What's the best country to retire to?

I hear a lot of talk about retirees leaving the US and heading off to live an expat lifestyle in order to make their social security and pension monies go further. Or to live in a beautiful, culture-filled place they've dreamed of...

I hear people talk of Costa Rica, Vietnam, France, Italy -- even Mexico, Panama and India...

I've been interested enough to read a few articles on this, but realistically I know Steve would never go for it, so I'm only educating myself for the fun of it.

Anyway, I just came across this fascinating chart, which I thought I'd share with you:

Titled Top Ten Countries to Grow Old In the list pulls from a larger list, that ranks 96 countries in term of how they treat their older population.

The bigger chart is called "Global Age Watch Index 2014" and it comes from HelpAge.org. You can see the larger chart here and you may be interested in what it reveals.

According to it, the two top countries for our aging populations are Norway and Sweden! I wasn't totally surprised, though I do think the chart fails to take into account that the cost of living in Scandinavia is quite high.

The saddest thing, in my opinion, was that someone looked at the chart, and got very interested in living in Norway. Primarily, I think, be cause the guaranteed monthly government pension for retirees is the equivalent of slightly over $1000 USD/month.

So this woman wonders, in her post, "wow ..be nice to retire here ...wonder what they have to offer a person on SSD and can i still get the govenment money i was blessed with."


Then she gets serious and closes with this:
"Do they have churches and believe in God? so many questions from someone in Ohio"

Sounds like she has no idea Norway is a Northern European country, that the dominant religion is Evangelical Lutheran, and that they even have a number of very beautiful churches there...

But just for the record, here's what Wikipedia says about religion in Norway.

I'm constantly amazed at how ignorant some people are about other countries, or even about the US. It saddens me that people know so little.

IMHO a person would probably have to be a longtime citizen to benefit from retirement programs of a said country. But if you really want to know how little people actually know about their country, those watching "Watters' World," a segment of Bill O'Reilly "Factor," discover many folks' being interviewed can't answer common everyday questions about their country.

Some countries offer all sorts of perks to people who move there to retire. I know that Panama and Ecuador are two of them - discounts on all sorts of things and inexpensive health care. And it doesn't depend on how long a person has lived there. It's fascinating to me that some of these other countries treat retirees better than we do here.

Italy must have good retirement program for its citizens.
My DIL's folks have been retired ever since I met her and that was 28 years ago.

We have friends wanting desperately to retire to Thailand. They, and their 20 something son are so ready to go. They've been there several times and say it's THE best place.

Not sure I have the urge to "flee", but my sis lives in the UK and seems to be fine there.

I think I might enjoy living in the UK. And I have heard that Thailand is a lovely place, though I think it would not appeal to me. Too far away from family for one thing.

But I have to say Steve and I have been enjoying watching HGTV's show, "Househunters International." It gives us a chance to see what some of these countries look like, and what our US Dollars can buy there.

Last night we watched one on living in the Marshall Islands. A few days ago we saw one on London. If you don't get the HGTV channel, you can still watch the shows online. Here's a link to several "international" episodes.

Would Thailand offer top health care for complex health problems? ..after all, getting old is not pleasant.

Have people thought sanely about learning the language of the target country to properly enjoy and live in that country? Please don't speak to me about living with ex-pats...when people insist ferociously that immigrants must learn English. Now you know how non-English speaking immigrants feel.

Honest...I'm so glad my parents immigrated (before I was born) and will end their lives in Canada. My father is getting top care for his cancer..and he isn't paying much since he's low income and it's Canada. As a Canadian citizen he is entitled to this level of high health care expertise, etc.

Jabber, I would tend to agree with you, that one would need to live in target country for many years to be entitled to any pension. One should be checking the government websites of the target country and maybe spend a few years talking with locals who have been there for decades. Not years.

Scandanavia have high taxes.....in order to support their excellent public health care system, etc. Yea, well I guess Americans probably think similar to Canada. High taxes, etc.

No, I wouldn't be interested in living in another country to retire. It's better when one is in their 20's -30's, stronger capacity to learn a new language and adjust to all sorts of physical discomforts when one is healthier (presumably when younger).

I think you raise some excellent questions, Orchid. Especially about the importance of learning the native language, and then immersing yourself into the country's culture, as opposed to just living in an "ex-pat barrio." (My term.)

As for Thailand's ability to offer top care for complex health problems, all I know is this: CNBC lists Thailand as one of the top countries for medical tourism, and notes that Thailand is most known as a resource for cosmetic surgery -- including gender reassignment

The CNBC site notes that:

A related article from February of 2014 also notes that as the political situation in Thailand may be scaring away some medical tourism visitors, there are other countries waiting to take up the slack.

I think there are plenty areas to retire to in the United States. I moved to the tampa bay area of Florida and found a condo that fits my finances. The weather is great here also.