The 10 best countries for low-budget FIRE (under €1,500 a month)

How we chose

We looked at each country from the point of view of an Italian who wants to live off their investments, before or after their INPS state pension starts, on a single person's budget under €1,500 a month. There are seven criteria:

1. real cost of living, including rent and health insurance;
2. visa: can you live there without working, even before you draw a pension?
3. tax on investments and pensions for an Italian, including tax treaties with Italy;
4. healthcare: quality and cost;
5. safety and political stability;
6. currency: the euro, or exchange-rate risk;
7. distance and flights to Italy.

No country wins on everything, and the ranking shifts a lot with your age and whether you have a pension. That's why each profile also says who the country suits.

The ranking at a glance

Country	Monthly budget	Capital	Before your pension?
1. Bulgaria	€1,000–1,300	€410,000	Yes
2. Portugal	€1,300–1,700	€530,000	Yes
3. Greece	€1,200–1,600	€490,000	Yes
4. Thailand	€1,000–1,550	€520,000	From age 50
5. Georgia	€950–1,300	€440,000	Yes
6. Albania	€950–1,300	€440,000	Hard
7. Vietnam	€950–1,400	€490,000	Yes, on short visas
8. Mexico	€1,300–1,700	€610,000	Yes, with savings
9. Colombia	€1,100–1,500	€530,000	Hard
10. Tunisia	€850–1,200	€400,000	Hard

1. Bulgaria: Europe at Asian prices

Where: Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo. Sofia costs more. Budget: €1,000–1,300 a month.

• Visa: not needed, you're an EU citizen. After three months you register your residence.
• Currency: since 1 January 2026 Bulgaria uses the euro. No currency risk at all, a huge advantage over every Asian destination.
• Tax: a flat 10% income tax. On top of that, gains on shares and ETFs sold on regulated EU markets are, under certain conditions, exempt. Get a Bulgarian accountant to confirm which instruments and markets qualify.
• Healthcare: the public system is modest, but private clinics in the main cities are good and inexpensive.
• Weak points: the language and the alphabet, bureaucracy, cold inland winters, good healthcare concentrated in a few cities.

Who it suits: people who want to stop early while staying in Europe, two hours' flight from Italy, spending little and paying little tax.

2. Portugal: the safest choice, no longer the cheapest

Where: Coimbra, Viseu, Braga, inland Alentejo. Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve are now expensive. Budget: €1,300–1,700 a month.

• Visa: not needed. As a resident you can use the Portuguese national health service.
• Tax: the non-habitual resident regime has been closed to newcomers since 2024. Today gains on shares and ETFs pay 28%, more than Italy's 26%, and pensions are taxed at progressive rates up to 48%. Under the treaty with Italy, private pensions are taxed in Portugal and government pensions in Italy.
• Strengths: safety, climate, quality of life, a large Italian community, frequent flights.
• Weak points: rents have risen a lot, and tax is now standard.

Who it suits: people who put safety and quality of life ahead of saving money and have a budget of at least €1,400–1,500 a month.

3. Greece: perfect after your pension starts, thanks to the 7% regime

Where: Crete, the Peloponnese, Thessaloniki, smaller islands off-season. Budget: €1,200–1,600 a month.

• Visa: not needed.
• Tax: people who receive a foreign pension and move their residence to Greece can apply for a flat 7% tax on all foreign income (pension, dividends, interest and capital gains) for 15 years. You need to spend at least 183 days a year in Greece and must not have been Greek tax resident in the preceding years. Before your pension starts the ordinary rules apply, with higher tax.
• Weak points: an overstretched public health service, bureaucracy, islands that empty out in winter.

Who it suits: people already drawing a pension, or those who plan to move to Greece once retired after spending the "bridge" years elsewhere.

4. Thailand: Asia's best healthcare for the over-50s

Where: Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Udon Thani. Budget: €1,000–1,550 a month.

• Visa: the retirement visa requires you to be at least 50 and to hold 800,000 baht in the bank (about €21,000) or have an income of 65,000 baht a month.
• Tax: as a resident, foreign income you bring into Thailand is taxable; capital you built up beforehand isn't.
• Strengths: international-standard private hospitals, infrastructure, a large foreign community.
• Weak points: health insurance that becomes much dearer after 60, seasonal smog in the north, currency risk.

All the numbers are in the deep dive on FIRE in Thailand.

5. Georgia: territorial tax and a year without a visa

Where: Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi. Budget: €950–1,300 a month.

• Visa: EU citizens can stay up to a year without a visa.
• Tax: for individuals, foreign-source income, such as dividends and gains on a securities account held outside Georgia, is generally exempt. Tax residence comes with 183 days of presence in 12 months. It's one of the most favourable regimes for someone living off a portfolio.
• Weak points: political tension since 2024, uneven healthcare quality, a local currency (the lari), a four-hour flight from Italy.

Who it suits: people doing FIRE before their pension starts who like lively cities and can accept some political uncertainty.

6. Albania: the closest, with a big Italian community

Where: Tirana, Vlorë, Sarandë, Durrës. Budget: €950–1,300 a month.

• Visa: to stay beyond 90 days you need a permit. The pensioner permit requires a pension of at least 1.2 million lek a year, about €13,000, paid into an Albanian bank. People living off investments before their pension starts face harder routes.
• Tax: in 2026 the Albanian parliament is debating a law to exempt residents' foreign pensions. Before deciding, check whether it has passed and on what terms.
• Strengths: a one-hour flight, Italian understood everywhere, over 3,000 Italian pensioners already resident.
• Weak points: limited healthcare (many go back to Italy for major treatment), bureaucracy, a local currency.

Who it suits: INPS pensioners who want to stay close to home and family.

7. Vietnam: the cheapest, the most flexible, the least stable

Where: Da Nang, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City. Budget: €950–1,400 a month.

• Visa: there's no visa for people living off investments. People live on the 90-day e-visa, leaving the country four times a year. On the plus side, there are no age limits and no locked deposits.
• Tax: residents are taxed on worldwide income, but at low rates on investments: 0.1% of the value of securities sold and 5% on dividends and interest. Under the treaty with Italy, private pensions are taxed in Vietnam.
• Weak points: good healthcare only in the big cities, a fragile visa position.

Details and numbers in FIRE in Vietnam.

8. Mexico: residency you can get with savings

Where: Mérida, Querétaro, Oaxaca. Budget: €1,300–1,700 a month.

• Visa: temporary residency is granted if you show income of about $4,400 a month or savings or investments of about $74,000 held for 12 months. Amounts vary from consulate to consulate. It's one of the few residencies someone doing FIRE before their pension can get without difficulty.
• Tax: residents are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates up to 35%, and foreign capital gains fall under the ordinary scale. There is a tax treaty with Italy.
• Weak points: safety varies widely by region (Yucatán is among the calmest areas), distance, and tax that isn't light.

Who it suits: people who love Latin America and want a solid legal residency before their pension starts.

9. Colombia: perfect climate, but the visa wants a pension

Where: Medellín, Pereira, Santa Marta. Budget: €1,100–1,500 a month.

• Visa: the pensioner visa requires a pension of at least three Colombian minimum wages, about 5.25 million pesos (about €1,460) a month in 2026. The visa for people living off investments asks for ten, about €4,900 a month: not a route for a low budget.
• Tax: residents are taxed on worldwide income at rates up to 39%. A tax treaty with Italy has been in force since 2022.
• Strengths: the mixed healthcare system, which residents can join at low cost; Medellín's "eternal spring".
• Weak points: safety to be judged neighbourhood by neighbourhood, heavy tax, distance.

Who it suits: INPS pensioners whose pension is above the visa threshold.

10. Tunisia: the cheapest, but only for pensioners

Where: Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir. Budget: €850–1,200 a month.

• Tax: for pensioners who move their residence there, Tunisia taxes only 20% of the foreign pension transferred into the country. The result is an effective tax rate of a few percentage points. Under the treaty with Italy this also applies to many government pensions.
• Visa: a long stay requires a residence card, and the rules are designed mainly for pensioners.
• Weak points: the dinar isn't convertible, so money you bring in is hard to take back out; some areas carry Italian government travel warnings; healthcare is good only in private city clinics.

Who it suits: pensioners on a modest pension who want to stretch it as far as possible while staying an hour's flight from Italy.

Not on the list (and why)

• Malaysia: excellent quality of life and foreign income exempt until 2036, but the long-stay visa (MM2H) requires a locked deposit of at least $150,000, or 500,000 ringgit in the Sarawak version. Too much for a low budget.
• Panama: the famous pensioner visa requires a lifetime pension of at least $1,000 a month, so it doesn't help someone living off a portfolio.
• Spain: beautiful, but outside the inland areas the budget easily goes above €1,500 a month.

The rules that apply everywhere

• Close your Italian residence properly: AIRE registration on its own isn't enough. The centre of your interests and the days you spend in Italy count too.
• Don't become "resident nowhere": travelling the world without a clear tax residence is the quickest way to stay an Italian resident in the eyes of the tax office.
• Healthcare: leaving Italy means losing ordinary cover from the national health service. Within the EU, people who receive an Italian pension can get healthcare in their new country at Italy's expense with the S1 form. Before your pension, or outside the EU, you need private insurance, taken out before 60.
• Currency: outside the euro, keep one or two years of spending in the local currency and treat the exchange rate as a risk, not a fixed number.
• Try before you move: three months renting is worth more than any ranking, this one included.

The bottom line

With €400,000–500,000 invested you can live off your portfolio in most of the countries on this list, sums that in Italy would barely cover a very frugal life. The right choice depends on your age and your pension, though. Before your pension starts, the winners are the countries that let you in without asking for one: Bulgaria, Portugal, Georgia, Mexico, and Vietnam if you accept short visas. Once your pension starts, Greece, Thailand, Albania, Colombia and Tunisia open up, often with very low tax.

To see when you could stop working on the budget of the country you're interested in, use the FIRE simulator with Italian state pension. For a complete plan, tax and residence included, you can book a free first call.