Exotic tropical islands, temperate mountain valleys, miles of deserted beaches, First-World cities packed with ultra-modern amenities, and ancient vineyard-shrouded hill towns…
Among the top retirement spots in the world this year, you’ll find great variety in the cultural offerings, climates and lifestyles. Each destination is desirable in its own way, but they all offer something increasingly hard to come by at home: A good quality of life for a reasonable price.
Among these 22 destinations, you’ll discover places where you can save tens of thousands of dollars on world-class health care administered by English-speaking and U.S.-trained doctors…find beachfront condos for less than $90,000…and see that a couple can live well on just $900 a month excluding rent.
Now, no “formula” can spit out the name of the place that’s just right for you. After all, your priorities are uniquely yours. You need to consider what’s most important to you—maybe climate, maybe language, maybe cost, maybe distance from home—and use this index to target accordingly the places you want to explore. The only way you’ll really know if a destination makes sense for you is to go and see it for yourself.
But understand that all of the countries in our index are worth considering. A destination that scores relatively poorly in a specific category is still a nation we believe ranks among the top 22 in the world for overseas retirement today.
Each year as we compile this Retirement Index, we strive to improve it. We collect more—and more diverse—data. We interview more—and more varied—expats to get the real-world information that keeps our assessments current. This index is, by design, subjective. It wouldn’t be half as helpful if it weren’t. We bring to it more than three decades of expertise and the insights from an international network of correspondents living abroad today and scouting the world on your behalf.
3. Malaysia: Asia’s Most Desirable Destination
By Keith Hockton
“Go back to New York to live? Never!” says 65-year-old Lorna Taylor. “We moved to Malaysia because of the weather, the golf and the low prices; our costs are now a third to a quarter of what they were in the U.S. We even have a maid come in and clean four times a week. We couldn’t do that in New York. No, we’ll never leave Penang.”
I’m 30 years younger than Lorna and her husband John, and yet they still manage to beat my wife Lisa and me convincingly at tennis. They have a coach who comes twice a week, and for $10 a lesson I can see his efforts are clearly paying off.
I also completely understand and agree with their view about Malaysia. It has everything. Its weather is a tropical 82 F all year round and its beaches, islands and jungles are pristine. It has some of the region’s best street food, great restaurants, bars, shopping malls and movie theaters—and it’s all affordable.
Lisa and I rent a sea-view apartment for $1,000 a month—it comes with a shared pool and gym. We eat out five nights a week, keep a small sailboat, and our total budget is $1,719 a month. Two people can have a three-course meal here for $10.
A bagful of fresh fruit costs around $4. We also have a maid that comes once a week for four hours at a cost of $12.
Malaysia’s an easy place to make friends and integrate as English is the unofficial first language. Lots of expats live in Kuala Lumpur and Penang and numerous organizations here can help you get settled and integrated. For example, the International Women’s Association (formally The American Woman’s Association) has just over 500 members who organize activities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. On Mondays there are jungle walks, Tuesdays mah-jong (a type of card game), Wednesdays sewing. They sponsor trivia night once a week at a local pub and put on a ball once a year. For more information, see here.
Penang and Kuala Lumpur are also medical centers of excellence and every day two planeloads of medical tourists arrive in Malaysia for various treatments. Not only is the health care amazing but it’s among the world’s cheapest. And prescriptions here cost a fifth of what you pay at home.
The last time I was at the dentist I got a filling and a cleaning, which cost $22.50. In the U.S. this would set me back around $180. We can also buy property, land, and houses and condominiums freehold—something you can’t do elsewhere in Asia.
