Moving abroad for retirement seems to be on the forefront of many expat\u2019s minds.\u00a0 It\u2019s an understandably tempting proposition: low cost of living, affordable healthcare, permanent summer, exotic surroundings.\u00a0 But understanding the full potential cost of retiring abroad is necessary before packing your bags and hoping for the best once you hit the ground.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s a novel idea to think that you won\u2019t need to maintain any ties with your country of origin, think again.\u00a0 Depending on your financial situation, it\u2019s possible that you\u2019ll want to have a lawyer and an accountant available to handle any situations that may arise back home. \u00a0Also, if you want to maintain a residence, you\u2019ll have to deal with a house sitter or a property management company to perform the upkeep.\u00a0 Of course, keeping your house will incur many, many other expenses as well.<\/p>\n
No matter how cheap your retirement country is, one cost that can completely throw off that low cost of living is when you factor in trips back home.\u00a0 While it might not seem that expensive since you\u2019ll probably be staying with friends or at your own home, take a moment to look at the hypothetical math.\u00a0 The conservative average trip for anyone going international is $2,000 per person for a week, including their flight.\u00a0 If you only return home twice a year, that puts you at $4,000 a year that you need to factor into your annual budget.\u00a0 If you have a spouse, double this amount.\u00a0 You\u2019re now at potentially $8,000 a year just to go back where you came from, which on a monthly basis, adds about $600 per month to your expenditures.<\/p>\n
Another cost to consider is how foreign currency exchange will affect your money and investments.\u00a0 Currency values can slide and rise at the drop of a hat, particularly in less stable countries.\u00a0 This means that your U.S. Dollar or Euro can quickly become devalued if you\u2019ve bought property or have money sitting in account overseas.\u00a0\u00a0 One way to help combat the effects of currency risk is to diversify your accounts and what currency they\u2019re in.\u00a0 Experts recommend that you have at least six months of living expenses in the local currency.<\/p>\n
Financially, retiring abroad can be a smart decision if you organize your assets well and have a comprehensive understanding how factors such as inflation can affect you.\u00a0 Talk with others who have made a similar move before you or consult with an international accountant who can help you have a stress-free and lucrative retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moving abroad for retirement seems to be on the forefront of many expat\u2019s minds.\u00a0 It\u2019s an understandably tempting proposition: low cost of living, affordable healthcare, permanent summer, exotic surroundings.\u00a0 But understanding the full potential cost of retiring abroad is necessary before packing your bags and hoping for the best once you hit the ground. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":2188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[71,148,277,335,357],"yst_prominent_words":[2670,20590,13979,2563,2342,1716,3092,17574,2149,4729,1764,1768,2457,3588,20589,2100,1719,8409,5241,7775],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6410,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions\/6410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}