I found this article on Yahoo. The World's 9 Most Affordable Places to Retire https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/worlds-9-most-affordable-places-132700908.html Here is the list: * Nha Trang, Vietnam (Monthly budget: $650) * Chiang Rai, Thailand (Monthly budget: $750) * Ipoh, Malaysia (Monthly budget: $897) * Dumaguete, Philippines (Monthly budget: $1,000) * Cayo, Belize (Monthly budget: $1,100) * Loja, Ecuador (Monthly budget: $1,100) * Granada, Nicaragua (Monthly budget: $1,300) * Tralee, Ireland (Monthly budget: $1,500) * Carcassonne, France (Monthly budget: $1,750)
Will not argue the plus and minus about Dumaguete in Yahoo news. So many countries, so many places, so many opinions, ideas and choices where to settle. Chang Rai I spent some time in the past and can only confirm it fits the details as published. Nha Trang sounds good and, who knows, worth to have a look, just to compare with Dumaguete. The renaming places (except for Ipoh) too far away, already been there (Carcassone) I will not visit to find out what's going on there.
I would think if they compared the food prices at LP and Robinsons, Dumaguete would drop a few clicks down the list. 1 example, P64 for 1 medium size potato..
I highly doubt they count in the *foreigner tax* and the regular visa extensions along with the exit cost every X years since retiring in the Philippines without a Filpina wife to get perm residency through means unlikely to get a visa unless you really want to hand them a large sum of cash (which should be accounted for also. Also are they expecting us to live like a local eating local food or eating western style food (meat and potatoes as staples). I really don't see your average retiree being able to manage here on $1000 a month. Sure, a few can but not the majority.
Anyone "can" live here for $1000/month but it is up to the individual to decide if they like the kind of lifestyle that $1000/month affords. If you can live like a filipino you can very easily live here for less than $1000/month, but if you have to live in a western style house, have a new car, and eat only western (imported) food than yes, you are correct it cannot be done.
The majority of retiree's aren't wouldn't ever be willing to make the sacrifice to the standards they would have to accept to be able to live on $1k a month. Thus its unrealistic to call it a cheap retirement place as people would assume keeping a decent lifestyle by their standards and as an American article means can't really be done.
I think the big issue here is "Value for Money",, everything is getting more expensive here and when you see that most of it is imported, even the fruits and veggies and are of very poor quality thats where you get burnt.. a lot of things here come from China and not everything from China is garbage or poor quality,, but what happens here is they bring in the cheapest stuff and make huge margins selling it.. My problem with that is the salary of "Juan dela Cruz" is not going anywhere and they are paying what we pay.. so now you are starting to see some pinoys getting fatter because at least they can eat a lot of rice and some are getting pretty skinny because they don't have the money for rice either..i just hope that it will sort out one day but i doubt it.. Politicians here own all the import / export business and local manufacturing and they will not tolerate competition so that's why prices are where they are at..
