Going back to the original question, the search needs to be focused on the first motivation: "making the money go further". There are a number of assumptions built into that. If you live in Chicago, and you buy a little house in Pikeville, Kentucky, your retirement money will go very far, but the second part of the question is whether Pikeville offers the activities you seek.

If you already live in Pikeville, moving to Europe is not a smart financial move.

Cost of living factors in Europe are similar to other places. Big cities are more expensive than farm towns. Places with celebrity residents are more expensive than places nobody heard of.

Some places welcome immigration, some don't. You can NOT get a residence permit to live in Denmark if you are not coming to take full time employment. It does not matter how much money you have in the bank. The same is true for Germany. Spain is different. They welcome retirees and you can get a residence permit if you have proof of income.

How about Ireland? Ireland has a residence permit for retired persons of "independent means". There are many preservation groups in Ireland. Small town Ireland is not expensive. They speak English. You must document an income of €50,000 (euro) per year.

https://www.irishimmigration.ie/coming-to-live-in-ireland/i-want-to-retire-to-ireland/

Well, the beer is good but the food leaves a bit to be desired. And, you have to learn how to dance without moving your arms.

One day they'll rediscover "Irish Dancing: Book 2 - How to move your arms."

Just wanted to post a hearty thank you to all the helpful posters! You all gave me very good info and certainly plenty to consider. Yes, maybe just selling out CA land and buying a cheaper house will be OK for us....

Kimball

Before you go too far, what's a house going to cost you in Orbisonia PA or Chama NM?

I would think there's some neat spots to retire right here in the USA where the cost of living can't be that bad.

I really don't think so. There are a lot of good places, but they are priced well above the average. And we know that expensive depends on a person's financial income. What may seem expensive to one person is cheaper to another. So it is with the goal of being rich that I play on https://lowdepositcasino.org/au/5-dollar-deposit-casinos/ making 5 dollar deposit casino Australia every week. This allows me to make a lot of money and also to improve my lifestyle.

Be careful. I knew of a couple who moved to Chama, and the wife thought the community was somewhat less than welcoming. Like is said of small towns everywhere, "you don't really belong until you've been there four generations."

This is second-hand info, but a niece of mine and her husband looked into immigrating to NZ a few years ago and said the requirements are very restrictive. Basically, if you don’t have a skill that’s needed and in short supply there, you can’t immigrate. Interestingly, if you’re a veterinarian, they’ll be glad to have you as vets are in short supply and are needed to support raising sheep.

FWIW

If you want to retire in an affordable, friendly English speaking country, The Philippines are available. The cost of living there is 1/3 that of the US. We just built a 3 bed, 2 bath concrete house there for around $100K US. Yes, there is a dearth of railroads there, other that the suburban lines and LRT system in Manila. You can always hop a plane to visit Australia or New Zealand. There is also a nice railroad museum in Hong Kong which is only a 2 hour flight from Manila and also English-speaking. Or you can make a 4 hour flight to Seoul South Korea which has a large museum and many English speakers among the populace.

Any questions, feel free to PM me.