Cheap, warm, and safe - Where would you move to?
Discussion
Hypothetical situation:
You, or you and your partner, have a relatively small pension or passive income, let’s say £30-35k a year between you, and you need to be able to live on that sum.
You won’t be working or attempting to get a job.
You have no requirement to be near any particular part of the world. No family you need to visit.
You can be anywhere.
You would like to be somewhere with a warm/hot climate.
You would like to be safe. I appreciate this is relative, but I mean safe regarding decent political and governmental stability, and safe to walk home from the local bar without too much of a risk of being robbed or murdered.
You want somewhere you can just chill, admire the scenery, and sit drinking a local beer.
Where would you go to?
You, or you and your partner, have a relatively small pension or passive income, let’s say £30-35k a year between you, and you need to be able to live on that sum.
You won’t be working or attempting to get a job.
You have no requirement to be near any particular part of the world. No family you need to visit.
You can be anywhere.
You would like to be somewhere with a warm/hot climate.
You would like to be safe. I appreciate this is relative, but I mean safe regarding decent political and governmental stability, and safe to walk home from the local bar without too much of a risk of being robbed or murdered.
You want somewhere you can just chill, admire the scenery, and sit drinking a local beer.
Where would you go to?
Mont Blanc said:
Hypothetical situation:
You, or you and your partner, have a relatively small pension or passive income, let s say £30-35k a year between you, and you need to be able to live on that sum.
You won t be working or attempting to get a job.
You have no requirement to be near any particular part of the world. No family you need to visit.
You can be anywhere.
You would like to be somewhere with a warm/hot climate.
You would like to be safe. I appreciate this is relative, but I mean safe regarding decent political and governmental stability, and safe to walk home from the local bar without too much of a risk of being robbed or murdered.
You want somewhere you can just chill, admire the scenery, and sit drinking a local beer.
Where would you go to?
Southern Italy.You, or you and your partner, have a relatively small pension or passive income, let s say £30-35k a year between you, and you need to be able to live on that sum.
You won t be working or attempting to get a job.
You have no requirement to be near any particular part of the world. No family you need to visit.
You can be anywhere.
You would like to be somewhere with a warm/hot climate.
You would like to be safe. I appreciate this is relative, but I mean safe regarding decent political and governmental stability, and safe to walk home from the local bar without too much of a risk of being robbed or murdered.
You want somewhere you can just chill, admire the scenery, and sit drinking a local beer.
Where would you go to?
I think if the hypothetical is about retirement, then you need to also factor in access to quality health care. I know a few people who wanted to retire to SE Asia, and it would have been amazing when they were well. But as you inevitably run in to health issues with age, some locations quickly stop being all that suitable.
Mont Blanc said:
You want somewhere you can just chill, admire the scenery, and sit drinking a local beer.
Where would you go to?
Me and Mrs NDA are having this conversation at the moment - and we're regularly looking at properties.Where would you go to?
It would be France for us and we wouldn't look anywhere else.
There are so many pretty little villages with decent bakeries, butchers and bars. You can almost choose what temperature you'd like ranging from north to south. We wouldn't want to be near any cities - out in the country for us.
For climate and safety I found California to be pretty hard to beat. Obviously it has its rough areas, but all countries do.
I found the hotter countries unbearable, more because of the mosquitoes and the humidity. Temperature is something that I can get used to. but climates do vary. Even east vs west UK is different.
I'd be careful when it comes to cheap, as living like a local and living like an expat are often two very different price lists. This is doubly true if kids or health care is involved.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
I found the hotter countries unbearable, more because of the mosquitoes and the humidity. Temperature is something that I can get used to. but climates do vary. Even east vs west UK is different.
I'd be careful when it comes to cheap, as living like a local and living like an expat are often two very different price lists. This is doubly true if kids or health care is involved.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
Edited by lizardbrain on Thursday 15th January 16:23
GR_TVR said:
Abruzzo
Some friends of ours who are around retirement age moved to Abruzzo a few years ago. It is really nice and scenic, they've had to use local healthcare occasionally, including a hospital stay, and it all seemed to work quite smoothly.Seems like you can buy a massive house for absolutely peanuts, do it up really nicely, and it still cost less than a modest semi here.
lizardbrain said:
For climate and safety I found California to be pretty hard to beat. Obviously it has its rough areas, but all countries do.
I found the hot countries unbearable, Because of the mosquitoes and the humidity.
Temperature is something that I get used to.I think most people adapt pretty quickly, I wouldn't put too much of a premium on the temperature. but climates do vary.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
Big wildfires though. I found the hot countries unbearable, Because of the mosquitoes and the humidity.
Temperature is something that I get used to.I think most people adapt pretty quickly, I wouldn't put too much of a premium on the temperature. but climates do vary.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
Gargamel said:
lizardbrain said:
For climate and safety I found California to be pretty hard to beat. Obviously it has its rough areas, but all countries do.
I found the hot countries unbearable, Because of the mosquitoes and the humidity.
Temperature is something that I get used to.I think most people adapt pretty quickly, I wouldn't put too much of a premium on the temperature. but climates do vary.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
Big wildfires though. I found the hot countries unbearable, Because of the mosquitoes and the humidity.
Temperature is something that I get used to.I think most people adapt pretty quickly, I wouldn't put too much of a premium on the temperature. but climates do vary.
Definitely worth a long trip in the off season.
It difficult as a retiree - most countres aren't all that enthused, as it means people wanting access to services without contributing all that much towards their cost. Because they're pensioners y'know.
If I was ever going to do it, I'd probably try and make it somewhere that's a relatively short flight back to the UK, and treat it as a super-extended holiday, not selling up everything to move to Botswana or Laos or something, as when you return (and most do), you'll find your spending power for things like housing heavily eroded.
SE Asia is tempting, but it's a long way back if you need to be in the UK for any reason, Expats won't have access to universal healthcare, and insurance will get expensive fast.
If I was ever going to do it, I'd probably try and make it somewhere that's a relatively short flight back to the UK, and treat it as a super-extended holiday, not selling up everything to move to Botswana or Laos or something, as when you return (and most do), you'll find your spending power for things like housing heavily eroded.
SE Asia is tempting, but it's a long way back if you need to be in the UK for any reason, Expats won't have access to universal healthcare, and insurance will get expensive fast.
Southern Europe of some flavour.
As long as you stay away from the usual expat areas and are prepared to live and speak like a local then you can live a very decent lifestyle on that income and have access to healthcare at reasonable cost.
I’d love to retire to somewhere in the States but the healthcare would concern me greatly especially as you get older and have more complicated heath needs.
As long as you stay away from the usual expat areas and are prepared to live and speak like a local then you can live a very decent lifestyle on that income and have access to healthcare at reasonable cost.
I’d love to retire to somewhere in the States but the healthcare would concern me greatly especially as you get older and have more complicated heath needs.
OP doesn't address house purchase or rental; is that a factor in addition to the reasonably modest annual budget? Is time that can be spent in the EU a limiting factor?
For ease of travel back to UK I would be looking at somewhere in Europe. Greek island maybe? France has enduring appeal though.
For ease of travel back to UK I would be looking at somewhere in Europe. Greek island maybe? France has enduring appeal though.
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