The Numbers Point to Portugal for Fabulous Foreign Retirement

This year my younger brother Al plans to retire. He has something like 40 years working for the Social Security Administration in North Dakota, where he has lived his entire life.  That's 65 years of severe North Dakota winters. Chances of him retiring somewhere else? At least 472 percent! He loves golf, so going somewhere he can play more than five months a year makes sense.

Maybe you are in a similar circumstance. You want to retire somewhere your money will last the longest and provide the best quality of life. But where to go?

According to  International Living magazine's 2020 list, Portugal comes in at No. 1 of the best places to retire abroad, moving up from seventh place last year.

Why Portugal? High marks for quality health care, a reasonable cost of living and the ease with which you can fit into life there. International Living estimates that a couple could live a good life in Portugal on $2,200 a month. That's for a couple. The Social Security Administration says the average payment for an American receiving Social Security is $1,294 a month, so a husband wife team taking home the combined average of $2,588 should do just fine. And they love to play golf in Portugal, too. Check out the Top 100 courses in the country.

The magazine ranked the countries by asking its correspondents and experts in 24 countries to rate them based on factors including housing, benefits/discounts, visas/residency, ease of fitting in, development, climate, health care, governance and cost of living.

Read more details here -- and check out the rankings below:

1. Portugal
2. Panama
3. Costa Rica
4. Mexico
5. Colombia
6. Ecuador
7. Malaysia
8. Spain
9. France
10. Vietnam