Kiribati

Kiribati is not a retirement or FIRE destination for most Americans. It is an extremely remote Pacific island nation sitting barely above sea level, spread across 33 atolls over an ocean area the size of the continental US. The only person who should genuinely consider living here long-term is someone with a specific reason to be present, such as an NGO or development worker, a researcher, or someone with deep personal ties to the I-Kiribati community. If you are drawn to radical isolation, minimal consumerism, and a genuinely subsistence-adjacent Pacific lifestyle, it warrants a look. But arriving with a laptop and a savings account expecting a quiet FIRE setup will collide hard with reality within the first month.

The $305 per month figure for living expenses without rent sounds cheap. Add the listed $829 for a one-bedroom in South Tarawa and you are at roughly $1,130 before accounting for anything that needs to be imported, which is almost everything you are used to buying. Nearly all consumer goods arrive by ship, and prices reflect that. A case of beer costs more than in Australia. Imported food staples run two to three times what you would pay in Southeast Asia. That $305 baseline almost certainly reflects local food and minimal consumption patterns, not how a Western expat actually eats or lives. A realistic monthly budget for one person is closer to $2,000 to $2,500, and that assumes you have stopped expecting variety.

The practical obstacles here are serious. The healthcare index of 48.5 reflects a system built around Tungaru Central Hospital in Tarawa, which has limited diagnostic equipment and essentially no specialist care. Evacuations to Fiji or Australia happen regularly for anything beyond basic treatment, and medical evacuation insurance is not optional, it is mandatory if you want to survive a cardiac event or a complicated injury. Internet connectivity is slow and expensive by any Pacific standard, which makes remote work genuinely difficult rather than inconvenient. The Level 2 advisory is for exercise of increased caution, largely around petty crime and road safety on Tarawa, where the main road is frequently congested and accidents are common. There is no long-term residency visa category designed for retirees or remote workers. Stays are typically possible on visitor permits, but there is no clear legal pathway to extended residence the way Portugal or Panama offer.

For US tax purposes, Kiribati does not change your obligations. The US taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, and there is no tax treaty between the US and Kiribati. If you spend enough time outside the US, you can claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion under the bona fide residence or physical presence tests, which in 2024 shields up to $126,500 of earned income from federal tax. That helps remote workers with employment or freelance income. It does not apply to investment income, Social Security, or retirement distributions, all of which remain fully taxable in the US. Kiribati itself has a personal income tax system with rates that reach 25 percent for residents earning above a modest threshold, so if you are considered a tax resident there, you face obligations on both sides with no treaty mechanism to eliminate double taxation.