In the United States a small lot on the beach in Florida will set you back a million dollars, as it will for Southren California beachfront property. A home will cost upwards of two million dollars, even in this economy.

Medical and dental visits are no bargain either. You will have a co-pay anywhere from $75 to $300 for a cleaning and it will set you back up to $1,000 for a cap or crown. A simple visit to the doctor? Your co-pay is around $25. This is not counting your monthly health insurance bill, in addition to Medicare. Those high costs make it difficult to retire cheap in the U.S.

In contrast, you can save hundreds off your medical bills in Mexico or Central America, and more and more Americans are doing just that. They're crossing the borders into Mexico from Texas, Arizona and California to look for dentists. At least they were until a virtual war broke out on the border because of drug dealers in Mexico.

In Panama, an organization called Pana-Health caters to what they refer to as “medical tourists.” It has more than 100 member physicians in a wide range of fields--dermatology, plastic surgery, dentistry, and more. These physicians received their specialist training abroad, mostly in the U.S.

You can typically expect to shave at least a third, sometimes much more, off the U.S. price for treatments. For example, one patient went for cataract surgery that would have cost $5,000 to $6,000 per eye in the U.S. In Panama? It was just $2,500.

Thailand is another destination where the cost of top-notch healthcare is half--or less--than what you’d expect to pay for comparable care Stateside. Bumrungrad Hospital in the center of Bangkok, for instance, treats a million patients a year--400,000 of them are from overseas. They come seeking everything from allergy to orthopedic care. And the medical staff does it well. The price of real estate is rising as more foreigners purchase property but some say you can still live like a king on $600 a month.

COSTA RICA...This tropical paradise is nestled between Nicaragua and Panama. 25% of the country is already protected as national parks. It is also said to be one of the safest countries in Central America and has decent health care (a concern for travelers and expats). It is a country of dense jungles, active volcanoes, pristine beaches and is fast becoming the eco-tourism capitol of the western hemisphere but it's no longer considered a place where you can retire cheap like 10 years ago.

 The capitol city is crowded and dirty, and many outlying towns are also poverty-stricken and dirty but many foreigners don't seem to mind.  They like living in a different culture..

We spoke with a real estate agent who specializes in the Jaco Beach area while we were in the country trying to decide if that was a good place for us to retire cheap. He told us that property values have not declined nearly as much as they have here in the U.S.He also told us that dining out was inexpensive...it wasn't. It cost around $8 for lunch in restaurants you would never consider dining at here in the U.S. And the food was mostly rice and beans.

We took one of the canopy rides at an eco park. We got out of our car and walked across a bridge on our way to Jaco and watched crocs below (some were HUGE)...got charged double the entry fee go go into Manuel Antonio park and were forced to park...and pay the police uniformed men... in what we learned later to be a no parking area. The men were scam artists so beware of some Ticos. They are out to rip you off.