10 Countries Where Retirees Live Large

According to Yahoo, International Living says the following 10 countries scored high marks not only for their inexpensive living, but for overall friendliness toward American retirees:

Panama

Mexico

Malaysia

Colombia

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Spain

Thailand

Honduras

Ecuador

 

I checked a number of related web sites and they also did not have the Philippines on their recommended list. I wonder why and what the selection criteria is?? Obviously, included in the criteria IS NOT the best place to find a wife or PI would be highly ranked. Just IMHO.

 

Don't know how Colombia got on to the list. Don't know why Cambodia didn't.

 

And! can I say you can cross Spain off and any othere EEC country just at this time The Euro is at a 40% loss.

 

I wonder why Costa Rica was excluded? much more stable than Panama or Nicaragua.

 

i can't speak for the living conditions of the other countries. but, I did live in Thailand for 6 years and the living conditions there are far and above what we have here in the Philippines. Took the Princess there in March and she loved it. It was a real eye opener for her.

The only reason I moved was because they changed immigration laws.

 

Unless you have huge amount of retiree money then you can live in New Zealand. Been there last year and it's soooooo expensive place!!

 

"I checked a number of related web sites and they also did not have the Philippines on their recommended list. I wonder why and what the selection criteria is?? "

Could have something to do with the mass corruption and the lack of infistucture, lack of services,the high cost of living, except for rent and labor, (competent labor) would be another matter. That would be my guess.

 

Malaysia...nice place. Surprised it made the list. Everything there is about twice the cost in the Philippines though, but so are competence levels. That said, crime is about one-tenth of the Philippines...and they drive reasonably well in the cities...and tolerably in rural areas.
Does have a decent retirement visa program...but it requires some biggish bucks to get in:

Malaysia My Second Home

Interesting and a good alternative in a nice tropical and calmer, but less lively, environment.

 

So i left philipines 6 months ago and 2 weeks ago i landed in panama which is more expensive than philippines and so is costarica...i took an international bus from panama city through costarica and i ended up in nicaragua....Nicaragua is the cheapest of the three and more so than colombia and peru....Nicaragua doesnt have all the malls we have in philippines on every major island or several malls per city in philippines....panama and costarica have nice malls even the insidous WALMART in costarica and in panama if not soon...nicaragua is possible to live $400. amonth if you dont mind simple and have no need to pay to cross border every 30 to 90 days to renew visa...they offer residency and full ownership rights in property and business,except all employees must be citizens and foreign owners cannot be on the worker payroll or doing work for free in lieu of hireing locals to do it...it is much cleaner overall in centrall america and its sad so many foriegners here complain of traffic when philippines is so obviously much more populated and cogested in traffic and pedestrian numbers...even the small mountain town i live in has a street cleaner every morning and trash pickup every where.....The air is fresher....The countries in central america hover around 5 million people with few exceptions like guatemala and honduras with 2 to 3 times as many....panama city was so fresh and clean and little traffic(compared to philippines) but i did not enjoy paying $60 for hotel that cost $20 in dumaguete and dumaguetes would be newer......I have six months in nicaragua before i decide to move on or try new....they offer residency to pensioners or hefty sum investors...Rice and beans never tatsed so good and did i mention it seems to be cheaper in nicaragua other than managua/grenada the main citys....even the main cities were so sparse with people(from a philippines point of view)...come on down for at least a visit....