If you have a pension and a sense of adventure, retiring overseas can be not just a viable but an excellent way to spend your declining years. With the world growing smaller and smaller, many places offer the best of many worlds: not only is the cost of living often substantially lower than in the USA, the majority of the comforts of home are also readily available.
An incredibly popular destination is Thailand, with its beautiful weather, lush beaches, an enormous expat community, and state-of-the-art medical facilities.
Thailand also has a very low cost of living, so your pension will stretch far here, enabling you to travel home to see children and other relatives with reasonable frequency. Finally, there is a large amount of ESL work available, both paid and volunteer, so if you're crawling the walls from boredom or running low on cash it won't be difficult to solve either of these problems.
If Asia is a little too intrepid for you, Argentina also offers a low cost of living and large expat community. It will, of course, seem foreign to many Americans, with Spanish the official and most widely-spoken language, but it also has an excellent economic climate for investing, which is beneficial if you want to generate a passive income to supplement your pension.
Even less intrepid, but still with a foreign culture and language is Spain. Spain is fairly cheap relative to the rest of Western Europe, although this promises to change in the near future. At the moment, though, it's a country with a temperate climate, delicious food and a generally excellent lifestyle.
Like Spain, Italy is also cheaper than the rest of Europe, as long as you avoid the cities. While it doesn't have the retirement communities like those available in South and Central America, you will have no problem fitting into an Italian neighbourhood. Indeed, it is Italy's welcoming, laid-back culture that attracts a large number of overseas retirees.
Belize is another excellent retirement option. Like most countries in this region, the cost of living is low. It is also very well-set up for retiring, with communities flourishing all over the country. Finally, because of its long tenure as a British colony (Belize is the former British Honduras), the official language is English. While Spanish and Creole are widely spoken, signs and instructions are in English, and it will be easier to get around without bilingualism than many of its neighbors.
Mexico is another country with a large number of communities tailor-made for retired expats, but if you speak Spanish you can save money by living like the locals do. Don't be put off by news reports, either--Mexico is very safe in the cities.
Mexico is a great place to retire because it's so close to the USA. If you live in the Southwest, you can realistically drive there. Also, Mexico has top-notch, very cheap dental care, which is a great perk of living there. Not to mention, of course, the warm climate and excellent food.
Costa Rica is a very cheap country to live in, with the laid-back, relaxed lifestyle that comes with tropical climates. Although the cost of living is very low, it is not uncommon at all for foreigners to open their own businesses here, so if you want to make extra money and have an entrepreneurial streak this is the place for you. Medical care
