Where to spend your Dolce Vita?
What is the Dolce Vita?
It is a life of heedless pleasure and luxury
And that's what we should expect if we become financially independent, perhaps already at 40, 45 or 50. Or maybe not 😕. See here to understand what you need to calculate to retire earlier.
Anyway,
Today let's see where to spend our early retirement.
That is, let's actually see how to figure out where to go.
Premise # 1:
I would like to stay in Europe despite wanting to travel a lot. I believe that every continent has its own mentality and, although I would like to know them all, I would like to stay in a place with familiar habits.
Premise # 2:
We will not come to the conclusion of which is the best country of all, but we will try to find the winners based on 5 criteria:
Crime
Health Care
Climate
Cost of life
special taxation regimes
I have crossed various studies and tables that I will put at the bottom of this post so that you can make your own idea.
Ok so let's start with the best countries for low crime rates:
Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Iceland and Croatia
In general, the countries of northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula do not have serious crime problems. Already more problematic are the countries to the east and south.
Then we have the healthcare sector:
France, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland. Apart from Spain they are very expensive countries. In general, large economies in Europe have good primary care doctors and health care. Furthermore, European citizens can be treated in any other country and receive free hospitalization for 90 days a year.
Climate, including pollution, is another aspect to consider when counting the climate changes underway.
Portugal, the Netherlands, Croatia, Denmark and Spain are the masters.
Now we come to the cost of living, very important to know how much we can afford to retire.
Here we find mainly the eastern countries:
Belarus, Ukraine, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Romania, Serbia
Unfortunately they are also the worst according to the other factors of this ranking, so I would not recommend you to go unless you have just a little to live with and you are prepared.
And last but not least we see European countries with special permits for people moving from abroad.
Portugal with its NHR system
Bulgaria with its 10% income tax rate (5% on dividends)
Small states, such as Andorra, Monaco, Malta, etc … which have low income taxes, but are not part of the European Union.
Where will I spend my Dolce Vita?
Probably in Portugal or Spain because I like the heat and are well connected with the rest of the world. Also they are 2 large states with a good quality of food (you can tell I'm Italian).
I think I would not go to a big city like the capitals, but neither to a small one, besides I would like an airport and the sea nearby.
For now I would say that Faro, in the Algarve region or surroundings is quite good and meets my standards, but in the future things could change and I could make other predictions.
-Narrator
Bonus link:
Numbeo Quality of Life by Country in Europe: I love this site
Best Eu countries for retirement: Another source of data
Other posts about this:
*Use this page as a starting point in the future things will almost certainly change