This forum has a cost of living chart. I never understand these things no matter how many footnotes there are. This one doesn't include housing, because what people want is too variable. It supposedly covers a market basket of goods.

According to the chart, Mexico is more expensive than the US. The UK is 40% more expensive, while Japan is 83% more expensive. Singapore is about the same.

The only thing I can think of that would explain the Mexico figure is that the basket of goods contains some item that is not commonly used there and for which there is a local substitute. Adding a product like that means that you are paying import prices for something you probably don't need. The discussion of the cost of living on this site claims that Mexico is much, much cheaper, and for good reason. It assumes that you live more like a local.

The Japan numbers probably assume that you must continue to eat the same mixture of fruits that you would in the US, regardless of season. But what you really do is only eat things that are in season, and avoid the fruits that are of 'gift' quality. You never eat melon, for instance, but have lots of bananas, apples, mandarin oranges, etc.

Yep. There are some conversions that assume that if you are moving from an Atlanta suburb to Tokyo, that you will require a four bedroom, three bath house, and give prices accordingly. You have to be really, really, really rich to afford that in Tokyo. So that skews the numbers. sling is right, you really have to know what is in that basket.

There's something called the Big Mac index. What does a Big Mac cost in the country of choice? Of course this is misleading, as in some countries you have to pay extra for each packet of ketchup (Germany), and in some there are no Big Macs (India).

I like the index Frommer's does, where they tell you what it costs for a local beer, a movie ticket, and a bus or subway ride, as well as hotel and meal costs.

I've been kind of relying on a couple of these charts to help me guage possible living expenses. I guess I should look for something other than international cost of living charts.

Even doing things like looking up rents on the internet or in newspapers doesn't help. I knew someone who moved from Denver to Boston who based his evaluation of the offer on things like the rents he saw in the paper. The problem was that he didn't know where the bad areas were. When he got there he discovered that all the inexpensive places he'd seen were in near-slums.

One of the things I've noticed is that the ratios of costs are different. Internet seems terribly expensive to me. I may be spoiled, though, because I got one of those early 'convert to digital cable' packages that were good for life. Fruits seem cheaper. So if I think of the proportion of my budget devoted to something, it seems high, even without comparing prices to home.

I'll bet this makes no sense at all.

I looked at the 'Retire in Dubai' section here, and it doesn't seem really consistent with the charts either.

Also, if you are American, the falling dollar means that the costs are probably too low, and if you are British, the rising pound probably means it will be less expensive than you expect. A comparison between the US and Britain could get totally out of date in just a few weeks.