If I wanted to make as much income as possible in a strong currency, which country should I move to?

Question

1) Currency Value within a Country
2) Job Opportunities within a Country
3) Income-living cost ratio

In a utopian world, the best thing to do would be to travel to a country with a strong currency, few expenses, and good job opportunities so that when retirement comes around you can travel somewhere with a weak currency and cheap living standards, being able to live in luxury.

For example, working in a country with US Dollars and then moving to Europe would be counter productive because you would suddenly have less money. If you were to earn a lot of the following:
1. Kuwaiti dinar
2. The Maltese lira
3. The Bahraini dinar
and then move to Europe, you could live very well.The problem is: how are the expenses in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Malta? Is the living cost high? How are job opportunities?

In essence, the plan would be to move somewhere where you can work very little and go into retirement soon. Any advice?

Answer 1

Generally, high-flying currencies come from expensive places. Just take a look at Norway...

In a Utopian world, you would want to live in a low-cost location, but earn your income in a high-cost one. But wait, people are already doing it... Accountants, bankers, and lawyers work in Manhattan, but live in New Jersey and Connecticut; Indian software companies offer their services in the U.S. and Europe, but do the work primarily in India...

Answer 2

You're making a fundamental flaw. It doesn't matter what is the unit value of the currency . The concepts of "strong" or "weak" currency are just short term measures of what's been going on lately on the currency exchanges. Those moves are short term and cyclical; they'll reverse 5 or 10 times in the course of a working career.

Right now you can say the Euro is "strong" because it's been gaining the past couple of years against the dollar. But if it remained at 1.40 dollars the next 10 years, it would cease to be "strong" -- they'd just be different currencies with different unit values. And in reality the Euro will peak and start losing value against the dollar sooner or later -- then the Dollar will be "strong" and the Euro "weak". Cycles.

But what matters as you recognize is job opportunities and real purchasing power. Almost surely the U.S. is the best place for the working years. (Just note how many European entrepreneurs, doctors, professionals, and scientists live in the U.S.). After then retire in maybe Mexico or Costa Rica

Answer 3

The United States.

Answer 4

Malta will change its currency from the Maltese Lira to the Euro on January 1st 2008