Posted on 06/19/2010 7:39:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The average Social Security check is about $1,200. You can receive that payment while living anywhere in the world. In some countries, you can even have your Social Security check direct-deposited into your local bank account. Here are five places where you could retire on your Social Security income alone.
Boquete, Panama. Panama offers super user-friendly options for foreign residency. Resident retirees receive a long list of benefits including discounts on everything from prescription medicines and in-country air travel to closing costs on the purchase of real estate.
Granada, Nicaragua. Granada is ... home to a welcoming community of expat retirees enjoying new lives in this land of lakes and volcanoes. You could live well in Granada on about $900 per month.
Hangzou, China. About $1,000 a month could buy you a comfortable and super-exotic new life in Hangzou.
Morelia, Mexico. You could retire on a budget of about $1,100 per month in this colonial city full of charm and history.
Cuenca, Ecuador. The average monthly Social Security check ($1,200) could also buy you a pleasant new life in Cuenca. The city has an established community of expats who will welcome you and help with your transition.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Already catholic. Any luck for me?
You probably should start by checking out the Gulf Coast.
But how much is a bottle of booze and a bag of weed? Inquiring minds want to know.
The Gulf Coast of the US? Your light bill will cost you at least $300 a month.
I have a question. We have a friend who moved to Panama last year. When we send her mail, we are supposed to send it to a PO box in Miami and we do. And when she sends mail it has that same Miami return address. Do you know why they’re doing it that way (sending mail bulk to and from Miami).
Ben, I have just visited the most perfect place. Cheap housing, good food, hot weather, medical OK! But excuse me if I don’t name it - don’t want it spoilt with lots of rich american immigrants.
Going to live in a double wide refigerator box in West Palm beach.
The hills of W. Virginia?
Actually, most places in the US, one could live on Social Security of $1,200 a month fairly well — but probably not in the 25 largest cities.
The sweet spot are all those metropolitan areas of around 100-250,000 population that now have everything that the biggest cities have, except the crime and high cost of living.
Anyplace that has a Walmart, Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s, Ross, Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree, etc. — has a de facto low cost of living yet access to wide choices. Then, if you go to the craigslists, many communities have 1 bedroom apartments for around $400 or less!
That’s not likely to be Honolulu, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Paris — but you don’t have to be in those cities for their primary benefits of culture anymore — because it’s as close as your iPad, laptop or cell phone.
Austin, Texas is usually heading the list of best cities to live in regardless of the cost — but up the road a bit (60 miles), is a small town of Killeen, Tx, where you can probably still get a 1 bedroom house! (maybe even a 2 bedroom house or apartment) for $400 — outside of the largest US military base in the country.
There are a lot of communities in the US like that — and even a few fairly large cities like a Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Little Rock, Salem, Oregon, that are very affordable, so that one doesn’t have to be thousands of miles from a leading edge of civilization, as one would be in a foreign country still.
That’s where I think most people ought to be directing their attention — rather than being lulled by those thoughts of exotic, foreign places that themselves, are out of the mainstream of contemporary civilization.
That used to be the dream of a previous generation of retirees — that they’d retire and live an unrealistic life of constant travel and luxury of servants waiting on them. That’s probably the best development from the recent economic crash back to reality — that people realize that retirement is not about traveling around the world, and owning a timeshare in every vacation spot in the world.
One can continue being a productive member of society, in a more intimate and unhurried scale — in the many small town Americas that exist even in the neighborhood organizations of fairly large communities.
Sorry, but I don't buy that. You talk about living on $1200 a month, then mention access to culture via iPad. If you're living on $1200 a month anywhere safe and decent in the U.S., you don't have money for an iPad. The two notions don't mix.
You can go down to the public library and get on the Internet for free.
Condos on the Gulf coast are going cheap...
Hey, here on FR everybody's of above average intelligence, and we all know Manila is an envelope factory.
There seems to be a weird situation going on there. Check out the first few letters here:
http://www.panama-guide.com/index.php?topic=mail
So what you are all saying is that there is no place in the US where anyone can live on social security? That doesn’t sound right.
There's enough free oil lying around to run a lot of lamps.
Wait for the Socialists here to outlaw the payment of social security funds off of American soil...maybe you can pay a friend to pick it up every month at a U.S. post office box and mail it to you. ‘Know your Customer’ laws for bankers could also be used to keep the serfs at home and subject to further levies, as they come up with them.
lol!
300.00 a month? I wish. Mine is always 500-650. from June- September
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