Personal Finance

is it possible to retire with $1million in a low cost country?

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Nov 23, 2016
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is it possible to retire with $1million in a low cost country?

if you had $1million, would you move to a low cost country and retire there like living in vietnam or thailand or kenya? you will never have to worry about money again if you move there.
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Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2001
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It's possible to easily retire in Canada with that kind of money, especially with all of our social services.
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May 30, 2005
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TrevorK wrote: It's possible to easily retire in Canada with that kind of money, especially with all of our social services.
Exactly. You can do that easily by simply investing the $1M in a 5% dividend-paying fund or diversified portfolio of stocks, which will pay you $50K or $42.5K after tax (dividends are taxed at 15%) initially, and slowly grow as dividends are increased. Draw down your principal if you really need to.

42K after tax is $3500 a month, that should be enough for most couples to live an average lifestyle.
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Jon Lai wrote: Exactly. You can do that easily by simply investing the $1M in a 5% dividend-paying fund or diversified portfolio of stocks, which will pay you $50K or $42.5K after tax (dividends are taxed at 15%) initially, and slowly grow as dividends are increased. Draw down your principal if you really need to.

42K after tax is $3500 a month, that should be enough for most couples to live an average lifestyle.
not sure where you can live in Canada with this amount of money, since it's not indexed. Within 10 years in most local this would be more than half gone in rent alone
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Dec 16, 2012
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mypepsi wrote: if you had $1million, would you move to a low cost country and retire there like living in vietnam or thailand or kenya? you will never have to worry about money again if you move there.
Definitely would consider it especially since my gf is Thai. You don't even need that much, her father said $1000 CDN per month will give you a good life the.
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Mar 18, 2005
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foreigncontent wrote: not sure where you can live in Canada with this amount of money, since it's not indexed. Within 10 years in most local this would be more than half gone in rent alone
There are plenty of places in Canada where that money could work easily.
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Oct 26, 2003
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xiaobao wrote: Definitely would consider it especially since my gf is Thai. You don't even need that much, her father said $1000 CDN per month will give you a good life the.
true for the average person, not old people with lots health related issues
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Dec 16, 2012
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divx wrote: true for the average person, not old people with lots health related issues
Saw tons of retires there, but I doubt if you have lots of health problems you would move anywhere. The trip alone from here to Thailand could kill then.
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Oct 26, 2003
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xiaobao wrote: Saw tons of retires there, but I doubt if you have lots of health problems you would move anywhere. The trip alone from here to Thailand could kill then.
old people gets health issues eventually, stay in canada can help extend their life somewhat
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Dec 13, 2016
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I live in Thailand and I'm 43.

I live well here on less than 30,000 baht a month, but my wife owns a house and I don't have any housing costs whatsoever.

However, I don't see myself being in Thailand when I'm 60. As others have said, healthcare is a big issue and the cost of private hospitals is not cheap. Also almost no one will insure people over 65 here. With 1 million the life in Canada is definitely much better.

Please do remember that a lot of retirees in Thailand would sell their mother, so they can continue their seedy lifestyles and they are definitely not a good source of exaggerated information.

Somewhat unrated, but a lot of Thai women can not be trusted. You will realize that lies are just a way of life here. You absolutely have to adopt to this fact or you will not survive. I live with an educated Thai lady, has a good salary with international company and is literally providing for me (a rarity in these parts), but still there are a lot of "cultural" differences that are sometimes pushing me towards divorce. Some people think oh it's going to be easy in Thailand or Philippines or wherever, but these are 3rd world countries and people behave that way. A lot of foreigners commit suicide because they turn to alcohol and depression.

1 million or 10 million I'd live in Canada and go to cheap countries for vacation.
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Nov 2, 2013
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Kind of knew who the thread creator was already, lol.

Being on topic, obviously it depends on how you live... you can burn $1M in a year easily if you really wanted to. There's been a lot of funny stories of guys in Thailand who "retire" there and then spoil their woman who they want to show their love for... then she runs off.

Even in Canada, you could theoretically engineer the $1M into some positive cashflow investment avenue and live off it. The most common lazy way to do it for those with minimal financial literacy is to buy a bunch of rental condos (low carrying costs, low appreciating). Charge a little below market for your golden tenants so they don't leave. Collect rent cheques and call someone to do the odd repair (or hire some guy to) and call it a day. If you hate people, buy a few select blue chip dividend-paying stocks and collect dividends. If you're crafty, start a "bad credit" auto loan service... lol. Here legally you can charge up to 39% interest. Obviously expected return is significantly lower, but there is usually someone who can financially engineer it to make it work in your favour. We used to know one guy here who made $1.5M net profit doing that in 2014. RFD'er is more financially literate than the average North-American.
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foreigncontent wrote: not sure where you can live in Canada with this amount of money, since it's not indexed. Within 10 years in most local this would be more than half gone in rent alone
This assumes you already have a paid off house, of course. I'm talking about 3500$ a month in living expenses only, except housing.
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Mar 26, 2012
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Why go thousands of miles to find a low cost place to live? It is right in front of you in Ontario: $40,000 for a detached house, excellent govt health care, good fishing and outdoor activities. A gem for the Toronto retirees who cash out their $1M home, and then live on the interests and dividend income.

Some very cheap houses in Manitouwadge, Ontario:
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
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Feb 9, 2009
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fkungery wrote: Why go thousands of miles to find a low cost place to live? It is right in front of you in Ontario: $40,000 for a detached house, excellent govt health care, good fishing and outdoor activities. A gem for the Toronto retirees who cash out their $1M home, and then live on the interests and dividend income.

Some very cheap houses in Manitouwadge, Ontario:
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
Lots of old people hate cold and snow.

Tho you can snowbird 6 months in Florida ... in parts it's quite cheap even with exchange rate:
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fkungery wrote: Why go thousands of miles to find a low cost place to live? It is right in front of you in Ontario: $40,000 for a detached house, excellent govt health care, good fishing and outdoor activities. A gem for the Toronto retirees who cash out their $1M home, and then live on the interests and dividend income.

Some very cheap houses in Manitouwadge, Ontario:
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Sing ... NITOUWADGE
Nice little town with an ice rink, sky hill and 9 hole golf course. That's about it though. I think 3 - 4 hour drive from Thunderbay if I remember correctly.
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Jul 19, 2012
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Why would anyone want to retire in a 3rd world country is beyond me

Crime, poverty, hot weather, culture shock, language, no health care.. etc
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bluenose2 wrote: Why would anyone want to retire in a 3rd world country is beyond me

Crime, poverty, hot weather, culture shock, language, no health care.. etc
Sounds like you never been to koh samui or phuket
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Dec 19, 2007
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I think this is a discussion more and more couples are having given the crazy (paper) gains on property (especially in Toronto and Vancouver).

Friends of ours have not seriously/semi-seriously brought it up given the significant equity they have in multiple properties. Looking at a unit in our building that is smaller, one less bedroom AND bathroom, going for $800k!!!??? Crazy town...

Even with $500k, and even on the younger side of things (say starting in your late 30's), you could "retire" with a dividend paying portfolio with perhaps a small (1-2%) draw down as needed. At that age as well, you'd probably pick up some "digital nomad" work just to keep yourself busy and supplement income.

Chiang Mai, Thailand is often a place that I see where about $1200-1500 Canadian a month will give you a comparable middle/upper middle class life that you'd see in Western countries. That fits in well with a $500k 4% dividend portfolio after taxes.

It's freedom for sure.

EDIT - Here's a recent video, that gives an idea of lifestyle and well under the above budget... https://goo.gl/4ouLYP
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bluenose2 wrote: Why would anyone want to retire in a 3rd world country is beyond me

Crime, poverty, hot weather, culture shock, language, no health care.. etc
Because you can get more bang for your buck and don't dismiss the hot weather as a decisive factor. Yes there is poverty, however in many of these so called third world countries crime rate is not worse if not lower than the one you have in Western metropolitan areas, and usually less violent (mostly petty thieft).
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Mar 30, 2009
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Well given you can live off a million or possibly even somewhat less in Canada provided you have a property with no mortgage on it, then yes you could probably swing it. That said if you have over a million tied up in home equity it might be better to just downsize to a cheap location within Canada (ie not a 1M+ population major urban centre or anywhere in southern Ontario or BC) than to leave the country for one with a lower standard of living.

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