£3,000 a month, a couple
45 of the 52 countries we track are comfortably within £3,000 a month for a couple. The table shows what is left over in each after normal living costs — rent, food, utilities, transport and private health cover.
| Country | Modest | Comfortable | Spare on £3,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seychelles | £1,900 | £3,000 | £0 left |
| New Zealand | £2,000 | £2,900 | £100 left |
| Italy | £1,900 | £2,700 | £300 left |
| Antigua and Barbuda | £1,700 | £2,700 | £300 left |
| Spain | £1,800 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| Cyprus | £1,800 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| France | £1,700 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | £1,500 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| Brazil | £1,800 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| Japan | £1,650 | £2,500 | £500 left |
| Portugal | £1,700 | £2,400 | £600 left |
| Grenada | £1,500 | £2,400 | £600 left |
| Uruguay | £1,650 | £2,400 | £600 left |
| Greece | £1,600 | £2,300 | £700 left |
| Panama | £1,600 | £2,300 | £700 left |
| Malta | £1,600 | £2,200 | £800 left |
| South Korea | £1,400 | £2,200 | £800 left |
| Croatia | £1,550 | £2,150 | £850 left |
These sit within about 20% of your budget — possible on a modest standard of living, or if you own outright and have no rent to pay: Ireland (£3,100), Canada (£3,300), Australia (£3,300), United States (£3,400).
On £3,000 a month every country we track is open to you, including the genuinely expensive ones. The list above is no longer a filter.
So the useful questions become the ones a cost table cannot answer. How long is the flight home, and how often will you really make it? What happens to your healthcare when you are eighty rather than sixty? Is there a functioning market for the kind of property you are buying, or would you be the only person trying to sell one?
At this budget the expensive mistake is not overspending on living costs. It is buying something with no natural next buyer.
It assumes you are renting, and it excludes flights home, tax on your pension in your home country, and the cost of any property you still own there. Those three are what most often break an otherwise sound plan.
Working to about £3,000 a month? The four questions take two minutes and tell you honestly whether buying abroad fits your situation.