Costa Rica and Chile are popular…
Live in Kaohsiung. Don’t need a car or scooter. Transport isn’t as good as Taipei, but we still have MRT, multiple bus routes, YouBikes, etc. There are some restrictions in terms of going to places off the beaten path, but most main hubs are easily accessible.
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Any suggestions? Pyongyang is supposed to be lovely. But you can’t beat the white beaches off the coast of Somalia.
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Just think you are a bit limited in Kaohsiung without a car. Want to head to Kenting and explore? Go out for hikes? I guess daily travel will be ok but you’ll feel a reduced sense of freedom than in Taipei where so much more is more accessible via public transport. I suppose it depends on how adventurous you are but Taipei is much more easy going on people looking for more Western comforts. I’d still choose down south I suppose even with my perceived drawbacks.
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I assume you have kids. Do they go to regular schools or American schools? How was the adjustment for them moving to Taiwan?
For us A/C is a must. We visit Taiwan about once every 2-3 years and for us the summers are brutal. We love the local foods and will probably be perfectly happy with that 80-90% of the time. But I figure every once in a while we’ll need to have sone Italian, Mexican, Thai etc.
I was chatting with my wife’s cousin who lives in Neihu and she said her modestly sized apartment is probably close to US$1million to buy. They bought it many years ago and it was a fraction of that. But still, I was pretty shocked at how expensive buying an apartment in Taipei is. Relatively speaking, I think renting is much cheaper. Most people are telling me a nice two bedroom apartment in Taipei is about NT$20-30,000. That’s about US$1,000 which is by NY standards is very cheap.
Yep.
Rent in Taipei. If you want to buy, do only in outskirts of New Taipei City, or Taichung/Tainan/Kaohsiung. That giant sucking sound is Taipei City real estate’s vacuum cleaner on your bank account/savings. We sold our place in Neihu and bought a very nice place in KHH at about 1/4 to 1/5 the “Per ping” cost that Neihu place sold at.
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Buying prices in Taipei are absolutely mad. The only thing that keeps rental prices relatively low are the close-to-zero interest rates; if (for whatever reason) the banks/gov’t decide to increase interest rates, bad stuff is gonna happen. Unfortunately, it’s also the same low interest rates that keep real-estate property prices up in the stratosphere. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
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Besides the low cost of living and having friends and relatives in Taiwan, we find that it’s very safe there. We never stayed longer than 4 weeks but overall we felt safe, even when coming home late from a night market or when hanging out with friends. Out of all the countries we’ve visited only Japan felt as safe.
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I came here with the intention of retiring age 55.
Living from the proceeds of my house being rented, I live fairly simple life on my own less than 2000 USD a month that is my budget, I doing OK even when I was with a partner here.
Cycling, hiking are 2 things I do mostly though my biggest expense is beer! eating out is weirdly cheaper than buying and cooking. Saying though I do cook mostly.
I’ve now decided not for me and looking at Eastern Europe when Covid-19 has passed over.
Though the biggest benifit to Taiwan is the lack of crime and complete safety assured, so good I see single women walking and cycling on river paths as late 11pm! I know of nowhere else in the world a single lady would feel safe doing that.
So doesn’t mean I will not return.
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I think that 20k to 30k is possible, but it depends how you define nice apartment.
apartments in a new high rise building in neihu will be 40k to 50k per month.
if you are moving with kids, international schools will be crazy expensive, take that into account too.
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Hi there. We homeschool. My children still learn Mandarin at the local elementary school for about 3 hours a week. We were the weirdos who turned normal in the Covid world. 
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We are in the process of finally moving to Taipei.
One issue to bear in mind if you are planing on staying in Taiwan on a spouse visa is that documents (marriage certificates etc) need to be notarised by your Taiwan consular office in your home country. If you do not they will send you back to get them done
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Let me correct you… they need to be authenticated by the TECO office where the certificate was produced. If you got married in Paris and had given birth in Los Angeles, then you need to contact different TECO.
I plan to bite the bullet and retire before the end of the year… Can I ask a question to those who already retired? How can I keep my health insurance?
Oh yes, the infamous Puli dog feces debacle. 
Guy
That scheme sounds suspiciously like the current version of forumosa. In other words, not very relaxing! 
Guy
Are you referring to Taiwan govt health insurance?
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