[Editor’s note: This post is OLD! Don’t treat it as current gospel and ask why prices have gone up. For a newer version, put “cheapest places to live” in that search box to your right.]
In an earlier entry, I waxed philosophical about how to answer the difficult question, “Where are the Cheapest Places to Live?” After all, my book is a good primer on where to travel for cheap, but what if you want to put down roots?
Where Convenience Rules
If you’re an American who wants to stay in the US, or are looking to move here, check out this report from Forbes . It features a rundown on 60 places in the US where the living is fairly easy, depending on your situation. This is a subjective and rather odd list (St. Louis but not Kansas City? Birmingham but not Nashville?), but food for thought anyway.
But of course the US is not really all that cheap, no matter where you live. Yes, once you get outside of places like New York and San Francisco, it’s certainly cheaper than most of western Europe, especially when it comes to housing, gas, and food. This was true even before the Euro appreciated so much. But some things, like health care costs, will really sock it to you. To live well on a small amount of money, you’ll have to look abroad.
Casting a Wide “Cheap Living” Net
This link takes you to to two some publications that examine living abroad on a regular basis. I especially recommend International Living if you’re serious. I’ve written for them, so call me biased, but before that I was a subscriber and probably will be for many years to come. Different newsletters and web sites are good at covering different parts of the world, but IL does an admirable job of comparing places around the globe with perspective.
Their 2005 Quality of Life Index just came out recently and one issue that figures into the index is the cost of living in different countries. Unfortunately, they fall into the easy trap of using US State Department cost of living figures–fine if you’re living like a cosseted diplomat, but a bit skewed if you don’t need a huge house with a dishwasher and clothes dryer. Keeping that caveat in mind, the places that offer a relatively good quality of life and a low cost of living include the following:
– New Zealand
– Uraguay
– Mexico
– Argentina
– Slovakia
– Romania
– Panama
– Hungary
– Ecuador
– Paraguay (cheapest of all, in their opinion)
– Bolivia
– Sechelles
– Belize
– Dominican Republic
– Honduras
Other Options
If you’re not all that concerned about maintaining a cushy lifestyle, or you’re good at adapting to the local norms, options open up considerably. Nearly all of Central America and South America is relatively foreigner-friendly, especially if you’re living on income or a pension from your home country.
Lots of remote islands are cheap, if you’re not too concerned about being isolated. Maldives, Vanuatu, Micronesia–got a boat?
Why so few countries in Asia? Most of the countries of Southeast Asia are cheap, beautiful, and filled with good food. They just don’t want you hanging around too long, that’s all. It’s next to impossible to buy land or a house in any of these places without a local controlling partner or through a spouse. Even then it’s a royal pain. Thailand has opened up the door a crack, however, allowing foreigners to buy condos at least. But one consideration is how easy it is to get a residency permit. You can’t settle down somewhere without the security of knowing you can stay. Making a border run every month or two gets pretty suspicious after a while. For whatever reason, it’s generally tough throughout much of Asia unless you have a work permit from your employer.
The best way to find your perfect spot that’s in your budget? Travel a lot, read a lot, and ask for advice. Pay for advice when it will save you from making the wrong move or spending far more than you have to.
Just remember that one man’s cheap paradise is another man’s third-world hellhole. One woman’s shopping paradise is another woman’s sterile glut of commercialism. Figure out what your parameters are, then start narrowing down the options. Rent for a while and see if the place really floats your boat or not.
As for me, I straddle the US and Mexico. I live in the US to work hard, make money, and save. I go to my little beach house in the Yucatan to kick back in a hammock and live the cheap and easy life.
Before I bought a place there, my parameters were a place that’s easy to get to, always warm, with good real estate prices, good food, and a language that pays some dividends from learning it. (I’ve lived in Turkey and Korea and promptly forgot both languages almost entirely.) So for me, Mexico works–for now anyway. Maybe when the nest is empty and I really settle down overseas, who knows…
