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

The Mackenzies stay on about $2,000 a month, most of that coming from Don’s pension (he’s retired from the navy), 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 once 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 yr; now they don’t pay hire, having constructed their residence for about $38,000. They lease the land without spending a dime as a result of they assist out on the eco-village; once they die their residence and most of its contents will go to the proprietor of the eco-village. They paid for the home by way of a mixture 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 each time they’ll. Different vital bills embrace transportation — they don’t personal a automobile however spend about $350 a month on taxis — and medical 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 bit over $80 a month, and a mobile-phone plan prices $28 a month. In addition they spend cash on issues like gardening instruments, gardeners, seeds, timber and soil.

Along with their easy way of life, they get monetary savings 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 lots and never consuming out. “We like the agricultural way of life,” says Jacqueline. “Consuming out shouldn’t be an enormous deal to us. We’ve already been to bazillions of concert events and performs. Now we hearken to music with a glass of wine on the patio.”