Three years ago, Sharon V. Salinger, a California native, history professor and retired dean of undergraduate education at University of California, Irvine, moved from a house in pricey Pasadena, California, to Paris, France. While her monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat is a stiff $2,765, it’s in the trendy 11th Arrondissement and includes utilities and comes furnished. Now 80, Salinger extols the economic advantages of leaving the U.S. Among them: She no longer needs a car, and tickets to the Paris Opera are cheaper than a seat at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “I do love this city,” she says. Before her move, Salinger knew Paris well, having spent years digging in French archives for her just-published book, Perceived in Print: Indigenous American and French Ideas of the Other, about New World interactions in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

At the other extreme–in retirement age, chosen locale and how she selected a spot–is Reina Becnel Lim, 52, a military veteran turned federal civilian employee. Last year, she reports, “I was DOGEd,” meaning she was made redundant by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, created at the behest of President Donald J. Trump. She was living then on expensive Long Island, New York, and decided to retire and move abroad to some place cheaper—and, yes, less political. But her family unit included an unusual member for a retiree: a four-year-old daughter. That required a whole lot of research about schools, children’s medical care and the like, in addition to the normal retirement relocation fact-finding.

Got questions about planning for a foreign retirement? Join Forbes on Wednesday, August 5, at 12 P.M., ET for a members-only event on living, working and retiring abroad. Plus, check out Forbes’ new list of The Best Places To Retire Abroad In 2026 for ideas.

Lim and her husband, Raymond, also 52 and ready to work digital nomad-style as a consultant, considered several countries, including Malaysia and Thailand. Last October, the family moved to a place they’d never even visited before: Mauritius (pronounced muh-RISH-uhs). It’s a scenic multi-cultural island country in the Indian Ocean 1,300 miles east of, but geopolitically considered part of, Africa. The Lims moved into a three-bedroom, three-bath apartment in Flic en Flac, a small coastal town with gorgeous sunsets on the west side of Mauritius’ main island of the same name. The rent is $2,200 a month, a steal by New York-area prices. Also thrown in: favorable expat tax treatment and a residence permit good for 10 years. “I feel like I’m high on life,” says Reina, who is also pursuing master’s degrees in social work and disaster resilience.

There’s no substitute for previous visits or doing your own research when weighing a decision about retiring abroad. But the new Forbes list of The Best Places To Retire Abroad In 2026 —featuring 96 recommended spots in 24 countries, on four continents and several islands—is a good place to start, whatever your approach. Our summary of each country includes much of the data we weighed in making our picks. These include relative cost of living, healthcare costs and quality, tax considerations, natural hazard and climate change risk (much in the news, especially given ongoing wildfire in parts of Spain and France), the ease of getting long-term permission to live there, travel connections back to the U.S., and how well you can get by without being fluent in the native language. Our data sources, which you can look at, too, are summarized at the end of this article.

Mauritius is a first time honoree on the list. So is Vietnam, a half-century after the end of the Vietnam War (or, as it’s officially called over there, “Resistance War Against America to Save the Nation”). The only still-Communist country on the list (but courting Western investment), Vietnam is a tropical country with great scenery, beaches and food. But much of the appeal for retired Americans is economic.

Michael Lorton, 61, a software engineer and manager from expensive San Francisco, had visited Vietnam for decades. For retirement, he considered other inexpensive countries, including Thailand,........

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