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ThonRetire

17 destinations · 7 passports · 39 criteria · verified July 2026

Retiring abroad is a tax, visa and healthcare decision.
Your passport and age change which doors open.

Your passport decides which treaties protect your pension. Your age decides which visas will even look at you.

See the rankingCompare two countries

What matters most to you? — optional, moves the ranking

Leave these alone and you get our balanced view. Turn one up and you will see exactly how many points it moved, on every country.

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Your top three from Australia

Ranked for an Australian passport, retiring now, aged about 62. Non-tax resident.

#1

ThailandThailand

Southeast Asia · Tropical

89best fit /100
Flight home
9h from Sydney
Visa
LTR / Retirement O-A
Tax on your income
0% foreign income (LTR)
Living cost
$1,800/mo
Full guide
#2

MalaysiaMalaysia

Southeast Asia · Tropical

88best fit /100
Flight home
8h from Sydney
Visa
MM2H (Silver)
Tax on your income
0% foreign income (to 2036)
Living cost
$1,900/mo
Full guide
#3

PhilippinesPhilippines

Southeast Asia · Tropical

87best fit /100
Flight home
8h from Sydney
Visa
SRRV Classic
Tax on your income
0% foreign income (source-based)
Living cost
$1,500/mo
Full guide
See all 17 countries ranked
All destinations ranked for an Australian passport
#CountryBest fitRelative scoreFlightTaxCost/moHealthResidency
1Thailand Thailand899h0%$1,8008.2Difficult
2Malaysia Malaysia888h0%$1,9008.7No PR route
3Philippines Philippines878h0%$1,5006.8Permanent
4Indonesia Indonesia (Bali)796h5–35%$1,7006.5KITAP 3–4 yrs
5Italy Italy7924h7%$2,4008.65 yrs
6Mauritius Mauritius7812h0–20%$2,00075 yrs + $200k
7Malta Malta7824h15%$2,6008.85 yrs
8Greece Greece7725h7%$2,2007.95 yrs
9Panama Panama7730h0%$2,1007.8Immediate
10Mexico Mexico7618h1.92–35%$1,7007.54 yrs
11Cyprus Cyprus7522h0–5%$2,2008On grant — long queue
12Spain Spain7324h19–47%$2,50095 yrs
13Portugal Portugal7224h13–48%$2,60095 yrs
14Uruguay Uruguay7238h0%$2,3008Direct — <1 yr
15United Arab Emirates UAE (Dubai)6914h0%$3,5008.5Golden Visa
16Costa Rica Costa Rica6834h0%$2,0007.83 yrs
17Vietnam Vietnam618hUnder review$1,4006.3Near-unattainable

For American readers · July 2026

Forbes just put Vietnam on a retirement list. The list does not include a visa.

On 31 July 2026 Forbes added Vietnam to its abroad-retirement roster for the first time. Cost of living is why. There is still no retiree visa, and US Social Security is restricted there.

Retire in VietnamAmerican overlayVietnam vs Thailand

17destinations researched
39criteria per country
7passports, each with its own overlay
2026-07every fact carries its own date

What the board surfaces

Your life stage decides whether a ten-year tax holiday is a gift or a trap. The board ranks for that — and shows every point of the working.

When you are locked out

Thailand's retirement visa opens at 50. Bali's at 60. Vietnam has none at all. If you are 41, most of this list is not actually available to you, and we say so on the card rather than in a footnote — every age gate, in one place.

When the deal expires

Malaysia's foreign-income exemption runs to 2036. Italy's 7% regime lasts ten years. If you retire at 41, you will outlive the tax break — so we score the runway, not just the headline rate. Which deals expire, and when.

Where the number came from

Every score breaks down into named contributions that add up to the total. If you disagree with a weighting, you can see it, and you can turn it.

What we do not know

Backlogs, bank onboarding and insurance quotes move faster than any page. Fields carry a confidence level and a date, and gaps are marked as gaps.

How scores workData & sources

Ranked one dimension at a time

The board above weighs everything at once. Sometimes you do not want that — you want the cheapest, or the closest, or the one place your residency permit actually turns into something permanent. Each of these is a separate ranking, not a filter, because each one produces a different order.

All 17 country guidesvisa · tax · monthly cost