Retirees are moving overseas in record numbers.
While the precise number of Americans living outside the US in retirement is hard to pin down, roughly 700,000 receive Social Security benefits abroad, up more than 20% in a dozen years, according to the Social Security Administration.
“The rising costs for retirees in the US are motivating people to look beyond our borders,” Jennifer Stevens, executive editor of the International Living’s 2026 Annual Global Retirement Index, told Yahoo Finance. “In the better-value locales abroad, your dollars can really stretch. The savings for healthcare, in particular, are significant.”
When Jeff and Joch Woodruff decided to relocate to northern Portugal in retirement, it wasn’t a rash move. Their pick was triggered by fond memories of past trips to the country, talks with friends and family who had spent time in the region, and then a long visit to explore with an eye toward taking the leap.
Six years ago, the couple sold their four-bedroom home near Sacramento, Calif., and spent six months living in a tiny studio apartment in the Bonfim district of Porto.
“It all clicked,” Joch said. They purchased a condo three blocks from the Atlantic Ocean and settled in. “We’ve adopted cats, made rich friendships, and have built a community.”
The impetus for heading to a foreign land: lower cost of living, slower pace, different lifestyle, and more recently, a calmer political milieu.
According to an International Living survey, more than six in 10 Americans said today’s political climate in the US has made them more likely to move abroad.
About one in five Americans said they would like to leave the US and move permanently to another country if they could, according to a Gallup report.
Across demographic groups, Americans with lower confidence in institutions such as the government, judicial system, military, and integrity of elections are consistently more likely to express a desire to leave the country, according to the research.
For the Woodruffs, it was a quest for less stress, new experiences, and a lower cost of living. “Our monthly budget is now a fraction — nearly one-fourth — of what we spent in California,” Joch said.
The increasing cost of out-of-pocket healthcare for retirees in the US, in particular, is a motivator for relocating, Stevens said. If you move to a foreign country, your Medicare coverage won’t work, so the quality and cost of healthcare where you end up is paramount.
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