2026-09-28
How Much Does Retiring Comfortably Really Cost? Chile vs. the World
At a glance
All figures below are USD totals for a full 14-year, 8.4-month retirement — not an annual cost.
A retirement-cost analysis published by Voronoi, based on data from NetCredit and Numbeo's Cost of Living Estimator, puts the estimated cost of retiring comfortably in Chile at USD $338,000 — compared to USD $738,000 in the United States. That's less than half. One thing worth being precise about: these are total amounts for an entire retirement of 14 years and 8.4 months, not a yearly figure. Divide by that span and Chile works out to roughly $23,000 a year, versus about $50,200 a year in the U.S.
Chile's real comparison set, though, is the rest of Latin America — where it's actually one of the cheapest places to retire comfortably, not just cheaper than the U.S. Brazil comes in lowest at $268,000 total (about $18,200 a year), with Chile close behind at $338,000. The Dominican Republic ($339,000, ~$23,100/year), Argentina ($347,000, ~$23,600/year), and Mexico ($356,000, ~$24,200/year) all land within a few thousand dollars of Chile, while Uruguay ($451,000, ~$30,700/year) and Costa Rica ($556,000, ~$37,800/year) run noticeably higher.
One important caveat, straight from the source: these figures exclude taxes and healthcare, and they're based on a 20% cost cushion added to Numbeo's baseline cost-of-living estimate. They're a useful baseline for comparing everyday cost of living across countries, not a complete retirement budget — your actual numbers will depend on your health coverage, tax situation, and how you choose to live.
What the data does capture well is the scale of the gap. For an American retiree, the difference between retiring in the U.S. and retiring in Chile isn't a modest discount — it's potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a retirement. That's the kind of number worth seeing for yourself before committing to it, which is exactly what an extended stay in Algarrobo is for: a real, unhurried look at what daily life and its costs actually feel like here, before deciding whether to make it permanent.
All 33 countries in the study
| Country | Total | ≈ Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | $187K | ~$12,700 |
| India | $189K | ~$12,900 |
| Brazil | $268K | ~$18,200 |
| China | $279K | ~$19,000 |
| Russia | $281K | ~$19,100 |
| Morocco | $284K | ~$19,300 |
| Philippines | $301K | ~$20,500 |
| South Africa | $313K | ~$21,300 |
| Ghana | $324K | ~$22,000 |
| Nigeria | $324K | ~$22,000 |
| Chile | $338K | ~$23,000 |
| Dominican Republic | $339K | ~$23,100 |
| Argentina | $347K | ~$23,600 |
| Taiwan | $354K | ~$24,100 |
| Mexico | $356K | ~$24,200 |
| Japan | $398K | ~$27,100 |
| Uruguay | $451K | ~$30,700 |
| Portugal | $478K | ~$32,500 |
| Spain | $478K | ~$32,500 |
| France | $496K | ~$33,700 |
| Sweden | $508K | ~$34,600 |
| Finland | $520K | ~$35,400 |
| New Zealand | $527K | ~$35,900 |
| Costa Rica | $556K | ~$37,800 |
| Canada | $598K | ~$40,700 |
| Australia | $620K | ~$42,200 |
| Norway | $623K | ~$42,400 |
| United Kingdom | $627K | ~$42,700 |
| Ireland | $702K | ~$47,800 |
| United States | $738K | ~$50,200 |
| Switzerland | $859K | ~$58,400 |
| Iceland | $893K | ~$60,700 |
| Singapore | $1.1M | ~$74,800 |
Source: Voronoi — "Mapped: The Cost to Retire Comfortably Around the World" (NetCredit/Numbeo data)