At 72, Jacqueline Mackenzie has lived in almost each state within the U.S. Nevertheless it’s in Vilcabamba — an Andean foothills city in southern Ecuador — the place the retired instructor plans to spend the remainder of her life. MarketWatch studies:

The Mackenzies stay on about $2,000 a month, most of that coming from Don’s pension (he’s retired from the army), they are saying. “We couldn’t afford the States, however right here we’re wealthy,” Jacqueline says — including that they now stay in a house with a “million-dollar view.”

Their largest expense after they first moved to Ecuador was hire: They paid $400 a month for a three-bedroom home on a quarter-acre of land earlier than they moved to the eco-village final 12 months; now they don’t pay hire, having constructed their dwelling for about $38,000. They lease the land without cost as a result of they assist out on the eco-village; after they die their dwelling and most of its contents will go to the proprietor of the eco-village. They paid for the home by means of a mix of financial savings and loans.

Now they spend the largest proportion of their cash on meals — roughly $375 a month — partly as a result of, as Jacqueline says, they’re dedicated to consuming natural every time they’ll. Different vital bills embody transportation — they don’t personal a automotive however spend about $350 a month on taxis — and medical health insurance. That prices them about $100 a month, although they do have out-of-pocket health-care prices like physician’s appointments and prescriptions, which may add up. Web service prices them a little bit over $80 a month, and a mobile-phone plan prices $28 a month. Additionally they spend cash on issues like gardening instruments, gardeners, seeds, bushes and soil.

Along with their easy life-style, they lower your expenses by not having a tv — “we’ve not had entry to a TV for eight months, so we’re entertained by nature’s sunrises and sunsets,” Jacqueline says — and by not touring so much and never consuming out. “We like the agricultural life-style,” says Jacqueline. “Consuming out just isn’t an enormous deal to us. We’ve already been to bazillions of live shows and performs. Now we take heed to music with a glass of wine on the patio.”