Retire in Luxury Abroad: 10 Best Foreign Cities for Retirees on a Budget of $5,000 a Month

For many retirees, living abroad is a luxury they can’t afford. With the average Social Security check paying just $1,840.27 per month to retired workers, most of the well-known cities in foreign countries are simply out of reach.

But for those that draw $5,000 or more in monthly retirement income, the world is open for business. Even cities that are commonly listed among the most expensive in the world can be affordable at that income level, and most offer a high quality of life filled with luxury goods and services that many retirees would enjoy, on top of amenities ranging from more spacious homes to beaches, parks, cultural events and more.

To determine just which cities fit the bill, GOBankingRates sourced data from a number of sources, including Bscholarly’s Most Luxurious Cities in the World, Celebrity Cruises’s Luxury Cities in the World, Travel+Leisure’s Best Places to Travel in 2023, and PassionBuz’s Expensive Luxurious Cities. Cities were then cross-referenced with real-world data from Numbeo’s Cost of Living and Quality of Life, which provided information on how expensive each city was and how it ranked in terms of quality-of-life metrics like safety, pollution, climate, health care, traffic and so on. Safety and climate received weightings of 1.5 each, while all other metrics received a weighting of 1.0. 

Take a look at the 10 best foreign cities to retire on $5,000, listed in reverse order.