Bad Economy Pushes Retirees to Mexico

[ExploringMEXretirement]

Did any of you see the segment on ABC World News On Jan. 27, "Retire in Style South of the Border"? From the story, it's surprising how inexpensively folks can live in Mexico on a limited budget. ABC profiled a couple living in San Miguel de Allende, who have household help (not medical attention) for around $100USD/week. It also showed a Mexican entrepreneur who is building a nursing home there. Makes sense to me.

Like so many readers of this forum, I followed it from my office for moths before I retired last October. And I had the same question: "can I afford to retire?" Once I made my decision, and since I'd been thinking about it for over a year, I leased out my townhouse, sold virtually all my belongings, and hit the road to Mexico. From my experiences, and from talking with dozens and dozens of retired American expats down here, you can live nicely on $2,000/month (individual). Since I've been all over Mexico, in more than 16 cities, I've seen the "fancy" (San Miguel, Ajijic) and the "economical" (Ixtapan de la Sal, Mazatlan). Clearly, one's budgeting is different depending on where you live.
After viewing the ABC News story, though, it strikes me that more and more Americans approaching retirement will take a look at the U.S. economic situation and will at least explore a Mexican retirement. The current peso/dollar exchange rate is the most favorable in months--if not years--at approximately 14 pesos to the dollar. Even though I haven't chosen one town to settle in yet, I'm managing to keep expenses quite low.