Arguably one of the major reasons so many expats choose to live abroad is the reduced cost of living, but what many people don't realize is just how many options are available. While it's easy to say "you have an entire world's worth of opportunities available!", many people have no idea where to start. It's kind of like taking a child and placing them in the middle of a candy store totally unsupervised. With so much candy to choose from, it's an impossibility to single out just one, at least without having a game plan to begin with. But when you know which candies you like in the first place, it's easy to make your selections.
Developing countries are the best first choice if you are looking for a cheap place to live as an expat, because you can retire at an early age in a place where the amenities and creature comforts are already in place, without the high price tag attached. Some developed countries can count as well, such as France or Italy, because they have countryside residencies that come with all the benefits of a first-world country...without the price tag of places like the U.S. where you are expected to shell out $300,000 for a lifetime of "first world living".
Other places, such as Brazil and Chile, are considered developing countries by the rest of the world. However, when you look at their major cities (Rio and Santiago), you are talking about first-class cities that have everything anyone would ever expect to find: opera, theater, IMAX, high definition television, first-class medical care, excellent public education systems and beyond. In essence, as long as you are doing a little bit of research in advance, you can choose just about any country on the map to retire to as an expat, so long as you are choosing those which already have an infrastructure in place.
Developing countries are the best first choice if you are looking for a cheap place to live as an expat, because you can retire at an early age in a place where the amenities and creature comforts are already in place, without the high price tag attached. Some developed countries can count as well, such as France or Italy, because they have countryside residencies that come with all the benefits of a first-world country...without the price tag of places like the U.S. where you are expected to shell out $300,000 for a lifetime of "first world living".
Other places, such as Brazil and Chile, are considered developing countries by the rest of the world. However, when you look at their major cities (Rio and Santiago), you are talking about first-class cities that have everything anyone would ever expect to find: opera, theater, IMAX, high definition television, first-class medical care, excellent public education systems and beyond. In essence, as long as you are doing a little bit of research in advance, you can choose just about any country on the map to retire to as an expat, so long as you are choosing those which already have an infrastructure in place.
There's a lot to be said for coming onto developing cities as well, ones which have high-speed Internet and modern medicine but maybe not a lot of malls and plazas yet, but they are coming within five years or so. When you can get in at the ground level like this you can often lock in a bottom-of-the-barrel price for a lifestyle that rivals the elite back in your home country, and when the amenities start to roll in you have a piece of investment property you can unload as the real estate prices skyrocket. It's all in a day's work as a professional expat.
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