Do you want to move to the place with the LOWEST cost of living?

Do you want to move to the place with the LOWEST cost of living?

Actually, we should move to the country where our income is able to buy more things instead. The reason is because the cost of living could be low but this does not mean we are earning more than other countries. So we could earn less and cost of living is lower. Meanwhile in some other countries people could be earning more and the cost of living is not lowest but because of their much higher earnings, they actually could afford to buy more!

Reference site: worlddata.info This is how the ranking is done.

Cost of living and purchasing power related to average income. USA is the base and has an index of 100. Thus, if the country’s cost index is 80, that means the usual expenses in that country is 20 points lower than USA.

The monthly income is calculated from the gross national income per capita. The calculated purchasing power index is again based on a value of 100 for the United States. If it is higher, people can afford more based on the cost of living in relation to the average per capita income. If it’s lower, people could afford less.

If we look at Norway, we can see that it has a cost index of 90.8 which meant that the cost of living is 10 percent lower than USA. Meanwhile its monthly income is about 27 percent higher. Thus, we could see that Norwegians are living very well; cost is low (probably inflation has been low) while they generally earn a higher average monthly income than Americans.

Take a look at the below (ranked based on purchasing power index) for some idea on some countries which the people are living better even if their per capita income could be lower than USA. One such example is Singapore. Singaporeans earn lower per capita income but because their cost index is 22 percent lower, this has helped them to have a higher purchasing power index versus USA.

Do read more here: Info from worldata.info

Where is Malaysia?

We are too small I guess but here is Malaysia:

Our cost index is very low in comparison to USA. Just 32 points versus 100 for USA. So, cost wise, it’s 68 percent lower. Meanwhile our purchasing power index is also lower, at 46 points versus USA’s 100. When we take both into account, Malaysians are still doing slightly better versus the Americans. Not a lot better but yes, still slightly better. Note that all these are based on average yeah.

New York is most likely way more expensive than Nashville for example. I have been to both. KL is also more expensive than Ipoh too. So, just bear in mind that all these are comparisons based on average per capita income and it’s not based on the salaries yeah. That one would reveal some having a much higher income while others may have a lower income.

So, which country do you think you want to move to in order to earn a better pay and at the same time enjoy a lower cost of price of foods and services? Happy moving there for a few years maybe.

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