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<\/p>\n\n Unless you already have dual citizenship or own a home in another country, retiring abroad may not be quite as easy as all the beautiful photos and home-and-travel shows make it seem.\n <\/p>\n
\n Whether you\u2019re motivated to live in another country for cost-of-living, quality-of-life or political reasons, there are many practical financial issues to consider before making the move.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou need to do your due diligence,\u201d said New Jersey-based certified financial planner Leo Chubinishvili at Access Wealth.\n <\/p>\n
\n Whichever country you\u2019re interested in, live there for a month or two before making any big moves. The last thing you want is to go through a lengthy legal and administrative process only to realize you don\u2019t actually like living in the place you chose. Or you don\u2019t feel welcome as a new immigrant.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI personally recommend staying in an Airbnb for a month where you have to fend for yourself as a local to see if that is something you\u2019re happy doing,\u201d said Adalberto Pucca, who is head of global mobility services at Global Citizen Solutions, which helps people in more than 40 countries make the move to another nation.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Once you find a country you like, it might take anywhere from six months to two years to finalize the essential financial, legal and administrative matters.\n <\/p>\n
\n That time will be spent doing research, consulting tax and other professionals, securing a visa, finding housing, setting up your finances and making sure you have the requisite type of health coverage once abroad. It also accounts for any delays in processing that you might encounter.\n <\/p>\n
Research visa and residency requirements<\/p>\n
\n A key organizing principle during that preparation time will be the type of visa you\u2019re seeking and whether your end goal is to get temporary or permanent residency status or seek citizenship.\n <\/p>\n
\n There are typically two visa types that might be a fit for US retirees, depending on your circumstances, Pucca noted.\n <\/p>\n
\n In many countries, the first type is a retiree visa, or a passive income visa, for which you will need to prove that your assets (savings and investments) can throw off at least the minimum required income to support yourself. That minimum is set by the host country. Note, however, if you\u2019re also planning to derive some income from working remotely for a US company, find out if earning active income from abroad is permitted under the rules of the visa you\u2019re applying for, Pucca said.\n <\/p>\n
\n (Here is GCS\u2019 2025 global retirement index<\/a>, which compiles different countries\u2019 minimum income and other eligibility requirements. The organization also breaks out a list of the top 10 countries for US retirees<\/a> in terms of \u201cbalancing affordability, healthcare access, lifestyle perks, and ease of integration.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n \n The second category is a so-called golden visa, which offers you residency or even citizenship in some places in exchange for a minimum required investment \u2014 whether by buying real estate in the country where you want to move, investing in other assets or entities in the country or even making a large deposit in a national bank.\n <\/p>\n \n The terms for golden visas are usually more flexible than a retiree visa \u2014 for instance, they typically have very low- to no-minimum-stay rules, Pucca said. Such minimum investment requirements might range from $250,000 to $1 million or more. (Here is the latest GCS list on the top 18 countries<\/a> offering a golden visa.)\n <\/p>\n \n Even if you have paid in to Medicare your entire career, it will not subsidize your care in another country.\n <\/p>\n \n So, find out what is required to be eligible for care through the national health care system of the country you choose, or whether you need to purchase private international health insurance.\n <\/p>\n \n If, like many expats, you plan to come back to the United States frequently \u2014 or even move back at some point \u2014 you\u2019re likely to get some of your medical care in the United States. That\u2019s why Chubinishvili recommends, if possible, keeping up your monthly payments for Medicare Part B<\/a>, which subsidizes costs for non-hospital care \u2014 such as doctor visits, preventative care, tests, home health services and medical equipment.\n <\/p>\n \n Keep in mind, too, if you don\u2019t sign up for Medicare when you\u2019re first eligible, the Social Security Administration, which processes your application for the program, notes<\/a> that \u201cif you do so at a later date, you will pay a 10% higher premium for each 12-month period you could have been enrolled but were not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lastly, research the quality of medical care in your chosen destination because if it\u2019s below par, you should budget for money to pay for the care you\u2019ll seek in the United States.\n <\/p>\n \n You can receive Social Security benefits while abroad, depending where you live. In 2024, the agency reported that nearly 712,000 people were receiving Social Security benefits abroad, of which more than 463,000 were retired workers.\n <\/p>\n \n The Social Security Administration offers details here<\/a> about what is involved, and offers a \u201cpayments abroad screening tool\u201d<\/a> to let you know if the agency is allowed to send benefits directly to the country where you\u2019ll be living.\n <\/p>\n Check with your US-based banks and brokerage firms<\/p>\n \n While you may decide to open a bank account and brokerage account in the country where you move, Chubinishvili recommends his clients also keep their US-based bank and brokerage accounts as well as their 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs.\n <\/p>\n \n But, well before you leave, find out from each institution housing your accounts what their rules and requirements are for customers who move abroad. Ask about everything from the consequences of changing your address to rules governing whether and how you can make transactions from abroad. Or, if you have a financial adviser, how that person may do so in your stead. Also see what services they offer to transfer money from your US-based accounts to ones you open up abroad, and what, if any, costs are associated with them.\n <\/p>\n \n Both Pucca and Chubinishvili recommend having two certified public accountants who can work together on your behalf: one based in the United States and one based in the country where you\u2019re going.\n <\/p>\n \n Why? Because it is complicated to figure out the intersection of US tax laws and those of other countries \u2014 and whether the country you\u2019re going to has a tax treaty with the United States.\n <\/p>\n \n Having professional advice about each tax system can help you avoid inadvertently being double taxed on some types of income, savings or investments. Plus, a CPA will keep you up to speed on your tax reporting requirements since you may be required to fill out two returns \u2014 one to the IRS and one to the tax authority in the country where you relocate. And the CPA will make sure, if necessary, that you fill out a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR)<\/a> for the IRS. It\u2019s a listing of your foreign financial accounts (eg, banks, brokerages and mutual funds). And failure to file or filing late can bring big penalties.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unless you already have dual citizenship or own a home in another country, retiring abroad may not be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-200316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-1868363135-20251008142509403.jpg\")
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