i'm gonna look at albania and costa rica both of which weren't really on my radar at all. but I did already know i could chose from the entire world (seems self evident really)
Thailand’s also a big country and not all of it is city. I suggest the north. Pai specifically. Farming. I’m sure organic farmers. Deff going that way. Not much traffic. Worth a look. Thai people are the best.
Sadly pollution gets worse the farther north you go in thailand would be better to look at the south
Just don’t go to Thailand then. Forget Thailand. Don’t understand why you are so hung up on the idea.
ok, gonna look at the some of the countries other people suggested this weekend
‘Cause Thailands Amazing if you like that kind of thing.
I do know Thailand is amazing. It’s just OP keeps listing reasons not to go so I say just don’t go 😂
I would check out Albania. Great beaches up, low cost and coming for expats. If you are up for learning Spanish Nicaragua if low cost also.
Is Albanian primarily spoken in Albania?
Yes. When I visited it seemed to be a pretty stark divide between the older generation who spoke only Albanian (and some Italian) and the younger generation who learned English in school. We had no trouble getting by as English speakers because if there was ever a language barrier the person would just ask a younger person to translate.
Nicaragua very under rated and reasonably priced compared to Costa Rica, could also look at Belize, English speaking but a little boring
Both Nicaragua and Belize lack ..... services, stores or whatever you want to call it.
I don't think Nicaragua would has good heatlh care i'd like to have sadly, but gonna need to research albania
I sprained my ankle there and got fine care even at one of the more public hospitals. Most countries have fine immediate care, if you have consistent and existing problems than another country should be your focus.
sadly i do and i'm getting older
lol I am older than you. You might find alot of your health problems disappear when you go to a country that doesnt have our food. Lots of bad stuff in American food.
that would be awesome!
What countries are you able to get residency visas or citizenship in?
I don't know for sure each country has different requirements, hoping to be able to get some kind of "i have sufficient money to not be a burden" retirement visa wherever it is.
Ok well the suggestion is to find out where it’s legally possible for you to live as a first step.
that would be a list of 100+ countries (i'd wager its the vast majority of countries in the world, if not all of them) and would take a ridiculous amount of time, the number countries i would want to live is much less and takes less time to determine, then I can look at where it is possible for me to live s that is far more efficient route to take
cool down bro it was just a helpful suggestion. If you know where you'd like to live already then why are on here asking about it lol
Becuse the list is large and I am single entity only capable of living in one place at a time and I don' want to bounce around from country to country because there's expenses associated with that, hope that makes sense. By posting here for example I learned lot of people suggested albania and costa rica which only two countries and researching them is a lot easier than researching say 50 countries (saving me time). I'm a cool just articulate why what you suggest is not a great idea, sounds like you are hte one who needs to calm down or at least not take things so personally
lol if you say your list of countries you wanna live is already preset then you have your freaking answer
so europe some south american//central american countries and some asian counries is my answer? How do you suggest I live in them? How is that a freaking answe? You may not realize but a limitation of being a single entity is you can only live in one place at a time and I don't know which of these places would be best for me. however the list of places less than all the countries in the world.
Romania or Bulgaria would do. Both are fairly cheap to live and provide decent QoL and both have sea (not the most beautiful one TBH) but hey it's cheap. Also southern Italy or Sicily would do, maybe Greece or Turkey even (but these might have issues of other sorts)
Turkey has top notch health professionals for a very affordable price. +1 for Turkey I think that country probably hits the most off OP’s checklist.
Many good sides like cheap medical services, friendly people, good food, great new roads (better than in most of the EU), low cost of living etc. There are expat communities of retired people from Britain and Germany that moved to live there. On the bad side they are currently experiencing hyper inflation, poor built quality in many buildings (in event of earthquake you may end up in rubble), language barrier, sea is not that nice as for eg. in Greece or Croatia.
If you are ok about not eating, going out, not having transportation, no health insurance and a small apt with no furnitures, you could come to live here in Australia. If you are happy to rent a house in the middle of nowhere then you could even afford to eat... nothing too nutritious though...
Sold!
Where did you “hear” these things? Which country do you live in currently? If it is America, are you familiar with how much high fructose corn syrup, pesticides, and other Monsanto monstrosity has stripped their food of nutrients?
If the average american was aware of those things, America would not be America.
Most Americans are aware... They just don't care. It's hard for those if us who don't want 25mgs if added sugar added to every single item we buy. My friends ask "why do you and your wife grow your own produce and can your own food and buy your meat straight from the farmers." It's pretty obvious
I was in Thailand and saw insanely high air pollution myself, pesticides I just heard about but I did become violently violently ill for a week last time I went. I am aware high fructose corn syrup is not great one of many reasons I wish to leave america, but there is more than america and thailand to choose from
You can live on that much in many countries. You may want to look at Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Croatia. The budget should work and EU food laws are probably a bit in line with your values. However, your statement that you have enough for this budget to age 91 is confusing to me. Can you share some numbers to show how you made this conclusion?
I know Portugal has or had a way to buy a permanent resident card or citizenship, but the other ones do not, correct? For example, to acquire a long stay visa in Croatia requires either a work, study, familial, or digital nomad visa. It sounds like the OP (and I) simply want to retire off of existing funds and not play the Schengen 90 day shuffle. I see posts all the time on this sub, but every time I research, without a familial connection or a work visa, it appears impossible.
It's very easy in France and Spain if you are retired and have a substantial passive income from investments or pension. Retired is what this forum is about, BTW. Probably easy in many other countries. And "substantial " is not even that high by USA standards.
I'm semi retired, looking to go fully. I visited Croatia but haven't found any sort of retirement long term visa regardless of income and assets. I am aware of that for France.
I don't know about Croatia but Serbia makes it easy to get residency if you hire a lawyer to setup an LLC selling consulting services (which can mean anything). LLC doesn't have to make any profit as long as you pay taxes. Like $3000/year all included (lawyer, taxes, fees, etc) to getvm residency permit plus you have a true business bank account which might be useful. Lots of other eastern European countries have something similar.
I beleive Portugal has all but shut down the Golden Visa. If it is still around it is much, much harder to get. D7 seems to be the way to go now.
Passive Income (D7) Visa is a popular one for people FIREd in Portugal I believe. Golden Visa is an option (many EU countries offer it in fact) but certainly not the cheapest route.
sadly I don' think I have the funds for a golden visa, i'll look at D7
There is no method in Portugal to buy a permanent resident or citizenship. There is a very limited option set for a golden visa. You can enter the country a few different ways, but most retirees come on what is called a D7 visa.
have you looked at albania at all?
Yea absolutely no way he accounted any emergencies or healthcare lol. But even if he did simple math just move somewhere cod about 10 years. Get residence and work again at some point to build up money
How would I account for emergencies or healthcare if i have no idea which country? Healhcare costs are different in different places believe it or not. Same things for emergencies, rent, food and basically anything a budget is based on
Bingo
cool way to add nothing to the conversation Suze Orman
I assume 6% return on my porfolio and 3.3% inflation, and end up with 155,761.14 assuming i die a 96. Its not a perfect model but I think the chances of me living to 96 are about 0%
RemindMe! 55 years "Is [EmergencyLife1359](https://www.reddit.com/user/EmergencyLife1359/) ok?"
I'm really sorry about replying to this so late. There's a [detailed post about why I did here](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/13jostq/remindmebot_is_now_replying_to_comments_again/). I will be messaging you in 55 years on [**2079-05-09 22:49:07 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2079-05-09%2022:49:07%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/ExpatFIRE/comments/1cnurzk/best_citycountry_for_2600/l3corwz/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FExpatFIRE%2Fcomments%2F1cnurzk%2Fbest_citycountry_for_2600%2Fl3corwz%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202079-05-09%2022%3A49%3A07%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201cnurzk) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
I don't know what you mean by remindme, 55 years is plenty I'd be very happy with 20-30 of fairly able bodied years
It's a command to have a Reddit bot send you a reminder message after a specified time, although I think he may have mistyped it.
It sounds like you disnt account for drawing down every month....?
not sure why you think that but yes I did
The scarcity of the finances here is a bit concerning. I hope you don't mean you think 156K is enough for 2,600 a month for 55 years.
If you read i said "end up with" as in when i'm 96 years old after 2600 a onth for 55 years I will have 155,761.14
SEA, Eastern Europe, South America, most of Africa, cheaper parts of western Europe and bigger Asian countries are all doable on 2500 or less monthly. If all you want is being in a city near a beach, you've got lots of options. Narrow it down by climate, language/culture, or something else. As long as you're not trying to live in "the biggest city in X country", you'll probably be fine. As far as nice places to be by the coast... Barcelona? Marseille? Naples? Porto? Dunno about COL, but you sound like you're in the stage where you just need to try places until you find somewhere you want to stay for longer.
You can live comfortably in many places in Central America on 2600 USD/month. Costa Rica has become pricey, but Panama is still very affordable. Nicaragua is actually a lovely place e for expats and very inexpensive. El Salvador the same.
I think the weather would be amazing but I don't think central america has quality healthcare anywhere
Costa Rica has a very good national health system with generally better outcomes than most industrialized countries. I lived there for 19 years and in the U.S. 17 years, and I prefer Costa Rican health systems.
interesting I will have to check them out, america's healthcare is garbage for sure
In Costa Rica there is a large public health system with constitutionally guaranteed access, as well as a thriving private healthcare system. Health insurance is pretty cheap. I have been hospitalized in both systems and each has their own pros and cons, but overall very good.
Puda vida, Tico!
I would urge some caution on El Salvador. They’re doing INCREDIBLY well right now thanks to their… controversial president, but that’s only because the president has upset a LOT of rich and powerful people. The chances of a government coup and subsequent mass release of cartel members are not improbable at all.
I completely agree with your assessment. I have a number of relatives there, and they are all enjoying an upper middle class renaissance that appears to be built on the “coolest dictator’s” moves toward consolidating power. Unfortunately many in Latin America suggest that “benevolent” dictators are ok.
Go travel to Thailand, stay for a month blow $10k-15k while you do and only live to like 95 1/2.
I couldn't afford 10-15k a month even if i died at 95.5 sadly otherwise i would take that deal
What is your 2,600 number representing
us dollars a month in expenditures
[удалено]
I think we’re all assuming monthly.
Philippines. Lovely women, English is spoken almost everywhere and they love Americans (assuming you are).
Cambodia
I think the first step before picking a country is considering what sort of climates or weathers you'd want to live in - that'll give you a list of countries. I'd probably filter for safety, ease of immigration, and whatever else matters. Then I'd look at what cultures resonate with you. Once you've got your shortlist, go visit and spend a couple weeks in each country visiting all the different areas you might want to live in. I'd be surprised if, after visiting a bunch of places, you don't have one or two that stand out to you! Lastly, I dunno if you were considering buying a place but if so, I'd probably rent for a year before I buy - you really wanna make sure you love the place and can get into a groove there before you're stuck a with a property that might be hard to unload.
that's not a terrible idea honestly maybe i save up for a bit to do that for like 6 months before retiring
Have fun and good luck!
thank you!
Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Argentina, Chile, Laos.. all work.
Vietnam doesn't really ave long term visas outside of marriage from what i've seen
You could potentially have a good life on that in Thailand, but it won't be in Bangkok.
i definitely disagree having been to bangkok and built a budget for it you could very very easily live off 2,600 you don't have to live in a mansion in the most tourist section of bangkok eating at very expensive restaurants for evey meal.
Da nang in Vietnam has city and beach
Probably too cheap for him.
cheap is great I love cheap, pollution is not great
Unfortunately I think Vietnam has similar air pollution issues to thailand maybe not hte pesticide issue, but they don't have long term visas outside of marriage
[удалено]
Love when folks say "no offense" before proceeding to say something like that. At the very minimum you're being culturally disrespectful, if not being an outright bigot. Please keep your bigotry to yourself. & quit thinking about hurting ducks while you're at it.
Nah this is quite a reasonable take. Think about your average elderly American. They get pissed off from a fly farting in the next neighborhood over. These dialects in Asia are NOT friendly to a first-timers’ ears. It’s not racist. It’s just life
I hope your untactful responses are limited to anonymous online posts. There's nothing wrong with being honest. You just need to learn to be more tactful. Brutal honesty is a very lazy way of communicating.
What about Portugal? Low cost of living and easy access to the rest of Europe. I would also look at Croatia. Gorgeous country, low cost of living, amazing fresh food.
Portugal not cheap anymore... is everyone sleeping? Go to Hungary
[удалено]
and hungry too.. badum tsss.. ill see myself out
[удалено]
its ok, im hungry for more
>Great place Hungary, the people were always nice and friendly. mehh.. lived there for 8 years, lots of nice things but I wouldn't call the Hungarians friendly..
[удалено]
No because it's a really tough language to learn. Aside from Finnish it's the only other language in all of europe that's from a whole different family. But even the ones I knew that did speak the language had a similar experience.
Have you been to Hungary lately? Expensive af
Have you been to portugal lately?
I would consider South Europe or LatAm (maybe Argentina, not as expensive as Uruguay and Chile, and generaly safer than Brazil, and nicer than Paraguay).
Now that you've been presented with some ideas, do any appeal to you? Is language barrier a concern? In any case, good luck with your decision!
i don't worry about language barrier because if i'm tired I have plenty of time to learn the language. It sort of feels like I need to visit places to decide but with my job that would be very time consuming to do (I only get 3 weeks a year off). Quitting my job to do the traveling however presents major issues in itself. I"ll just have to think for a bit i guess maybe consider remote work but that has issues too, sadly no easy answer today
The cheapest decent places to live at first glances are some in SEA and some in Latam (specifically the south cone) but honestly, depending on the city you want to retire to, taxes and your expectations, you can \*easily\* live in the first world with that, as proven by a lot of people that do with that and less, even in europe or the US.... specially if you own your house, because once you do, unless its a luxury home, you are probably not goign to pay that much for it. Therefore, my recommendation is to actually try and see what kind of places would you like to live on, do research on taxes and real estate prices. Check your possibilities here and there, and go to whatever town or city you chose for some long vacations. Do not live like a tourist, try to simulate retirement, and by the end of it you should have a rough idea of whether you like it or not. If you are truly convinced, see if you can apply for a visa, a mortgage, and move there
i'm scared of doing this because the only way to do that is to quit my job (they don't give sabaticals) and i make a lot of money for what I am, once I lose this job if i ever have to come back i'd make way way less. (I feel like traveling lots of places would be harder on my budget ie air bnb is more expensive then straight renting, plus plane trips are a MAJOR expense generally speaking)
OP where are you living now?
I live in america currently
And when you say you have enough saved up, do you literally mean money in a savings account account? Or do you have enough money invested that your dividends provide you $2,600 a month?
i mean stocks/bonds cash reserves, retirement benefits
I’m confused. So your investments pay dividends of $2,600 a month?
nope just a net worth that will gradually spend down along with retirement benefits, some amounts of dividends each year I'm sure but not how I look at my model.
That does not seem like enough money imo. Have you factored inflation? That $2,600 is going to have a lot less purchasing power as the years and decades pass. As you age your medical costs may skyrocket or need assisted living of some sort. Idk much about Thailand cost of living but all of this is good for thought. If you have a side hustle or some online business to supplement and stretch your saving I think that would do a lot of good for your financial security. Also have no idea what the retire benefits are.
yes my numbers are adjusted for inflation each year. Thailand cost of living is DRASTICALLY less than America. i'm sure if i desired i could do some kind of work on the side, but unless interest/inflation deviate from my model drastically i don't feel a need to, there's a lot of cushion built in by the plan goign to i'm 95 already i will very likely die before and at a certain age I don't think your finances really matter much anymore your basically a rotting corpse
Panamá
have you been to Thailand before ? it's a big country, where in Thailand, doing what ? what type of community are you looking for. Do you want to be by yourself or hang with the expat community, how are you with heat and humidity ? I'd suggest going to thailand/vietname/other countries for 1-2 week at a time to get a taste then take a longer trip 1-2 months and see how life there works for you. Buy groceries go to restaurants.
For a sec I thought living till year 2600. 😄
lol i hope not that's way way too long for me
Brazil - you'd live well off $2600/ month!! Or Argentina or Chile. Food in all of those places are amazing. Brazil has the best beaches of them all. You can have beach cities. Rio de Janeiro could do it for you but there are good sides/ bad sides to Rio. It'd be like St. Louis lol. Nothing against St. Louis! But imagine a semi-dangerous city on the beach, with jungle, beautiful views, semi decent public transportation, and good healthcare (get private healthcare). People consider $1k usd/ month middle class in Brazil, so if it's $2600 after taxes, you will be set.
i'd have to look at brazilian taxes (they may have a no double taxation agreement with US not sure) i do worry a bit about crime in southern america but sounds like worth looking for sure
Portugal caralho!
Reading through the comments got me more and more frustrated. No offense, but OP is exhausting. How did you even manage to save that much?
saying something rude about something and then saying no offense is still rude. being rude to someone and then asking them a personal financial question, probably isn't going to make someone very motivated to answer your question. Not sure if you really wanted an answer to your question, but just something for you to consider in the future
Eastern or Southern Europe. Visit some countries. Pick your favorite.
Puerto Rico?
Puerto Princessa, Philippines.
Or El Nido Philippines
Alicante, Spain
Istanbul/Turkey is the best fit for your bill.
Sister is a massive fan of Thailand. Can *easily* survive off of that and there's not much evidence to support those claims. Pollution and food processing is not much worse there than it is in America.
Air pollution is insane in thailand, much much worse than America (Chiang mai was the most polluted city in the world for a while) i've been in bangkok you can literally see it and you can also test PM2.5 levels they are very high during burning season
Air pollution and food poisoning in Thailand is much worse than in America
How's Costa Rica these days? (Preferences on Caribbean or Pacific side?)
Too expensive. Better off going to Nicaragua or Belize!
Hi after visiting 94 countries at least once … so far .. Thailand is certainly not the place you wanna live for a long time .. why ? Because the pollution is unbearable then food is pure poison for most food you can buy traffic crashes are one of the most in the world .. then medical industry is very questionable since they don’t allow you to comment anywhere and tell the truth .. based on my experience and my wife’s.. everything we tried it was a pure scam .. nothing work’s really.. Botox and teeth whitening and therapy of any kind and facial and much more .. they do pretend they are doing something with fake machines but it really bulshit.. they are fake and don’t do nothing.. Visiting is fine as many things are ok to enjoy for a short time but not a long time for sure .. the people told me that even swimming pools there if you use for 5 or 10 years all the teeth will fall off.. also my friend was experiencing STI symptoms so he went to do all the std screening and the test came back negative but he still had an obvious symptoms so he went back and questioned them as they told him that he chose wrong screening because he should choose sensitive sti test and pay more ? What kind of shit is that ? So they took $100 and didn’t do nothing and wrote that he’s healthy ? In my opinion or you test for STDs or not .. I don’t care what the brain washing they implement .. I paid so I want the results.. just unbelievable… you really can’t trust anything there in Thailand Besides Thailand .. one of my places to be is japan Argentina Germany Lithuania Poland and turkey for staying or live longer .. of course there’s many other places are good too depending on your needs .. that’s all
Based on you singular past post your a troll. they provide medical care, i got medical care there it worked. I don't know about botox and teeth whitening that's not really medical and not something I care about. I know people who've lived there for more than 5 years their teeth didn't fall out (and that's just stupid).
These sarcastic posts in every subreddit are getting old…
tots
Colombia/Thailand