Basic Costs of Living Per Country Lookup Site

[Winston]

The page on Angeles City is way off. 12,000 pesos for utilities? WTF? That's $250. lol. No one pays that in Angeles City, PH. Dumb site.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Angeles

The rent costs are way off too.

Rent Per Month
Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre 11,166.67 ₱ 10,000.00-15,000.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre 11,500.00 ₱ 5,000.00-25,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre 31,500.00 ₱ 12,000.00-65,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre 20,000.00 ₱ 8,000.00-53,000.00

[Yohan]

The page on Angeles City is way off. 12,000 pesos for utilities? WTF? That's $250. lol. No one pays that in Angeles City, PH. Dumb site.

This is likely because some certain people insist on full air-condition day and night in their rented serviced apartments.
In Pattaya some newcomers were surprised and complaining when the electric bill they received was by far over USD 1000,-/monthly

[WilliamSmith]

Not sure which site is best, but this is the one I've used the most while looking at all countries over the past year, and I like it:
https://livingcost.org/

Example country page for Vietnam:
https://livingcost.org/cost/vietnam
They have these nifty infographics


Of course the cost varies a lot between different cities vs more rural areas within countries, but they seem to have good detail by cities as well:
https://livingcost.org/cost/vietnam/da-nang


Also this page here has a list of 197 countries/places all over the world, ranked from most to least expensive:
https://livingcost.org/cost

When I first started looking up some of the lower cost countries that were vastly nicer than the US, some of them sounded too good to be true, but then I looked it up and found actual apartment listings in various countries independently that confirmed how well you can live on only a fraction of the income we need here for comparable apartment that's in a much nastier and more dangerous area.

[gsjackson]

Numbeo is a site that breaks down cost of living in most cities of any size around the world. It's based on data reported by inhabitant of the cities. Lots of places in most every region of the world where you can live reasonably well for under $1k/mo., provided you don't have a lot of debt.

[Yohan]

Not sure which site is best, but this is the one I've used the most while looking at all countries over the past year, and I like it:
https://livingcost.org/
.....
When I first started looking up some of the lower cost countries that were vastly nicer than the US, some of them sounded too good to be true, but then I looked it up and found actual apartment listings in various countries independently that confirmed how well you can live on only a fraction of the income we need here for comparable apartment that's in a much nastier and more dangerous area.

The data of this webpage are fairly realistic, but it's about LOCALS, and not really about foreigners.

We ranked 9294 cities in 197 countries by quality & cost of living (13 factors assessed) to find the 100 best places in the world to live and work for singles and families.
7 indicators are country-specific:
Human Freedom Index (The Cato Institute)
Gross Domestic Product per capita (The World Bank)
GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (The World Bank)
Life expectancy (The World Bank)
Homicide rate (WHO, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
Mortality caused by road traffic injury (The World Bank)
Corruption Perceptions Index (transparency.org)

6 indicators are city-specific:

Average salary (our data)
Average salary divided by cost of living (our data)
Cost of living (our data)
Annual average air quality (iqair.com)
Distance adjusted airports score (ourairports.com)
Distance adjusted universities score (edurank.org)
The last point reflects observation that good cities tend to have good universities.

However of course they cannot offer other important details, which could make a stay for a foreigner considerably more expensive or even impossible:

for example:

Possible medical fees in case you have no health insurance - a local health insurance which is for sure not cheap if it offers a high cover, especially if you are not so young anymore.

Visa requirements, often not such a small amount of money is required as a guarantee money for a long stay permit

How to qualify for a working permit, if you still have to work for a living....

Cheap rent is not everywhere available for foreigners, and often you cannot even buy property, not even a small condominium unit

Locals in some cheap countries are sometimes not foreigner friendly, you might face a lot of criminality and you need to consider additional security, like to live in a guarded village or condominium building.

Political instability, which requires you to be ready to leave quickly anytime.

Foreigners often prefer some foreign food, which has to be imported, expect it much more expensive than in your own Western country


and so on...


Be aware, as a foreigner you will need often more money compared to what you see in this list.

ADVICE, just my opinion, if you live as a foreigner somewhere, even over many years, NEVER bring all your money into this country, never change all your money in a local currency which might be difficult or with high loss to change into another currency. ALWAYS keep a reasonable amount in a banking account in your own country or elsewhere, in case you have to leave quickly - it might be because of medical issues, of political unrest, of natural disasters.. in case you have to move out, you should always know where to go. Keep always an escape route/destination in your mind.

[WilliamSmith]

Thank you @Yohan, those are all very good points.

ADVICE, just my opinion, if you live as a foreigner somewhere, even over many years, NEVER bring all your money into this country, never change all your money in a local currency which might be difficult or with high loss to change into another currency. ALWAYS keep a reasonable amount in a banking account in your own country or elsewhere, in case you have to leave quickly - it might be because of medical issues, of political unrest, of natural disasters.. in case you have to move out, you should always know where to go. Keep always an escape route/destination in your mind.

On that note, do you diversify your own assets outside Japan much or at all?

Just curious since I'm leaning heavily toward going all-in on Japan myself right now, even though they don't allow dual citizenship.

[Yohan]

On that note, do you diversify your own assets outside Japan much or at all?

Yes, I do.

1 - within Japan, in 2 different banks, but all in YEN and also have a condominium unit (50/50 ownership with my Japanese wife), as permanent resident I also have Japanese National Health Insurance for life.

2 - outside of Japan, my retirement allowance is related to my former EU-working contract and is sent monthly to my account in Europe in EURO

3 - I also have a Thai BAHT banking account and a condominium unit (in my name only) in Thailand.

I think, fairly safe situation now for me and wife. Basically 3 places where I can stay, in Europe, in Japan and also in Thailand (but this is more my second home, just for holidays).

[Yohan]

Just curious since I'm leaning heavily toward going all-in on Japan myself right now, even though they don't allow dual citizenship.

In Japan most foreigners are not interested into citizenship. However if you manage to stay in Japan with other visa permits like working permit, marriage, student etc. for 10 to 15 years, you might qualify for permanent resident status, which is almost citizenship (except voting rights, can be deported in case of crimes, cannot buy certain kind of land like forests, rivers, cannot work in government related jobs) but otherwise anywhere in Japan, you can buy your own home including land 100 percent in foreigners name, can operate any general business, no working permit required etc.

You have to report to Immigration only 1 time in 7 years to renew your ID-card.

But people like I myself from Europe are only few in Japan, many try it but leave after a few years because of various reasons.
All foreigners I know who prefer to stay permanently in Japan have Japanese family similar to myself.
For sure Japan is not a place which is suitable for every foreigner.

If there is anything you want to know about Japan, ask me anytime, I am living in Japan (Tokyo and Okayama) since more than 40 years.
I am originally from Europe, no relationship to the USA.

[WilliamSmith]

In Japan most foreigners are not interested into citizenship. However if you manage to stay in Japan with other visa permits like working permit, marriage, student etc. for 10 to 15 years, you might qualify for permanent resident status, which is almost citizenship (except voting rights, can be deported in case of crimes, cannot buy certain kind of land like forests, rivers, cannot work in government related jobs) but otherwise anywhere in Japan, you can buy your own home including land 100 percent in foreigners name, can operate any general business, no working permit required etc.

You have to report to Immigration only 1 time in 7 years to renew your ID-card.

But people like I myself from Europe are only few in Japan, many try it but leave after a few years because of various reasons.
All foreigners I know who prefer to stay permanently in Japan have Japanese family similar to myself.
For sure Japan is not a place which is suitable for every foreigner.

If there is anything you want to know about Japan, ask me anytime, I am living in Japan (Tokyo and Okayama) since more than 40 years.
I am originally from Europe, no relationship to the USA.

Thank you very much for this. I personally am one of the ones interested in full citizenship (I'm working on crawling through a translation of the materials from the Ministry of Justice to get it figured out), but this is all good to know.
I was shocked when a Chinese businessman made me aware of how Japan has opened itself to immigration more than ever before in recent years, and it was Japanese people who pointed out how surprisingly easy it has become for foreigners to naturalize to Japanese.
This worries me (understatement) for Japan's sake, but for the purpose of escaping the disaster area I'm living in now, it's the brightest prospect I know of.
Anyway, I hope you and your family all stay very happy in Okayama.