Retiring In Buenos Aires

[Rich One]

Store your stuff in the US and come here as a permatourist, rent a furnished studio for a few months, then decide. Bring plenty of 100 dolllar bills.

 

[TomAtAlki]

We are retired here....sortof. We are here 6 months +/- and elsewhere 6 months and are loving this life. If you own a place the costs are extremely low. Utilities, transportation, living is cheap. Even though there is great inflation, when I came here the US$ was 3 to 1, now it's 12 To 1 so I have kept up with inflation. I/we love our time here. It all depends on your circumstances. Happy to talk off forum (private message) if you want.

Tom

 

[gpop]

dont go to panama

How come?

 

[Sockhopper]

Wow! When we were a month away from retiring in BA as new pensionistas in April/12 and arranging for movers to come, we were told by the Argentine Embassy that so long as all our furniture and belongings arrived there within the first 6 months we'd owe NO duties whatsoever on them! (Our plan was to become permanent residents living there forever because we couldn't afford to keep on moving overseas now that we'd be living on a fixed income.)

We were already prepared as well to transfer most of our pensions (required) to an Arg bank account monthly. Ironically, it was the spate of horrible financial restrictions at that time which we must actually thank (!!) for cancelling that major move at the last minute and to move, instead to France which seemed so odd to us to be doing because Argentina was our goal.

Since then, my husband and I keep coming across new facts one at a time that hit us with what truly desperate straits we'd have put ourselves in had there been no financial restrictions legislated and our Arg plan had succeeded! Now with Steve's explanation, we know that we couldn't have even paid massive duties or the daily storage fees and a bond on our shipment. We'd not have even had a bed or been able to cook right when we'd have had no home anywhere to retun to. At least in France, bureaucrats are trained properly to tell you in time what you need to do.

Thanks, Steve.

 

[sergio]

Wise move, Sockhopper. France is not without its problems though. Lots of taxes under the current socialist govt that may affect you but you will be in France. If your goal was to reduce costs, though, isnt it going to be more expendive there?

 

[Sockhopper]

Sergio, had you asked me this about living in England, I'd say, 'no way! I will never be able to afford to live there again!" France is different. It depends vey much on where you choose to live in France and your lifestyle goal. We came here wanting to live like ordinary French people. Retraining our brains to be persistently patient no matter what and to trust that things would get done eventually (and have done!); and speaking only French even when you sweat bullets to communicate on super-technical and vital matters are actually additional forms of hard currency here! Without making ourselves do those 3 things, we'd have been relegated forever to the expensive expats' lifestyle which we can't afford and don't want or need. Since our top 3 or so priorities happened to be things enjoyed by ordinary locals here, are things unavailable in Canada, and some of which are similar to things that would have been available to us in BA, it's definitely been worth our moving here. We know that from the moment we awake each day.

What makes money tight for us certainly isn't France's taxation, its national and municipal publicly paid social services nor the philosophy that underpins them! What has hurt us are the 20% drop in the value of the $CAD against the euro over just 15 months and Canada's punitive tax regime if you dare to become a non-resident when you're not wealthy. Before those things kicked in, living here was actually 5% less costly than where we were in Canada. Nobody should rely on that or any pat comparative figure.

Despite all the planning and work we did and still are, I think more than I previously ever did that relocating is a bit of a crap shoot. Countries that used to be horrifically expensive now cost less and vice versa. It depends on which country you're leaving and which one you're going to and exactly when. The worst, I think, are all the changes in law, politics and social thinking that occur and so rapidly alter the relation between the 2 (or more) countries that govern how a given individual can live or not.