What is the Move Abroad Retirement Affordability Calculator?
The Move Abroad Retirement Affordability Calculator helps you understand whether retiring abroad is financially realistic based on your savings, income and spending. It compares multiple destinations against your finances and shows which locations are affordable, tight or not viable over the long term.
How the Calculator Works?
This calculator models your finances year by year from today through to later life, split into two phases: before and after moving abroad.
In the UK phase, it tracks income, spending, contributions and asset growth. From the point you move, it switches to destination-specific costs, currency assumptions and retirement spending, and models how assets are drawn down over time. It supports cash, ISAs or GIAs and pensions, with pension access age restrictions applied correctly.
You can test multiple destinations at once. Each location is scored based on affordability and your personal preferences, such as climate, healthcare and lifestyle. Visa considerations and key trade-offs are shown alongside the financial results.
All calculations run entirely in your browser and update in real time as you change inputs.
Step One: Set Your Timeline and Assets
Enter your current age, planned move age and end age. Add your cash, investments, pensions and any ongoing contributions.
Step Two: Define Spending and Destinations
Set your UK and abroad spending assumptions and choose the destinations you want to test. Adjust preference weightings such as affordability, climate and healthcare.
Step Three: Compare Affordability and Outcomes
Review ranked destinations, affordability indicators and year-by-year projections. See where assets are used, when property is sold and whether your plan remains sustainable.
Disclaimer: This calculator provides illustrative projections only and does not constitute financial, tax or immigration advice. Costs, exchange rates, visa rules and personal circumstances vary. Always seek professional advice and local guidance before making relocation decisions.
What does retirement mean to you?
Traditional retirement is broken. Understand how our calculator enables you to live a better life now vs later.
Retire from corporate work?
Use the tool to utilise how you can step away from the corporate world and live life on your own terms.
Work less, live more
See how part-time or project-based work can bridge your income gap while giving you more time for life.
Freedom through planning
Understand how your savings, spending and investments can work together to buy back your time.
Test-drive retirement early
Model scenarios that let you experience elements of retirement before fully stepping away.
What is the Move Abroad Retirement Affordability Calculator?
It is a UK-specific planning tool that models retirement finances before and after moving abroad, helping you compare destinations based on affordability and lifestyle preferences.
What does “affordable” mean in this calculator?
A destination is considered affordable if your assets and income can fund projected spending through to the chosen end age without running out.
Does this assume I qualify for another country’s public pension?
No. The calculator does not assume you gain entitlement to a foreign public pension unless explicitly entered. Public pensions are typically based on where you worked and paid contributions.
Does it include the UK State Pension?
Yes, you can include it. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide, but annual increases are only paid in some countries. Somewhere without that uprating, the amount can sit still while prices keep rising. Use your official forecast, then run a version where the overseas payment does not keep up. Check the current GOV.UK list for the country you have in mind rather than assuming the UK rules follow you.
How are exchange rates handled?
Currency conversion is applied to destination costs using fixed reference rates for consistency. You can also switch between real and nominal views.
Does it account for visa requirements?
No. This tool is checking whether the money lasts, not whether a country will let you stay. Visa, residence and healthcare-access rules sit outside the model and they change. Check those with official sources for the place you have in mind, then use this calculator to test the cashflow if you do get there, including a version where you have to come back.
Can I model selling my UK home?
Yes. You can include the sale of a UK property and see how proceeds affect your cash position and long-term affordability.
How are assets withdrawn in retirement?
Withdrawals follow a tax-efficient order, typically using cash first, then ISAs or GIAs, and pensions once accessible.
Does it show when money runs out?
Yes. The year-by-year projection highlights if and when assets are depleted.
Is this suitable for choosing where to retire?
It is a strong shortlisting tool. Final decisions should also consider taxation, healthcare access, residency rules and personal preferences beyond finances.
How should I allow for the cost of returning to the UK?
Include annual trips, emergency flights and a full return scenario. Add deposits, removals, temporary accommodation and the housing cost you may face if you come back after selling a UK home. The overseas plan is stronger when returning is affordable, even if you never need to do it.
Could healthcare costs rise faster than local living costs?
Yes. Insurance premiums can rise with age, cover can narrow and pre-existing conditions may be excluded. Public access may depend on residence, contributions or visas. Use a separate healthcare assumption rather than applying one low local inflation rate to every category.
Should I rent before buying abroad?
Renting first can reveal seasons, bureaucracy, healthcare access and whether the community suits you. It also preserves capital and reduces the cost of reversing the decision, although rent adds short-term expense. Model a one or two-year trial instead of assuming the first property purchase is permanent.
What data should I verify locally?
Check visa and residence rules, tax, healthcare, property purchase costs, inheritance law and realistic year-round rents. National averages can hide large regional differences. The calculator compares scenarios, but current local professional advice is needed before a move or property purchase.
Is my data stored?
No. All calculations run locally in your browser and no personal data is saved or transmitted.
Trust and education
Certified Money First Aider®
These calculators are built by a Certified Money First Aider to help you think more clearly about money and time. Money First Aid® is about practical, non-judgemental support for financial wellbeing. The calculators can certainly help you make informed decisions, but they are not regulated financial advice.
Behind Retirement Calculators
Built from the questions I was asking myself
I'm Ryan, the person behind Retirement Calculators. I started the site after selling an online business and trying to understand what our pensions, ISAs, investments and property actually meant for the way we wanted to live.
The calculators are built around those real decisions: whether you could work less, retire earlier, spend more now or use your money differently. They will not give you a perfect answer, but they can make the trade-offs much easier to see.
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