We moved to Malta 3 years ago. As Americans, living here has made our retirement dreams come true on a tight budget.

After living in Northern California for 25 years, we moved to Gozo, Malta. When we share this with strangers, they often ask, “Why?”

It’s a fair question: Why did two Americans in their mid-70s leave an oceanfront community in the California Redwoods to live on an arid island in the middle of the Mediterranean?

The short answer is that it seemed like a great place where we could realize our retirement dream of traveling the world and while living a quality life on our Social Security checks.

Now that we’ve lived in Gozo for three years, we couldn’t be happier — and we’ve got even more reasons we’re glad we moved.

Adjusting to life in Malta has been pretty easy

We had no problem adjusting to Malta’s dry, hot summers and mild, wet winters. The country gets a lot of sunshine, and we don’t miss the months of fog and gray clouds on the Northern California coast.

Since Malta is a dual-language country — Maltese and English are the official languages — we haven’t had to navigate too many barriers.

All government business is conducted in English, and most Maltese citizens speak it. In part because of this, connecting with our neighbors has been easy.

Since moving to Malta, our community has been nothing but welcoming. We’ve met many people who grew up here and other expats from around the globe.

We’re grateful to our neighbors who have been eager to learn about us and share their lives and traditions. They have truly helped Malta feel like home.

We live very comfortably on our Social Security checks

Our cost of living is significantly lower in Malta than it was in California — we’d estimate we spend about 50% less on our bills and essentials than we did back home.

After conversions, we spend less than $1,000 a month to rent a 2,000-square-foot fully furnished luxury apartment with views of the sea. In Northern California, a place of that size with waterfront views would cost several thousands a month.

We typically budget just $180 or so for our monthly bills — electricity, gas, water, trash, internet, two mobile phones, and a landline. And we’re able to fill our diet with tons of locally produced, wholesome food with a $650 monthly food budget.

Our Social Security payments comfortably cover our living expenses in Malta. We even have enough leftover to add money to our savings each month.

So far, we’ve had positive experiences with healthcare

Malta offers a high healthcare standard, combining public and private services. The National Health Service provides free healthcare to citizens, while private options are available for those seeking shorter wait times.

The healthcare facilities we’ve accessed here are modern, and many medical professionals speak English, making it accessible for expats.

As digital nomads, we are required to maintain private health insurance. This year, for both of us, we paid €3,950, about $4,600, for our private insurance.

This amount is roughly comparable to Social Security’s Medicare in the US. However, our Maltese health insurance has no deductible and covers 100% of the bill.

Additionally, we’ve found healthcare in Malta to be affordable. A few months ago, for an entire emergency-room visit, we paid only €559, which our insurance company reimbursed us for immediately — 100%.

We believe that a similar situation in the US would’ve cost us thousands.

The local lifestyle and Mediterranean diet have also won us over

We enjoyed a lot of great food in California, but we can now afford to follow a far superior Mediterranean diet in Gozo.

We prioritize eating lots of fresh fish and produce, plus fewer processed meats. Since we can get a lot of local food for a fairly reasonable cost, it’s possible for us to eat organic at every meal.

At the Wednesday street market in our village, we purchase fruit and vegetables that were harvested that day. The village butcher sells locally raised meats free of hormones and added chemicals.

The fishmonger’s seafood is seasonally harvested, sourced from local and regional waters. Plus, the local bakery’s famed Maltese bread and traditional Maltese pastries are impossible to resist.

Even better, market visits like this and stops at our village square for coffee and conversation keep us connected to the community. It’s all part of Gozo’s wonderfully slow-paced lifestyle.

Living in Gozo has even made our retirement dreams of travel a reality

In California, it was expensive and time-consuming to travel to our dream destinations abroad. Living here, we’ve got closer, cheaper, and easier access to many incredible places.

Although it feels remote, Malta is an archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea that’s it’s fairly ideally situated between Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

We’ve been able to use some of the money we’ve saved by living here to travel, which we’d always dreamed of doing during our retirement.

All in all, since our move, we feel like we’re in better physical and mental shape. We travel all we want. We are happy. We are living the dream.

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