Yes, you need to do your research. I have now lived in 4 foreign countries.
For instance, I spent a fair amount of time in Colombia because I had a nice GF there. But you can only stay 180 days a year in Colombia on a tourist visa, no exceptions -- and you can't fix this with border runs. The investor visa options are $200K in real estate, or $100K to start some kind of business with a plan approved by the immigration authorities. The pension requirements were about $1000/month as of about 2 years ago. As an early retiree, you probably won't have a pension -- I don't plan to take Social Security until I am 70.
Ecuador changed their tourist visa to 90 days per year, maximum, due to soaring crime and becoming a haven for international criminals (can't be fixed with border runs). Their permanent resident requirements are not so bad, though. Like Venezuela, crime is out of control there and I would not consider it.
Thailand is nice, but you must be over 50 to qualify for the retirement visa, but otherwise reasonable (around 800K baht in a Thai bank account for a retirement visa, topped up well before renewal time). When I was there I was under 50 (and still am! lol), so I couldn't really stay full-time, they have gotten strict about tourist visa runs.
Mexico and Philippines both have ways of staying full-time that are pretty easy for expats, including those under 50 like myself. I just got back from living in Mazatlan, Mexico, also visited Billy and Akaisha in Chapala, and am headed back to the Philippines in a couple of weeks. I will be in Cebu starting February 1, so hit me up if you are there. I am in the USA visiting family for Christmas, my first Christmas with family in 5 years, although I have come back to the USA to visit family twice each year since I retired almost 5 years ago.
It all depends on what you are looking for, where your friends are, how close you want to be to family, etc. There are a lot of tradeoffs. I tend to spend less money in the USA than any country that I travel to . . . I also find the USA to be a very cold weather country but many people don't feel that way. I even goggled studies on this to try to find out why Americans seem to like cold weather so much, lol.