3 Of The Best Countries To Retire Abroad If You Want The Best Bang For Your Buck

Accessing a wonderful retirement is consistently found to be an important goal among those in the workforce. Regardless of your modern-day lifestyle, the ability to leave work behind and enjoy the fruits of your decades of hard work is crucially important. For one thing, the thought of working until the day you move on from this life is a severely depressing one. But the mechanisms of activating a retirement that won't leave you worrying about finances can be tough to manipulate, especially if you're one of the 78% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck.

Regular contributions — even small ones — made consistently over the course of many years can really start to add up. The value of compounding interest (here, we rank 12 investments) is massive, even when the principal investment isn't. In fact, working toward an initial savings goal of $100,000 (while large, it's often eminently an attainable figure for diligent retirement savers) can skyrocket your net worth and the value of your retirement portfolio.

However, there's another approach that Americans can take when planning for a retirement filled with fun and financial stability. Moving abroad, namely to a country that offers both a great quality of life and a minimal cost of living can stretch your financial flexibility even farther. There's plenty of fantastic foreign destinations Americans have chosen to call home, but these are three of the best options to support an imminent retirement, providing a fabulous lifestyle, as well as a significant boost in buying power that'll stretch each dollar to the max.

Spain is a haven for retirement. The historic European center of culture and adventure has been a member state in the EU since 1985, and a Schengen Area participant since 1995. This means that dual nationals holding an EU country passport alongside their American citizenship can retire here without any hurdles. It's as simple as moving to a different state, albeit one that's across the Atlantic Ocean! Many people thinking about moving abroad in their retirement will already be familiar with European nations' various citizenship opportunities, making a seamless move an actual possibility for some. These include the ability for those of German heritage who were demonstrably displaced by the Nazi regime or descendants of Irish nationals to make citizenship claims.

For those retirees who do require a visa, the non-lucrative visa is fairly easy to obtain and allows retirees to move to Spain alongside a spouse or partner, and includes dependent relatives, too. You won't be able to work on this visa type, but a retiree likely isn't looking to ply their trade anyway. A long-stay visa is another option, though, and does allow for work if that's something you're interested in, too. This visa is indefinitely renewable with ease, as long as you spend six months of the year living in Spain.

Cost of living here is wildly inexpensive. Estimates place living expenses for retirees at roughly $2,100 per month — almost $300 cheaper than the average American mortgage payment alone last year (at $2,390, according to C2ER's 2023 index). Beyond the wonderful lightness on your wallet, Spain is overflowing with amazing food, vibrant culture, and sumptuous weather that makes for a massively comfortable lifestyle.

Malaysian living is perhaps not at the top of many retirees' minds. Flung out on the other side of the world from the American shores you grew up on, Malaysia can seem like a hop too far for comfort. But flights to and from the States are regularly quite reasonably priced, and stopover options include Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore on the way to the west coast — including Phoenix, Seattle, and San Francisco — and Doha, Dubai, and Istanbul if headed to the usual suspects in the east. This makes trips back home a little richer in culture, and it also allows for some truly impressive layover opportunities to explore a new and exciting place.

Acquiring a retirement visa for Malaysia is straightforward, as well. Known as the "Malaysia My Second Home," or MM2H, visa, this permission grants retirees the ability to come and go as they please on a 10-year, automatically renewed, multiple-entry residence visa. Applicants must deposit roughly $35,000 (RM150,000) into a Malaysian bank, or otherwise prove a monthly government pension income (Social Security payments, for instance) of at least RM10,000 (about $2,350).

Purchasing a home in Malaysia can be done freehold — meaning you own the land and the home — and it's an outlier on the Asian continent in this regard. Cost-of-living calculations are ridiculous, as well; A $2,500 monthly budget grants a retired couple the life of luxury in Malaysia. In a country that's blended European and Asian heritage together for centuries, the food, people, and environment are wonderfully inviting, and the country's climate resembles that of Florida, providing the same great lifestyle (and then some) that others spend a fortune to obtain.

Atop many compilation lists of the greatest retirement destinations sits Costa Rica. Costa Rica in Central America is the proud home of a Blue Zone (one of only five in the world) in Nicoya — a place where people live longer than typical and often thrive in older age. The result is a government that has to be a little more in tune with the needs of older citizens. The country possesses one of Latin America's best health-care systems, and makes wellness affordable as a rule rather than an exception.

These are fabulous features, made all the more enticing by the gleaming landscapes of the Costa Rican expanse. Two elongated coastlines bring both oceanic and sea waters onto the country's beach shores. Centrally, Costa Rica features dense forestlands that offer amazing outdoor pursuits for those who love hiking and outdoor exploration in general. Natural beauty is found in abundance here, and it's potentially the best destination of these three standouts for anyone prioritizing the features of outdoor living and a massively relaxing pace in retirement.

The cost of living is out of this world, as well. A household budget of $2,000 to $3,000 per month allows a retired couple to live like kings and queens in this crossroads land between North and South America. Estimates place the consumer price index, including housing costs, at roughly 35% cheaper than in the United States, providing great dollar-stretching capabilities. To move to Costa Rica, you'll need to demonstrate a clear criminal record (as is the case with both listed above) and showcase a retirement income or pension payout exceeding $1,000 per month. After three years, retirees can also apply for permanent residence in the country, cutting out the red tape or renewing permissions entirely.