These are genuinely different experiences — financially, socially, and emotionally. The couple who retires abroad has advantages the solo retiree doesn't. The solo retiree has freedoms and social motivations the couple often lacks. Here's the honest comparison — and the one question every couple must answer before they go.
The financial picture for a couple vs a solo retiree is dramatically different. A couple in their late 60s can realistically expect combined CPP and OAS of CAD $3,500–$5,000/month before withholding — enough to live very comfortably in Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, or Portugal. A solo retiree on one CPP and one OAS is working with roughly half that income, which changes which destinations are realistic.
The math for a solo retiree on average CPP and OAS is tight in many destinations without RRIF supplementation. This isn't an argument against retiring abroad solo — it's an argument for choosing your destination carefully, choosing a 1-bedroom rather than a 2-bedroom apartment, and supplementing CPP/OAS with RRIF withdrawals from day one rather than trying to preserve capital.
The destinations where solo retirees on modest incomes can live genuinely well: Penang, Chiang Mai, Medellín, and smaller cities in Thailand and Vietnam. Portugal and the more expensive Southeast Asian destinations require either a higher pension, a RRIF supplement, or investment income.
The most common way couples fail abroad is not financial — it's one partner who was enthusiastic and one who agreed reluctantly, with the reluctant partner's unhappiness eventually becoming impossible to ignore. The excited partner often doesn't ask the alignment questions directly because they're afraid of the answers. Ask them. A hard conversation before you go is vastly easier than a crisis at month eight in a foreign city.
Some cities are significantly more solo-friendly than others. The key factors: a large and active expat community with regular social events, a city scale where you encounter the same people repeatedly, good safety for solo residents, and a culture that doesn't require a partner to participate in social life fully.
Safety deserves its own section for solo retirees — particularly solo women, who constitute a significant and growing proportion of international retirees. The good news: most of the top retirement destinations for Canadians have strong safety records for solo expat residents. The precautions are common sense rather than onerous.
Share your address with a trusted person in Canada and update them when you move. Have a local emergency contact — even an expat friend you've known for six weeks is better than no one. Know the location of your nearest private hospital and have their number in your phone. Keep your international health insurance documents accessible digitally. Have a clear protocol for contacting family in a genuine emergency. None of this is excessive — it's the same care you'd take living alone in Toronto.
We've thought about what we'd tell a solo friend considering the same move we made. Honestly: the companionship of having each other through the hard first months was significant. There were weeks when the only person who fully understood what the adjustment felt like was the other one. That's real and it mattered.
At the same time — we've watched solo friends build richer, more varied social lives than we have. They were forced to reach out in ways we sometimes didn't because we had each other. The community they built is more deliberately chosen and sometimes more interesting than ours. The couple has a safety net the solo retiree lacks. The solo retiree has a freedom and social motivation the couple sometimes lacks. Both lead to good lives, differently arrived at.
This is the twentieth post in this series — and the last. Across these posts we've covered CPP withholding rates, RRIF mechanics, departure year tax returns, bank account opening procedures, transfer fees, driver's licence conversions, international health insurance, and a lot else that lives in spreadsheets and government forms.
But the thing we most want to say — here, at the end — is simpler than any of that. Retiring abroad is not a financial strategy. It's a choice about how to live. The money matters. The tax treaties matter. The visa requirements matter. And none of them will be what you think about most in year three.
What you think about is the morning light coming through the window of your apartment in a city that still surprises you. The smell of the coffee shop that knows your order. The friends you made by accident, the food that became ordinary and then missed when you left it, the feeling of being in motion in a life that kept going past the point where it was supposed to be finished. That's what we'd tell you. Go find out what your version of it looks like.
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