Grenada

Grenada is a small island that makes sense for a specific type of person: someone with $3,000 or more per month in passive income who genuinely wants slow-paced Caribbean life, not just a cheaper version of an American suburb. English is the official language, so the bureaucratic friction that kills people in Southeast Asia or Latin America is largely absent. The Level 2 advisory is the State Department's baseline for most of the world and reflects general petty crime concerns, not political instability. Grenada also participates in CARICOM, which gives it regional connectivity, and St. George's University means there is a steady stream of English-speaking medical students creating a slightly more international atmosphere than you'd expect for a 100,000-person island.

The numbers here are genuinely counterintuitive. Numbeo puts monthly costs excluding rent at about $1,057 for a single person, which sounds low until you realize Grenada is actually roughly 10 to 11 percent more expensive than the U.S. average on everyday goods. That's the import premium baked into nearly everything. Rent, however, runs the opposite direction. A one-bedroom in St. George's city center averages around $633 per month, which is cheap by American standards. Add that together and a single person can realistically budget $1,700 to $1,900 a month for a basic but comfortable life, or $2,500 to $3,000 if you want a decent apartment, a car, regular restaurant meals, and any travel off-island. The cheap-Caribbean narrative breaks down at the grocery store. Imported goods like cheese, wine, and packaged foods can run 40 to 60 percent above U.S. prices at some St. George's supermarkets. Local produce and fish are where the actual savings live.

The practical friction centers on a few things most people underestimate. Healthcare is functional but limited. The General Hospital in St. George's handles routine care, but the Numbeo healthcare index of 51.2 tells you this is not a place to have a complex chronic condition managed locally. Serious illness means medical evacuation to Barbados, Trinidad, or Miami, and that flight alone justifies buying robust international health insurance, typically $200 to $400 per month for a 50-year-old American. Internet is better than you'd expect for the region. Fixed broadband median download speeds hit around 144 Mbps according to Speedtest data, with 56 Mbps upload, which is workable for remote work, though coverage outside the capital gets spottier. Car ownership is essentially mandatory. Public transport exists but is unreliable for anything time-sensitive. Left-hand drive is the rule, roads are narrow and hilly, and a used car will run $8,000 to $15,000 locally. Hurricane season runs June through November and Grenada sits near the southern edge of the belt, giving it some protection, but Ivan in 2004 destroyed roughly 90 percent of structures on the island, so this is not a theoretical risk.

On taxes, the U.S. taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, so living in Grenada changes your physical address but not your IRS obligations. Grenada has no tax treaty with the United States, which means there is no reduced withholding rate or special coordination mechanism. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion lets you exclude up to $126,500 of earned income for 2024 if you pass either the bona fide residence or physical presence test, but this does not help retirees living on Social Security, dividends, or capital gains. The Foreign Tax Credit is your main tool for those income types, but Grenada's personal income tax rate is 30 percent on income above roughly EC$60,000 (around $22,000 USD), so if you're paying Grenadian tax on local income you can generally offset U.S. liability dollar for dollar up to the amount owed. The practical reality for most FIRE or retirement-income Americans is that they will owe U.S. tax as usual, file Form 2555 or 1116 depending on income type, and have no particular advantage or disadvantage from Grenada's side of the ledger compared to other no-treaty Caribbean countries.