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    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

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    Oct. 15-17, 2025

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  • Home
  • Countries

    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

    Global Living

    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

    Upcoming Events

    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    LEARN MORE
    DISCOUNT
    LEARN MORE
    PRE-REGISTER
    LEARN MORE
    PRE-REGISTER
    • MORE EVENTS

    Contact Our Events Team

    Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
    1 (888) 627 8834
    From Outside North America:
    1 (443) 599 1221
    Working Hours
    Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

    Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

  • Store

    Unlock The World

    • Access Your Library

    Overseas Havens Reports

    • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

    Conference Kits

    • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

    Lahardan Books

    • Titles on living and investing around the world
    • Explore Our Store
    Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

    Services

    overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
    The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
    Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

    Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

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Home Countries Europe

The Cost Of Living In Europe Is Lower Than You Think

8 Places You Could Live In Europe On US$1,500 Per Month Or Less

by Kathleen Peddicord
Oct 10, 2021
in Europe
0 0
Varenna, small town on lake Como, Italy

Adobe Stock/Alexandr Mitiuc

It’s true…

Europe doesn’t offer the same shoestring bargain lifestyle options that you can find in Latin America or Asia.

However, it is possible (and I say this based on decades of personal experience) to live in the Old World on a budget that qualifies as highly affordable.

In fact, Lief and I have found that our cost of living is greater when we’re in Panama than it is when we’re in Paris.

How can that be?

Paris is the most beautiful, most romantic city in the world. It’s also a place where your cost of living can be hugely variable and highly controllable.

In Paris, we live happily car-free, walking nearly everywhere we want to go. The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the wine shop, a half-dozen busy cafés, and as many lovely parks and gardens are all less than a 15-minute walk from our apartment.

And we’re not in a unique situation. This is true no matter where you choose to base yourself in this city.

When you want to venture beyond your quartier, the Métro will transport you from restaurant to nightclub, from museum to café for less than US$2 (when you buy your tickets in a carnet of 10).

France boasts perhaps the world’s best infrastructure, and it’s a bargain. Cable TV, internet, and telephone, as well as the Métro, the bus, and the RER train system… all are likely less costly than comparable services where you’re living now.

Our phone plan in Paris costs less than 40 euros per month and allows unlimited calls anytime to anywhere in Europe and to anywhere in the United States… free.

That’s hard to beat. And, to return to my opening comparative analysis, cheaper than in Panama.

My point is not that you should plan to move to Paris to reduce your cost of living.

It is possible, in fact, to do that, but that’s not the typical agenda where Paris is concerned.

My point is that you shouldn’t deny or delay your dreams of la vie française… or of a new life anywhere else across the Continent… because you’re worried you can’t afford them.

We lived in Paris for four years, with two children, and I’m here to tell you that we were able to control our costs within a very reasonable budget.

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And, no question (if you ask me), living in Europe, you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck.

All of my favorite things are here in abundance—old cities and old buildings… bookstores and wine shops… cafés and markets… castles and gardens…

The food, the wine, the healthy living, the sights and sounds, the history, the beaches, the islands, the Alps…

These are lifestyles that are impossible to enjoy anywhere else in the world.

And, in seven of our favorite countries in Europe, you can enjoy any or all of the above on a budget of as little as US$1,500 per month… or even less.

Your housing cost is by far your biggest expense when living abroad, including in Europe.

But, in the places I have in mind, your rent could be cheaper than back home:

Rippling sea by village of Carvoeiro, Algarve, Portugal.
Alamy/Utterström Photography
  • Seaside apartments of 110 square meters (easily big enough for two bedrooms) regularly list for 500 euros to 700 euros a month (less than US$900)… and hillside village apartments a little farther inland go for 300 euros to 550 euros…

 

  • In one place we love, a four-bedroom house close to a golf course and with stunning sea views has a price tag of 850 euros a month…
  • Panoramiv view of Portofino, is an Italian fishing village, Genoa province, Italy.
    Alamy/Anton Ivanov

    What about cosmopolitan living on the Mediterranean? Our top pick here has a listing for a tidy two-bedroom, minutes from the beach, for 778 euros a month… and a studio in the quaint historic city center goes for 650 euros…

 

Prefer To Buy?

You might not believe the kinds of properties that can be available to you in Europe’s best-bargain destinations…

Occitanie, France
Adobe Stock/Unclesam
  • An 80-square-meter condo with two bedrooms, a terrace, and views of the Adriatic Sea for 200,000 euros… and you can rent it out for at least 600 euros a week when you’re not around…
  • A fully restored 100-year-old, three-bedroom house built from stone, with two vaulted-ceiling cantinas (cellars)—not far from the sea and near the ski slopes—for 115,000 euros…

 

Dodecanese islands, Greece
iStock/Vladislav Zolotov
  • With citrus, olive, and carob orchards, and some of the most unique beaches in the world all nearby… you can grab studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments from 70,000 euros to 100,000 euros in our number-one pick for overseas retirement in the world…

All of this is only a sample.

In fact, you have many options for living well “on the cheap” in Europe.

You just need help finding them.

That’s where we come in, of course.

How can you embrace the best quality of life this world of ours has to offer… even if your budget is more that of a pensioner than a prince?

Addressing that question will be a focus for the discussions for our Second Annual Live And Invest In Europe Virtual Conference kicking off this Tuesday.

If you’re registered and planning to join us online, I can’t wait to engage in what will be a fun and rewarding four days exploring the best of Europe together.

See you there.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

Tags: 'cost of living''France'cost of living in europeEuropelife in europeliving in EuropeMove to EuropePanamaParis
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has reported on opportunities for Americans to live, retire, and do business overseas for 40 years. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 24, established businesses in 7, renovated and built properties in 6, and educated her children in 5.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets from the east coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland, then to Paris, France, and finally to Panama City, Panama, where she has based her Live And Invest Overseas business. Peddicord and her husband, Lief Simon, now divide their time between Panama and Paris.

Peddicord was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. She opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Waterford, Ireland; Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France. Peddicord launched Live And Invest Overseas group in 2008 and has built it into a successful multimillion-dollar business. Today, she shares her firsthand experience of expat life with more than 500,000 readers of her publications, including Overseas Opportunity Letter and Overseas Living Letter.

Kathleen has been featured often in The New York Times, MSNBC, AARP, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and more and writes monthly about expat matters, international real estate, and offshore diversification for Forbes and U.S. News.

Kathleen has written several books including the memoirs “At Home In Ireland” and “At Home At Los Islotes” and her latest title “At Home Abroad,” all published by Lahardan Books. Her best-selling "How To Retire Overseas: Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad” was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and her “Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)” was published by Wiley in August 2020.

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Top Countries

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Panama
  • Belize
  • Colombia
  • Cyprus
  • Mexico
  • France
  • Montenegro

Best For:

  • Health Care Abroad
  • Retirement Living
  • Cost Of Living
  • Investing in Real Estate
  • Establishing Residency
  • Gun Ownership
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  • Safety
BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

Resources

Global Living

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Meet Our Experts

Real Estate

Overseas Property Alert 

 

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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

READ MORE

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Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

EXPLORE

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LEARN MORE
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Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

Store

Overseas Havens Reports

  • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

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  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

Lahardan Books

  • Titles on living and investing around the world

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