Suppose you retired overseas six or eight years ago, when you received a Social Security check of $ 1,200 or $ 1,500 USD per month. There are some countries where your annual cost-of-living adjustments to your social security check would have kept up with inflation overseas.
Other countries have experienced such high inflation that your lifestyle would have declined rapidly. But nobody talks about this online.
In this report, we are going to talk about which countries overseas retirees are getting hammered by inflation, and which countries retired expats are still fat and happy on social security alone.
Additionally, I will share three short questions you can paste into ChatGPT to find out if the cost-of-living adjustments on your pension have been sufficient over the last five years to support your lifestyle overseas in the country of your choice.
Additionally, in countries where inflation has already hammered overseas retirees, I will share my three favorite techniques that may help you maintain your lifestyle overseas if inflation is already crushing your lifestyle overseas.
Inflation for Overseas Retirees
I will begin with a few of the key destinations for overseas retirees. On VagabondBuddha.com, I cover 9 cheap countries in Asia, 9 cheap countries in Latin America, and 17 cheap countries in Europe.
So, my feet on the ground reports cover my favorite 35 retire cheap in paradise countries, even though I have had my feet on the ground in 73 countries so far. Some countries are just not good enough to even be considered, in my opinion.
First, I will show you what inflation has done to your lifestyle in two Southeast Asian countries, two Latin American countries, and one European country. Then I will show you the exact sentences you can copy and paste into ChatGPT to find out if your pension’s cost-of-living adjustments would have sustained your lifestyle in any country you are curious about.
I will start with two hot countries in Southeast Asia.
Okay, in the video above, I share that Vietnam, the Philippines, Guatemala, and Panama have all suffered from inflation over the last 5 years, but also that US Social Security cost-of-living adjustments have outpaced that inflation in all four countries.
Next, I will show how to use ChatGPT to calculate your cost-of-living adjustments that have outpaced inflation and currency fluctuations over the last 5 years. Then I will share three tricks that I would use to help adjust if I were being hammered by inflation overseas.
ChatGPT Prompts
Prompt One: If I were living in Thailand in 2019 on $1500 USD per month, what would my cost of living be in Thai Baht per month for 2019 using the average exchange rate for the year?
Chat GPT Answer: Using the 2019 average USD→THB exchange rate of ≈31.045 THB per USD, $1,500 per month in 2019 converts to: $1,500 × 31.045 = 46,567.5 THB per month (≈ ฿46,568).
Prompt Two: Using the inflation rate in Thailand for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, how much would the 46,569 Baht per month I paid in 2019 cost me in 2025 to maintain the same lifestyle?
ChatGPT Answer: Let’s adjust your ฿46,569/month (2019) forward with Thailand’s annual inflation rates:
- 2020: −0.85% (slight deflation)
- 2021: +1.3%
- 2022: +5.9%
- 2023: +8.7%
- 2024: +2.5%
Step 1: Apply yearly changes (compounded)
Starting: 46,569 THB (2019)
- 2020 → 46,569 × 0.9915 ≈ 46,174 THB
- 2021 → 46,174 × 1.013 ≈ 46,774 THB
- 2022 → 46,774 × 1.059 ≈ 49,536 THB
- 2023 → 49,536 × 1.087 ≈ 53,861 THB
- 2024 → 53,861 × 1.025 ≈ 55,707 THB
- ✅ Answer: By 2025, to maintain the same lifestyle, you would need about ฿55,700 per month.
Prompt 3: Using today’s USD to Baht exchange rate, how much would 55,700 Baht be in USD today?
ChatGPT Answer: Today’s USD → THB exchange rate stands at approximately 32.38 THB per USD
Money Converter
To convert ฿55,700 into USD at this rate:
55,700 THB ÷ 32.38 THB/USD ≈ 1,720 USD
Summary
Local (THB/month) Exchange Rate (2025) USD Equivalent
55,700 THB 32.38 THB per USD ≈ $1,720
So, maintaining the same monthly lifestyle cost of ฿55,700 in Thailand in 2025 would require roughly $1,720 USD today.
Prompt 4: If my $1500 USD in 2019 were social security, how much would it be in 2025 after cost-of-living adjustments? And would that COLA increase be enough to cover Thailand’s inflation during the same period?
1. U.S. Social Security COLA increases, 2020–2024
- 2020: 1.3%
- 2021: 5.9%
- 2022: 8.7%
- 2023: 3.2%
- 2024: 2.5%
Compounded growth multiplier:
1.013×1.059×1.087×1.032×1.025≈1.225
2025 Social Security benefit:
$1,500 × 1.225 ≈ $1,838 per month
2. Thailand inflation-adjusted lifestyle cost
From earlier steps:
2019 lifestyle: ฿46,569/month
Adjusted for Thai inflation through 2024 → ฿55,700/month in 2025
Converted at today’s rate (≈32.38 THB/USD): ≈$1,720/month
3. Comparison
- Social Security (2025): ~$1,838
- Thailand lifestyle (2025): ~$1,720
✅ Yes — the COLA increase would be enough to cover Thailand’s inflation during the same period, with about a $118 monthly cushion left over.
Three Ways Retirees Adjust To Inflation Overseas
One. Get New Friends. Seriously. Many expats hang out with other expats who have higher budgets and are a bad influence. You have seen comments on my channel that sound like this, “You can’t live here for that.”
How can they say that it is impossible to live somewhere for less than they do when locals often live on one-third of a typical expat budget or less? What they really mean is, they can’t live here on that. If you hang out with people like that, they can’t teach you how to live on less.
So who should you hang out with? People who are living on whatever budget you need to keep. The locals are the people who can teach you how to get your budget down. So make a few local friends and see how they live on less.
Two. Move to another neighborhood. Many expats move to places that I call soft landings when they first move overseas. I call them soft landings because they have western bars, restaurants, and accommodations.
Soft landings will help you adjust when you first go overseas. However, they can also hinder your cultural growth in a new country and cause you to run way over budget. Consider relocating to a more rural area with fewer expatriates and tourists.
You can even move to another city where there are fewer tourists and expats. That can drop your budget quickly. Additionally, consider relocating to a more affordable country.
It is better to live on less than your social security check so you can save money for a rainy day.
Three. Increase your monthly income. You can do that by teaching English online from anywhere in the world. Just Google ‘how to teach English as a second language.’ Once certified, you can find jobs online. Some online companies don’t even require you to be certified online. If you teach online instead of in person, you may be able to avoid obtaining a work visa.
There are two videos you should watch next: The Two Biggest Risks of Retiring for Cheap Overseas, and How to Make Money Online with Your Favorite Hobby.