Single person
- Lean
- $700
- Comfortable
- $1,200
- Upscale
- $2,200
Cost of Living in Vietnam for American Retirees
Cost of Living in Vietnam
What it actually costs to live in Vietnam, broken down by household, by line item and by city, with the caveat that the spread inside the country is wider than the spread between countries.
Vietnam is the cheapest destination in this atlas alongside Ecuador. Street food, rent, transport and domestic help cost very little. Imported goods, cars and alcohol are expensive. Health insurance for older residents is the one line that can dominate a budget.
Couple
- Lean
- $950
- Comfortable
- $1,600
- Upscale
- $2,800
- Housing (2-bed rental) $420
- Groceries $300
- Utilities $90
- Health cover $200
- Transport $20
- Internet $12
- Everything else (dining, leisure, travel, household) $558
City by city
| City or area | Couple, monthly | 2-bed rent | Expat presence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Nang | $1,500 | $450 | The most popular choice for foreign residents: a long beach, mountains behind, an international airport, a modern hospital, clean air by Vietnamese standards and a large international community. | |
| Hoi An | $1,400 | $400 | A UNESCO ancient town half an hour from Da Nang, beautiful and walkable, with a well-established foreign community. Prone to flooding in the autumn rainy season. | |
| Ho Chi Minh City | $1,800 | $600 | The commercial capital with the best hospitals in the country and the deepest international infrastructure. Hot, humid, congested and energetic. | |
| Hanoi | $1,700 | $550 | The cultural and political capital, with genuine seasons including a cool damp winter, extraordinary food and serious air pollution in winter. | |
| Nha Trang | $1,400 | $400 | A beach city with a large Russian and increasingly Western presence, a hospital and an airport. | |
| Da Lat | $1,300 | $350 | A highland town at 1,500 metres with a cool, spring-like climate, French colonial architecture and flower farms. The only genuinely temperate option in Vietnam. |
How long will the money last?
A transparent model, not a black box. It compounds your savings at a nominal return, raises your income by a cost-of-living adjustment, raises your spending by local inflation, and lets you apply a currency shock. Everything is visible and everything is editable.
On these assumptions the money outlasts the 35-year horizon.
- Monthly gap covered from savings
- $0
- Savings at year 10
- $744,136
- Savings at year 20
- $1,287,313
- Money lasts
- beyond the modelled horizon
This is arithmetic, not advice. It assumes a constant return rather than a sequence of good and bad years, which real markets do not provide, and it ignores tax, healthcare shocks and long-term care. Treat the answer as a direction, stress-test it by dragging the currency slider against yourself, and take proper financial advice before acting.
Cost of Living in Vietnam: common questions
How much does a couple need per month in Vietnam?
About $1,600 for a comfortable life, $950 living leanly, and $2,800 at the upper end. Vietnam is the cheapest destination in this atlas alongside Ecuador. Street food, rent, transport and domestic help cost very little. Imported goods, cars and alcohol are expensive. Health insurance for older residents is the one line that can dominate a budget.
Is that more or less than the visa requires?
Compare it against the income thresholds on the visa pages. In several countries, Mexico being the clearest example, the visa asks you to prove considerably more income than you would actually spend, because the threshold is tied to a domestic benchmark rather than to the cost of living for a foreigner.
What is not in these figures?
One-off moving costs, health insurance beyond the local norm, travel back to the United States, and U.S. tax. The city table below is the better guide than the country average, because the spread inside most countries is wider than the spread between them.
Verified Sep 7, 2026 Primary sources: xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn, evisa.gov.vn, vietnamembassy-usa.org
This resource is provided free by Federal Apostille as an educational tool. It is not legal, tax, immigration or financial advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by using it. Immigration rules, income thresholds, fees and processing times change frequently and often without notice, and consulates apply them differently. Always confirm current requirements with the official government source and the specific consulate that has jurisdiction over your U.S. state of residence before you act. Every figure on this site carries the date we last verified it and a link to the primary source.
