When I was living up in the very expensive Northeast I realized I didn't want to retire up there for 3 reasons: Politics, cost of living, winters. I started looking to live abroad. Yes. At first it looks inexpensive, but that is if you want to live at a lower standard and not in the best parts. By the time you factor in a house to us standards, amenities like in the US (TV, internet, fridget, etc) you are paying almost as much, or more than the same house in the US. The other problem is having a target on your back. Unless you are Hispanic you will stick out like a sore thimb. Many of these countries have developed "express" hijackings. This is when you are picked up, taking to the nearest ATM and forced to take out the max you can from all the cards you have on you. You are lucky if they don't do anything more than pistol whip you. Then local laws about property. Easy to get sucked into a real estate mess where you buy property and find out later that you legally don't own it, but your common law wife does (big in the PI).
At the end I looked for places within the US to retire and found this area was (2018) very competitive to those foreign countries and I would still have all the US law protections. So here I am.
HVBM.
[QUOTE=BigPussySal;6290325]Thank you sir for the great post! I'm thinking more like living abroad for a few years rather than just visiting though. That said, your post is most enlightening and helpful! Thanks again.[/QUOTE]
