Everyone tells you it's beautiful. Nobody tells you what it costs.
A 280-page guide to retiring abroad, written by someone who has watched people get it right — and rather more of them get it wrong.
The complete book — ready to go.
- All 46 chapters — money, health, papers, place, people, the first year
- The eight figures explained, with how to find them for any town yourself
- The chapters nobody else writes: when your partner wants to go home, when one of you needs care
- Written by the person you hear in the videos, in the same plain language
The book + audiobook + all bonus extras in one bundle.
Digital book (PDF) · one-time payment · instant download · no subscription
What's inside The Honest Guide to Retiring Abroad
Deciding before you sell the house
- Why people leave, and why most of them are wrong about it
- The two questions that decide everything
- What you are actually giving up
- The arithmetic nobody does before the flight
- How long you really have
Money: what arrives, and what it really costs
- Your pension abroad: what arrives, and when
- The monthly number, built from the bottom up
- The costs that only appear in year two
- Exchange rates: the quiet tax on every month
- Banking, transfers and the day your card stops working
- Taxes: where you pay, and what the treaty does not cover
Health: cover, waiting lists and emergencies
- The question that decides the country
- Private cover after sixty-five: what it costs and what it refuses
- Public systems: how to read a waiting list
- The emergency you have not planned for
- Medication, pharmacies and the prescription that does not exist there
- When one of you needs care
Papers: visas, income and staying legal
- Residence, permanence and the difference that costs you ten years
- Income thresholds: the number that decides if you may stay
- The application, step by step, and where it stalls
- Buying property does not always let you stay
- Renewals, absences and the trap of the ninety days
Choosing the place
- The holiday test, and why it fails
- February: the month that decides
- Big city, small town, or the coast
- How far is far: measuring the way back to your family
- Language: what you need on day one, and what can wait
- Safety, honestly measured
A home: renting, buying, selling
- Rent first. Always.
- What a viewing does not show you
- Buying: the costs beyond the price
- Old houses, new problems
- Selling again, if you must
People: friends, family and your partner
- The expat bubble, and what it costs to stay in it
- Making friends at sixty-five
- The grandchildren problem
- When your partner wants to go home
- When your partner dies abroad
The first years, and when to go home
- The first month: paperwork, silence, and doubt
- The honeymoon, and when it ends
- Building a week that works
- The second winter
- The signs, early enough to act
- Going home is not failure
- What it costs to reverse the decision
- Staying, and making it right
Nine themes, about three hundred pages
Before you decide
Why people really leave, and what you are giving up.
The money
Pension, budget, exchange rates, tax, and the costs of year two.
Health
Cover after sixty-five, reading a waiting list, when one of you needs care.
The papers
Income thresholds, renewals, and why buying does not always let you stay.
Where
The holiday test, February, distance to family, language.
The home
Rent first, what a viewing hides, selling again.
The people
The expat bubble, friendships at sixty-five, grandchildren.
The first year
The honeymoon, and the second winter.
When it does not work
The early signs, and going home without shame.
Everyone tells you it's beautiful. Nobody tells you what it costs.
A 280-page guide to retiring abroad, written by someone who has watched people get it right — and rather more of them get it wrong.
- The eight figures that decide whether a place works — and where to look each one up
- What private health cover actually excludes once you are past sixty-five
- The renewal trap that keeps ten years of residence from ever becoming permanent
- How to tell early that it is not working, while going back is still affordable
$26.99 $53.99 one-time payment · instant download
You have done the research. You still don't have the answer.
The numbers don't add up
Every site quotes a different cost of living, none says what it includes, and none was written by someone paying those bills at sixty-five.
Nobody mentions February
You visited in July and loved it. Whether the town is still open in winter — and whether you would be alone in it — is in no guide.
The health question stays vague
“Healthcare is excellent and affordable.” At what price, past sixty-five, with a pre-existing condition, and how many weeks to see a specialist?
The visa rules read like law
Because they are law. What you need is the income figure, the renewal trap, and whether it ever becomes permanent.
“The place that wins is rarely the prettiest. It is usually the one with a hospital, an airport, and a bakery open in February.”
Only in the Complete Package: your bonus extras
The Two-Currency Budget & Stress-Test Workbook
Replace the napkin with a number you can defend. Before you sell anything, you see exactly how your plan holds up if the exchange rate drops 15%, rent rises or year-two costs appear.
The February Scouting Trip Field Protocol
Turn an expensive trip into hard evidence instead of a holiday impression, so you don't choose a country on the basis of a sunny week you will never live again.
The Emergency & Next-of-Kin Binder Abroad
If one of you is suddenly in hospital or dies abroad, the other person, or your family at home, knows exactly what to do, whom to call and where every document is, instead of finding out in the worst week of their life.
$26.99
The things people learn two years too late
- How to build a monthly budget that survives contact with reality
- Why a published waiting time answers a different question than the one you asked
- What private cover actually excludes once you are past sixty-five
- The renewal trap that keeps a decade of residence from becoming permanent
- How to test a town in the month that matters instead of the month you visited
- What a property viewing cannot show you, and who to ask instead
- How to tell early that it is not working — while going back is still affordable
- What to do when your partner wants to go home and you don't
This book is for you if …
You are seriously considering it
Not daydreaming. You have looked at listings, you have a number in your head, and you are afraid of getting it wrong at an age where mistakes are expensive.
You want the arithmetic, not the atmosphere
Beautiful photographs are everywhere. What the month actually costs, and who pays when something goes wrong, is not.
You watch The Retirement Atlas
You have seen the rankings and want the unhurried version — the decision behind them, not another list.
Before you buy
Is this a country guide?
No — deliberately. Laws and prices change, and a country guide is out of date the month it prints. This is the decision itself, which does not change: the money, the health cover, the papers, the place, the people, the first year.
I have watched the videos. Is this the same content?
No. A video has twenty minutes for five places. The book has three hundred pages for the decision behind them — including the parts that do not fit into a ranking.
Will it tell me where to go?
It will tell you how to work that out yourself, with the same eight figures used in every episode. Anyone who names one perfect country for everyone is selling something.
Is it too late for me at sixty-eight?
Possibly, and the first chapter says who should stay exactly where they are. That is the honest answer, and it is worth more than an encouraging one.
How do I get the book?
Immediately after checkout you receive a download link by email. It is a PDF — no app, no account, no subscription.