# Cost for an American to comfortably retire in every State and Country
**URL:** https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898
**Category:** Coffee
**Created:** [February 26, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898 "2023-02-26T16:31:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Luk\_nuts](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Luk_nuts)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/1 "2023-02-26T16:31:09Z")
Hi,
I just stumbled across this post.
I share the assumptions made about cost of living in advance:
To calculate the cost of a comfortable retirement for an American in every country and U.S. state, we pulled living costs from [Numbeo](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/) and applied the following calculations:
- The retirement calculations were based on the average American retirement age of 61 years, according to [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/162560/average-retirement-age.aspx), and the average American life expectancy of 76.15 years, according to the [CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20220831.htm).
- There are 181.8 months between the average retirement age and average life expectancy. So the monthly living costs in a country or state were multiplied by 181.8 to determine the retirement cost.
The monthly cost of living figures we calculated using the following assumptions:
- Members of your household = one
- Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants = 15%, Choosing inexpensive restaurants = 70%
- Drinking coffee outside your home = moderate
- Going out = once per week
- Smoking = no, Alcoholic beverages = moderate
- At home, we are eating = Western
- Driving car = moderate, Taking taxi = no
- Public transport = two round trips weekly
- Sports memberships = all household members
- Vacation and travel = two per year
- Buying clothes and shoes = moderate
- Rent = apartment (one bedroom) in city center
- No children
All currencies are USD. The data was collected in October 2022.
[The Cost for an American to Comfortably Retire in Every State and Country - NetCredit Blog](https://www.netcredit.com/blog/cost-of-retirement/)
* * *
What are we thinking?
I personally think it’s quite interesting to compare the different countries, even though most people here probably want to retire before the age of 61.
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### Author:  [@FunnyDjo](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/FunnyDjo)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/2 "2023-02-26T16:43:10Z")
I will say some American are looking at other places to be able to retire or have a more confortable lifestyle.
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### Author:  [@Luk\_nuts](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Luk_nuts)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/3 "2023-02-26T16:53:03Z")
> [@Luk\_nuts](#):
>
> he retirement calculations were based on the average American retirement age of 61 years, according to [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/162560/average-retirement-age.aspx), and the average American life expectancy of 76.15 years
Just realized this:
76 years is the US life expectancy _at birth_. But once you are 61 years old, it should be well over 80 years.
So IMHO those calculated numbers are far too low.
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### Author:  [@Dr.PI](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Dr.PI)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/4 "2023-02-26T20:22:42Z")
Sooo… who is planning to move to Pakistan after retirement?
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### Author:  [@hippo](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/hippo)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/5 "2023-02-26T20:50:33Z")
Find it very hard to believe that Singapore would cost more to retire in than Switzerland. Although, I guess Switzerland in their assumptions includes some cheaper rural areas while Singapore is all city.
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### Author:  [@Luk\_nuts](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Luk_nuts)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/6 "2023-02-26T21:05:29Z")
> [@Luk\_nuts](#):
>
> Rent = apartment (one bedroom) in city center
But I guess it could be the city center of Schaffhausen. 🙂
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### Author:  [@San\_Francisco](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/San_Francisco)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/7 "2023-02-27T00:10:47Z")
Is Vietnam more expensive Poland? Possibly for western food.
Then again, is _Japan_ cheaper than Uruguay or about the same (only 2% more) as _Portugal_ or _Iran_!?
Take it with a grain of salt, they say.
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### Author:  [@ma0](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/ma0)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 8:40am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/8 "2023-02-27T08:40:31Z")
I was ready to bash numbeo, but I checked their swiss numbers and they don’t seem that bad. They seems to be on the cheap side, at least for the totals.
I’m sure somewhere they mention how they calculated those totals. I suppose it’s missing the compulsory health insurance.
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### Author:  [@Patirou](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Patirou)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/9 "2023-02-27T10:49:24Z")
> [@San\_Francisco](#):
>
> Is Vietnam more expensive Poland? Possibly for western food.
> Then again, is _Japan_ cheaper than Uruguay or about the same (only 2% more) as _Portugal_ or _Iran_!?
Thing is that in those countries you have basically 2 parallel societies. You can spend as much for food and clothing in India than in cheap western european countries, but you can also spend only 20% of those costs, you just need to know where.
And having experienced it myself, the basic expat is rather going for the high end part (not necessarly in quality, but in price - the best food I had in India was mostly of the cheaper nature).
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### Author:  [@Luk\_nuts](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Luk_nuts)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 10:56am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/10 "2023-02-27T10:56:39Z")
> [@Patirou](#):
>
> Thing is that in those countries you have basically 2 parallel societies.
Good point. Same applies for Colombia and I suppose for many more countries.
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### Author:  [@Brndete](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/Brndete)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 11:11am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/11 "2023-02-27T11:11:05Z")
> [@hippo](#):
>
> Find it very hard to believe that Singapore would cost more to retire in than Switzerland.
Appartments are very expensive in Singapore and often targeted to expats. Many locals rely on state-subsidized housing. Day-to-day live is cheaper.
> [@San\_Francisco](#):
>
> Is Vietnam more expensive Poland? Possibly for western food.
Propably they define US standards or basket of goods you would expect such shifts. There was or still is a cost comparison by Mercer and besides the international business hubs there cities in Nigeria or Angola amongst the most expensive one.
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### Author:  [@San\_Francisco](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/u/San_Francisco)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://forum.mustachianpost.com/t/cost-for-an-american-to-comfortably-retire-in-every-state-and-country/9898/12 "2023-02-27T11:40:16Z")
> [@Brndete](#):
>
> Propably they define US standards or basket of goods you would expect such shifts
Probably - and I was also aware of the high cost of „expat live“ in African countries. That said, I can’t wrap my head around these examples, particularly Japan. Whether we discount Tokyo/Kyoto metropolitan area cost of living or not…