If you are thinking of leaving the USA

Rbrt

Saw this in Ritholtz’s email. It’s interesting. As I read it, you would be well served to land in one of the countries show that have lowest housing costs such as: Italy, Japan & Croatia - and the cost of living in these countries, in general, should be manageable as the residents also have low disposable incomes (your money will go further). I might add, if I were leaving I would consider the Caribbean countries/islands but I have no idea how they would fall on this chart.

Soupkitchen

Italy and Japan are very expensive countries. I could not imagine going to live in either country in order to have more bang for my buck. Not to mention that the dollar as lost value to the euro and to the yen. Maybe Croatia, although they use the euro as well.

Old_Joe

So how's your Croatian fluency?

JD_co

https://www.expatincroatia.com/retire-croatia/

https://www.expatincroatia.com/american-citizens/

Lets all move to Croatia! I'm down.

carew388

Looks like there's a lot of hoops to jump through to live in Croatia. Spain and Portugal are options if you have 500k to buy a residence. In the Western Hemisphere, Uruguay and Costa Rica are the most practical choices;not sure about Chile or Ecuador.

JonGaltIII

This is posted in "Fund Discussions"?

On another note: I like reading Ritholtz ... In particular I follow Nick Maggiulli ... subcscribe to his newsletter or weekly email. You won't be disappointed.

carew388

Perhaps Fun Discussions would be more appropriate !

JonGaltIII

+1

Rbrt

Sorry about the placement - hopefully David will move to off-topic.

Mark

Rbrt - actually you can do that by going in and editing your 'original' post.

Crash

If you can find your way to establishing residency/citizenship in the EU, the healthcare system is actually portable. I could establish an address in Ireland, being a citizen. Then I could decide to just move to the Algarve in southern Portugal. Fill out a form, and you can take the Irish coverage with you. If your income is below X, you get a medical card. Everything is free or subsidized, with the card. Otherwise, the plan is still good, anyhow--- even without the card. I do happen to know that Ireland offers free everything connected to diabetes care.

Old_Joe

@Crash: So what exactly is this "free" stuff"? Like the tooth fairy? Or does someone else pay for it via taxes?

Not saying that that's a bad system, at all. I really do believe that we have an obligation to help those less fortunate financially. Life simply isn't fair in determining who gets what. I have no problem with our taxes, and try to pay our fair share for the common good.

But that doesn't mean that anything is "free", at all.

Soupkitchen

OJ you are right. Nothing is free. I am a EU resident in Spain. When you become a resident in the EU, you also become a tax resident. The taxes are high, and you have to pay taxes on your world wide income, (no double taxation but since the taxes are higher, they will make you pay the difference between what you pay in the US, and what you have to pay in the EU) inheritance tax, wealth tax...so anybody thinking of moving to the EU should do your research. Don't forget that you will always be a tax resident of the US, even if you move to Mars. And here they make you declare your foreign assets every year, and impose huge fines for not doing it. (Form 720).

Portugal has a program where you can move there and live there for 10 years and just pay taxes on your foreign earnings to your country of citizenship. I think they are charging a 10% tax on you pension. I am not sure what a US citizen has to do to get residency there. It is much easier for EU residents as they can just move there.

msf

"the healthcare system is actually portable."

"OJ you are right. Nothing is free."

Since OJ's comment was regarding healthcare, it is worth noting that Heinlein (TANSTAAFL) aside, a small number of healthcare services are literally free.

Though it's a myth that preventive care generally pays for itself, which would make it free of net costs, it is true that a few preventive care services do pay for themselves. Possibly when all is said and done, the Covid-19 vaccines will fall into that category. As do some other immunizations.

Key findings include: although many preventive services are a good value (defined as costing less than $50,000 to $100,000 per Quality Adjusted Life Year), only a few, such as childhood immunizations and counseling adults on the use of low-dose aspirin are widely regarded as cost-saving. Costs to reduce risk factors, screening costs, and the cost of treatment when disease is found can offset any savings from preventive care. Prevention can reduce the incidence of disease, but savings may be partially offset by health care costs associated with increased longevity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22052182/

Crash

Yes, nothing is FREE. Taxes pay for the system. For INDIVIDUALS, some stuff is FREE when you go to get it. Because taxes are paid by everyone in a more equitable way than is the case here in the States. And yes. Taxes are higher. Higher, indeed. I could and would certainly avail myself of the FREE everything pertaining to diabetes control. On the other side, I mean the corporate side--- corporations get away with murder. Their rate is 12 or 12.5% tax. Wonderful, gorgeous Pfizer simply filled out a legal form to officially move their HQ to Ireland. Nothing else changed with them. And so now, they are subject to the much lower Irish tax. That fact makes my blood boil. And of course, dozens of other companies have done the same thing.

LewisBraham

Regarding Italy, if you're handy and don't mind living in the countryside with an aged population: https://cnn.com/travel/article/italy-one-euro-homes-castropignano-molise/index.html

Crash

Lovely, but too isolated for me. And cars are of no use? I saw a mention of the fact that they cannot navigate the narrow streets. Checked climate, too. In the Appenines there, it's too chilly. Still, @LewisBraham, I found that article appealing, interesting.