Places Where You Can Retire on $200,000 and Feel Rich

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

An interesting financial note about the DR is that if you deposit U.S. dollars into a bank, you'll receive around 4% but if you convert it to the native D.R. currency you'll receive 8%! A friend of mine has U.S. and DR citizenship and has a bank account there. He is quite happy with his 8% return.

That's an illusion really. If you hedged your currency exposure out a year you'd find that the futures price exactly matched the difference in interest rates (actually you'd take a bit of a loss on the deposit interest being retail so you'd come out a little behind). You'd just be playing forex trader. Nothing wrong with doing that, it's just not something most folks here have any expertise in and it's important to realize you're engaged in a high risk activity, which it doesn't sound like is the case.

[ohgary]

$200K a month? A year? or rest of your life?

[Simi 60]

Vietnam in a heartbeat for us if only we could get the boat in.

If we decide to go land based again I reckon it'll be top of our short list.

[Mr B]

The P/O of my boat lived on Mololo Island 12 miles from Fiji on a swing mooring for 8 years, At $7-00 a night,
Dinghy trip to the beach or local shop, and Bar, 1/2 a mile away,
Same distance to catch the ferry to Fiji,
He was an Architec and did all his work in the USA on the internet,
Food was cheap if you went to the local markets,
Meat was a trip to Fiji with a bus trip to the Butchers, You could sail over or take the Big Cat Ferry, Also cheap,
The Butcher was a New Zealand Family that had excellent meat,
The meat elsewhere, Was a funny colour and I woudnt touch it, I am a big meat eater,
Fijians are very friendly,

Down side of that, He had too leave Fiji every three years to sail to another country to get his passport stamped and then he returned for another three years,
Vanuatu was the closest country he had to sail too,
I believe he hired a local Captain to sail his boat for him on these trips to another country, Also very cheap,

In my travels, I have found if you go half a mile down the road from where the tourist buses pull in,
The prices are local prices and the people are very nice to talk too, Most have a smattering of English,

A smile will get you any where, You dont have to talk the local language, Just have a pocket full of the local currency, It makes life very easy,
I also found that the visa machines usually give the best exchange rates,

Cheers, Brian,

[belizesailor]

We live in Panama, are very familiar w Costa Rica, and are current visiting the Azores, so we've hit 3 of the top 5.

Their premise of $200K, and no other details, doesnt make much sense. You would need a bit of naivety/dellusions to feel rich on $200K and nothing else most anywhere...and that illusion wouldnt last long. If any first worlder starts living directly off $200K they will almost certainly be broke in less than 10 years, even if frugal, way less if not. If you can earn 5%/year on it then thats $10K per year income...not much, but viable in some venues. However, $200K plus some source of retirement income and you could feel quite content in many places.

Panama. The minimum income (pension) requirement for a "Pensionado" visa is $1K/month and I know Americans who are living on that or less in Panama. They are not living large, but they are getting by. Assuming $200K plus retirement income then you can easily buy a nice home in Panama for well under $200K (just not in Panama City) and have some cash reserves left over.

Costa Rica. They are dellusional, life in the CR is more expensive than many places in the USA. $200K will disappear very fast there. Crime Rates are rising too. As a result of both factors, I have a number of friends who have moved from CR to Panama.

Azores (Portugal). This is my first visit to the Azores and man Im impressed: first world, beautiful, agreeable climate, low crime rate, and affordable...not many places have that combination. Real estate prices are reasonable (and a good value buy now I think) and cost of living is modest (Yesterday we had lunch for 2 in a local pub, good food + 4 beers, for €15!). We have met a number of happy expats (USA, Canada, and a smattering EU'ers). You wont feel rich here on $200K, but it will go MUCH further than Costa Rica. If I were looking for another venue Azores would be high on my list.

If you want to feel rich for more years than most places on $200K then try: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, or Nicaragua (Ive lived in Guatemala and spent a lot of time in the others). They all come with some of their own issues, but are all great places in their own way too...and you can live VERY inexpensively in all of them (esp if you live more like a local).

[Mike OReilly]

We have less than $200K in financial wealth. So far, we live very well in Canada. We’re certainly not financially wealthy, but we’re rich in all the ways that matter.

So… I guess it depends on what you mean by “rich.” And more importantly, what you want out of life.

[Emmalina]

Why do you want to "feel rich" Mr OP ?

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by GordMay

65 to 69 years old: $193,833

The extreme inequality there perfectly illustrated! Look at the 65 y.o. bar, the only group in my numbers.

The median is nearly completely driven by the extreme wealth of the top percentages. Average would be even more so.

Quintile means 20%. So the bottom two, there's your 40% of the population.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

Why do you want to "feel rich" Mr OP ?

You don’t?

[AndyEss]

Originally Posted by john61ct

The extreme inequality there perfectly illustrated! Look at the 65 y.o. bar, the only group in my numbers.

The median is nearly completely driven by the extreme wealth of the top percentages. Average would be even more so.

Quintile means 20%. So the bottom two, there's your 40% of the population.

The way I read Gord's bar chart (it is a little difficult) is that a bit over 45% of American households are worth $200k at ages 65-69.
You said 19% of Americans are worth that amount at 65. Figuring a household at that age is two people makes both your numbers jibe.

Not sure why you needed to go off on an income inequality rant. The topic is pretty straight forward with an apparently good $200k household net worth basis that nearly 1/2 of American households meet.

[john61ct]

Yes your number for those in the top half is accurate.

And it is true that they may perhaps be disturbed to have the distribution curve become the focus of the discussion.

My motivation? I find it very interesting, and believe it helps support my point about the direction of the thread.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

An interesting financial note about the DR is that if you deposit U.S. dollars into a bank, you'll receive around 4% but if you convert it to the native D.R. currency you'll receive 8%! A friend of mine has U.S. and DR citizenship and has a bank account there. He is quite happy with his 8% return.

Vietnam does similar.
Current rate for USD is 0.25%
Current rate for VND is 6.6%
Up until a few years ago, VND was getting up around 18% for many years.

[Rorzech]

If I had $200.000.00 I would be rich, period.

[a64pilot]

A lot of the unequal numbers come whether your talking how much money they have as opposed to what their net worth is, including equity of the home.
Many want to believe that their home will be their retirement, that way they can spend all their money on their McMansion and say they have invested the money.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

[AndyEss]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Yes your number for those in the top half is accurate.

And it is true that they may perhaps be disturbed to have the distribution curve become the focus of the discussion.

My motivation? I find it very interesting, and believe it helps support my point about the direction of the thread.Attachment 194034

From the note on your chart, yes it would make sense to use a log scale for net worth. The chart is essentially useless to add anything to this discussion.
The topic was retirement and how to stretch one's resources by becoming an expatriate.
Yes, retirement actually requires one to have financial resources to free oneself from working, or at least working hard in one's old age.
If you haven't worked much or productively, if you haven't skimped and saved, planned, and invested reasonably well, you won't be able to get by in retirement without working.
Why is this strange?
Further, CF is a forum that has to do with boating - a rather expensive hobby/passion. I have never seen boating or living on the water as a human right guaranteed by any internationally recognized authority.

Ergo - I assume most of CF posters have at least enough monetary wherewithal to discuss financial matters, such as retirement and where one might live with one's lifetime of accumulation of wealth, in the best way possible. One of the positive effects of globalization and fantastically easy communications.

I happen to like being on my boat in Mexico. Food is good and inexpensive, labor costs are low, and at least where I am, street violence is rare, though property crimes are relatively common.

If I didn't have a boat, I wouldn't be here.