00:00Today on Forbes, the best places to retire abroad in 2024.
00:07Colleen Kennedy is a child of Southern California.
00:11Born, raised, and educated there,
00:13she spent most of her professional life as a high school special education teacher in Manhattan Beach,
00:18a tiny enclave wedged between Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.
00:22She says, quote,
00:24I love Southern California.
00:27So where did the divorced 65-year-old mother of three grown children decide to settle for retirement?
00:33Spain.
00:35Earlier this month, she moved from Los Angeles to Mijas Costa,
00:39along the Costa del Sol west of Marbella,
00:42to a rented apartment just a 10-minute walk from the Mediterranean.
00:46Despite the region's swank reputation,
00:49she figures her basic cost of living there will be a third of what it was in Los Angeles.
00:54In L.A., she rented an apartment in the working-class San Pedro neighborhood near the beach and the port.
01:00It cost about twice as much as her new Spanish digs.
01:03Plus, in the U.S., she paid to keep a car,
01:06which she won't need in Mijas Costa,
01:08thanks to mass transit and stores that are within walking distance.
01:12She'll also be able to make frequent, more affordable trips to other European countries by train.
01:18She says, quote,
01:19My money will go so much further.
01:22Kennedy picked Spain after seven years of methodical research
01:25and a two-month trip to the Iberian Peninsula in 2022 to check it out.
01:30She's learning Spanish via Zoom from another retired teacher who taught the language and has also retired there.
01:37At last count, there were 701,000 U.S. Social Security recipients living abroad,
01:43up 20% over a decade.
01:45Most Americans stay in the U.S. for retirement,
01:48but an impressive 85% of Americans 65 and older have traveled abroad,
01:53and the U.S. dollar is at its strongest level since the 1980s,
01:57making both foreign travel and a foreign retirement more affordable.
02:02Moreover, in today's polarized political atmosphere,
02:05there's lots of talk about moving abroad,
02:07particularly if the perceived wrong side wins the presidential election.
02:12In a recent poll, a record 34% of Americans said they'd leave the U.S. if they could,
02:18with young folks the most likely to pine for a change of country.
02:22Yet even 17% of those 55 and older said they'd like to move abroad,
02:26and they're the ones who are the most able to do so,
02:29since many countries welcome those with enough money to live without taking a local job.
02:34Kennedy, for example, submitted the paperwork for a non-lucrative residence visa,
02:39including proof she had pension income of at least $30,000 a year,
02:43at Spain's Los Angeles consulate, and was approved for it in just 15 days.
02:49It doesn't allow her to work in Spain, but it could lead to permanent residency there in five years.
02:55Whether you're looking for lower costs, attractive scenery,
02:58a change in lifestyle and culture, or a political escape hatch,
03:02moving to another country requires extensive research.
03:06To get you started, Forbes has compiled our list of the best places to retire abroad.
03:11In 2024, we recommend 96 places in 24 different countries on four continents, with five on islands.
03:20It's our first foreign retirement list since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020,
03:25and our first that takes into account climate change and natural hazard risk abroad.
03:30This is a consideration that Forbes has been incorporating into our domestic best places list for five years.
03:36Other issues we considered in making our picks include cost of living,
03:40ease of getting permission to stay in a country, taxes, health care quality and costs,
03:46returning to see relatives, which can be a long slog,
03:49crime and political instability, and social isolation,
03:53especially if English isn't widely spoken and you're not fluent in the dominant language.
03:58Our list includes countries from all around the world,
04:01from Albania to Costa Rica, Greece to Indonesia, Portugal to Uruguay.
04:06For full coverage and to see the whole list, check out William P. Barrett's piece on Forbes.com.
04:14This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.
04:28Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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