My wife and I are retired Canadians, now living in a small French village, and I'd say we concur with all the main points in this article. A few other points: (1) No matter how much you research, with expert help (financial planners and tax people and so on), you'll still encounter surprises. On the plus side, we now get U.K. pensions (albeit small ones) because my wife worked several years in the U.K. On the negative side, her CPP is much smaller than any financial planner predicted. Turns out she needed to work 40 full years in Canada. (2) A good idea is: Work in a high-income place; retire in a low-cost place.