How Much House You Can Afford in Retirement in Different Countries
Written by
Stacy Sare Cohen
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Will your reserve fund of hard-earned savings and your investment portfolio support your lifestyle when you stop working? With overspending and inflation, many people in America have found they can’t afford to retire and need to cut their expenses.
“Every day we go to the store, a restaurant, or shop online; we see consistent price increases,” said real estate investor Benjamin Nijila Fields.
“Even in the media, companies like Chipotle are under fire for doubling prices and barely giving any portions,” Fields said.
Fields said he doesn’t see this trend of inflation changing anytime soon and he’s noticed more people migrating to affordable places outside the U.S. where “real estate, food and everything in between is cheaper.”
While the U.S. government doesn’t formally count how many Americans move abroad, it is estimated to be around 9 million people, said Fields.
“We have international migration stock data from the World Bank that reported 50,000 Americans living in Africa and 800,000 living in Europe; Americans also like the UAE and Qatar.”
Fields said retirees can find affordable places with a better quality of life by moving abroad. “Plus, the weather is better and the architecture is usually more scenic [in many of these destinations].”
“[In 2008], people saw their retirement accounts wiped out, and young people obviously don’t look forward to the dead pensions,” he said.
Field said navigating finances while living abroad as an expat is very easy. “Social security, retirement money, and pensions will [be deposited] into your American account as usual. It is easy to use a premium or even mid-range travel credit card abroad and [transfer money out of] your accounts without any issues.”
Most importantly, the largest expense is usually housing and housing costs are much cheaper in many countries outside the United States.
Here’s what you can expect to pay for housing every month in different countries, according to city data from World Atlas.
City Monthly Rent
- Manila $190
- Jakarta $260
- Sofia $310
- Riga $360
- Bucharest $370
- Bogota $380
- Kiev $390
- Nairobi $480
- Bangkok $500
- Cairo $500
- Ljubljana $540
- Prague $550
- Vilnius $550
- Bombay $550
- Kuala Lumpur $560
- Bratislava $580
- Montreal $590
- Rio de Janeiro $590
- Warsaw $630
- Budapest $640
- New Delhi $640
- Lyon $670
- Tallinn $690
- Nicosia $690
- Berlin $690
- Johannesburg $690
- Buenos Aires $710
- Santiago de Chile $710
- Barcelona $740
- Lisbon $760
- Athens $770
- Mexico City $770
- Lima $800
- Vienna $800
- Stockholm $880
- Manama (Bahrain) $890
- Madrid $900
- São Paulo $910
- Istanbul $970
- Moscow $1,020
- Shanghai $1,090
- Toronto $1,120
- Seoul $1,140
- Tel Aviv $1,160
- Frankfurt $1,220
- Amsterdam $1,220
- Auckland $1,250
- Rome $1,280
- Milan $1,340
- Brussels $1,340
- Munich $1,370
- Dubai $1,380
- Beijing $1,390
- Helsinki $1,440
- Paris $1,610
- Geneva $1,610
- Copenhagen $1,650
- Tokyo $1,730
- Dublin $1,760
- Zurich $1,770
- Sydney $1,780
- Taipeh $1,840
- Oslo $1,940
- Miami $1,970
- Los Angeles $1,990
- Doha $2,050
- Luxembourg $2,130
- Chicago $2,210
- London $2,360
- Hong Kong $2,590
- New York $3,890
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