Can I Retire In Italy On My Social Security Alone?

hi guys chris here from super savvy travelers hey just a quick reminder if you're thinking of buying a house in italy you must take our course it's absolutely vital so the details are down below hi guys chris here with super savvy travelers hey i hope you're having a good weekend uh it's a little chilly here i'm not liking it to be honest with you i want it to always be summer but it is what it is um in the meantime i wanted to go over a question that i get a lot which is am i able to retire in italy and live there with just my social security income so that's a question that actually has a lot of parts to the answer and so i thought i'd go over all the parts individually the first and most important one is that italy in order for you to become a resident and and that requires that you get an elective residence visa and then a permission to stay visa now in order to get your elective residence visa you have to show passive income in the amount of 31 000 euros per year for an individual now based on the exchange rate that i see right now as of the 25th of february 2021 there was 1.216 dollars to the euro so that would actually be closer to thirty seven thousand six hundred and ninety six dollars per year or three thousand one hundred and forty one dollars and change per month that is just right up as of the 25th of february um 2021. the exchange rates change so sometimes they're more favorable sometimes less and that's something that you want to keep in mind but 31 000 per year for an individual you have to show passive income now that could be rental income it could be um social security it could be pensions it could be dividends something like that that expect this is expected to go on indefinitely and and that's one of the things you have to show now in addition to that you also have to show the same amount in a bank account somewhere which my understanding is it could be like an ira account or something like that they want to know that you have that money um in your possession now if you are thinking of retiring and going over as a couple and and living on your social security the good news is you only need 38 000 euros per year as a couple in order to do that but you also need 38 000 euros in a bank account before you're eligible for the elective residence visa now there's another requirement which is um you need a medical insurance policy for the year when you first arrive now you will be eligible for the italian health care system after the first year um after you've been approved and you've already your visa is granted to you but for the first year they want to see a medical insurance policy those are not too expensive now the next question is once you get past the passive income requirements for the elective residency can you live in italy on that amount of money let's just say for example 2 500 a month and the answer is again it depends uh it depends where you live i don't think that would go very far in rome or milan or florence or any of those other places but down south is a very different story now there's a lot of ways that you can stretch your dollar down there and honestly the prices are very cheap you can get a pizza there or like a full delicious pizza for six euros i did a video um a few months ago that compares the prices for various different things like milk and vegetables and things like that and i'll put a link in the details section here it's the prices are compared between san jose california milan and um our area in calabria and you can see the distinct difference now if you don't own a car that would make it a lot easier to to survive and get by on your income so the thing to do would be to look for a place in a town that has ready access to the trains and that's walkable you can walk everywhere and that would be a real money saver gas is not cheap over there sold by the leader and it's it's expensive and maintaining a car is expensive anywhere so that's one way of doing it also if you have the wherewithal to purchase your home so you don't have a mortgage that's a very good thing the rents are um a lot cheaper in calabria although july and august they they go up so um you'd have to really average it out over the years and and see if that would work for you but i think if you were a little bit away from the sea perhaps in santa dominica talau or even uh or somasso or one of the other you know torture yet those kind of places i think i don't think the rents will fluctuate that much in the summertime but um they tend to be a lot cheaper in southern italy and especially in calabria than in northern italy so in a nutshell i think that if you get through the passive income requirements on the elective residence visa and you were to live in a town like perhaps scalia or maybe one of the other ones that have bus service sayeta or somarso you could probably very easily live on like 2 000 you know something dollars per month i i think if as long as the exchange rate didn't fluctuate wildly you would probably be okay and they do fluctuate let's just be honest with that um in the last 10 years since we've been there i think the highest we saw was a dollar was 1.45 dollars to the euro which was pretty high and of course you know things got more expensive for us as americans because the extreme the exchange rate wasn't as good however now we're at one point you know 2-1 i've seen it as low as 1.10 which was a few years ago and that was very nice um so you have to take all of that in into account um you have to make sure you budget wisely uh but i think it can be done you can actually live really well like have a high standard of living down there for not a lot of money because of the availability of all that fresh food and the very low prices in the restaurants and things like that so i hope that helps um if you have questions you can always write to me at info super savvy travelers dot com also if you're really serious about looking into that definitely contact nick metta at studio legale meta and he can tell you definitively one way or the other whether or not it's doable for you so anyway we'll see you soon take care

Channel: Super Savvy Travelers, LLC

Views: 45,803

Keywords: Live in Italy, retire in Italy, Move to Italy, Live iN calabria, retire in Calabria, Move to Calabria, #calabriaisbooming, Riviera dei Cedri, Santa Domenica Talao, Aieta, Scalea, Orsomarso, Tortora, Buy a house in Italy, Buy a house in Calabria, Purchase property in Italy, Purchase property in Calabria

Id: fEvYbGZlukQ

Length: 6min 18sec (378 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021