North America · verified July 2026
Retiring in Mexico
Mexico has the biggest expat machine in the hemisphere — over a million foreigners, IMSS healthcare you can actually join1, and citizenship in five years1 with dual allowed. The 2026 reality: the Temporary Resident income bar has floated to roughly $4,400 a month1, pushing most retirees to the savings route, and full-time residents are taxed on worldwide income1. INAPAM inspects public and private centres for older persons under LDPAM — its Registro Único is a supervision directory, not confirmed as a public searchable list. Cheap to live in; not cheap to qualify for.
Superscripts link to the source below. Dotted underline marks Thon's own read, not a fact.
What each claim rests on
- INM temporary resident income/savings routes
Why this number
Every point is accounted for. Nothing is hidden in a weighting you cannot see.
- Base country quality76Mexico scores 76/100 before anything about you is applied — visa system, tax regime, healthcare, safety and property rights.
- Best fit for you76A decision aid, not a prediction. Two people with the same passport can rank these differently — that is the point of showing the working.
What it means for your money, month one and year twenty-five
A score tells you how well Mexico fits. This tells you what lands in your account each month compared with staying in Australia — and then what happens to that figure over the rest of a life, which is where the two answers stop agreeing.
Where $4,000/mo goes in Mexico
- Living$2,635
- Tax$332
- Health$342
- Left$691
The same month, 25 years apart
On the day you land, a pension that keeps rising and one held at the rate you left on pay exactly the same amount. Everything above this line is that day. This is what separates them afterwards.
On these inputs your liquid assets last the whole 25 years on both branches — $578,947 left at 86 if the pension rises, $60,908 if it does not.
Which branch applies to your pension is decided by the authority that pays it, not by Mexico. The published rule for your passport, with its source and the date we opened it, is on what happens to your pension once you leave.
What this projection assumes (projection)
- Costs are assumed to rise 3% a year, every year, in the currency you spend.
- Liquid assets are assumed to return 4% a year after fees, with no bad decade.
- The uprated branch is modelled as rising 3% a year — exactly enough to stand still. The frozen branch does not rise at all. Neither branch is a forecast of what any government will do.
- Tax is held at the same effective rate for the whole projection; in reality bands, thresholds and treaties all move.
- Exchange rates are held flat. For a pension paid in one currency and spent in another, that is the single largest thing this projection does not model.
- This is a scenario, not a forecast. Its value is in the gap between the two branches, not in either number on its own.
A scenario, not a forecast, and not financial advice. It describes what arithmetic does to two published rules over time; it does not tell you where to take a pension.
Mexico
- Monthly pension
- $3,000
- Drawdown from assets4% a year on your liquid assets
- $1,000
- Tax in Mexico~11% effective on pension, double-tax treaty in force
- −$332
- Private health covertwo people, by age
- −$342
- Cost of livingall-in for a couple
- −$2,635
- Net per month
- $691
Australia (home)
- Monthly pension
- $3,000
- Drawdown from assets
- $1,000
- Tax in Australiaeffective on pension income
- −$675
- Health coverpublic system, no private premium
- $0
- Cost of living
- −$5,425
- Net per month
- $-2,100
How this is estimated (estimate)
- Effective tax is estimated from the headline band; real tax depends on your residency status, asset structure and the tax year.
- Assets are drawn at 4% a year — a planning rule of thumb, not a guarantee.
- Health cover is a private-insurance estimate by age; public enrolment (where allowed) can be cheaper.
- Cost of living is an all-in monthly figure; a couple is modelled at 1.55× a single person.
- A double-tax treaty is assumed to prevent taxing the same pension twice.
Indicative decision aid, not immigration, tax or financial advice. Confirm with a qualified adviser before acting.
Right for you if
- Savings-rich retirees using the ~$74k route1
- North-America-adjacent families — short flights home
- Spanish learners who want infrastructure everywhere
What the rules say
Every figure here is written into Mexico's own immigration, tax or civil code, so you can open the source and check it yourself. Nothing on this page is behind a login.
Who the door opens for
How long it takes, what it costs to set up
Tax, property and what happens to your estate
Sources: Visa de residencia temporal (SRE260) (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores / INM, Mexico); Residentes en el extranjero sin establecimiento permanente (Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT), Mexico) · checked Jul 2026.
Ownership and inheritance rules come from the national civil code; we have not yet linked a primary page for it, so treat those two lines as indicative.
The 13 things about Mexico you can't look up
Your net tax burden once the treaty and the local regime are applied. What opening a bank account actually takes, and how many weeks. Private cover priced at your age, not the brochure age. Whether people really keep their first passport here. Capital controls as they work in practice, where the community actually lives, and air and internet by neighbourhood.
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Sign in to unlockWhat living in Mexico actually costs and takes
Real rents by city, named hospitals, the visa route as a numbered checklist, and a first-90-days plan for banking, tax registration and residency.
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Sign in to unlockTrack Mexico
Thresholds move without notice. Get an email the moment a visa or tax fact for Mexico changes.
Sources to re-check
- INM temporary resident income/savings routes
- SAT + treaty notes with origin country
Indicative decision aid, verified July 2026. Not immigration, tax or financial advice. Thresholds and backlogs move; confirm against the official source before you act.
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