As we plan for traveling in our retirement, understanding the cost of living in various cities compared to your home base can be crucial, whether you’re planning a relocation, nomadic traveling, or simply exploring financial scenarios. We built a Google Sheet with two tabs that we use to discuss and plan with clarity and precision.
Tab 1: City Cost-of-Living Comparison
The first tab of the worksheet serves as a detailed database, listing 20+ different cities and comparing each one’s cost of living to a designated “home” location, which is considered the baseline. This comparison is neatly categorized into several essential expenses: transportation, accommodations, groceries, dining, and utilities. Each category provides a relative cost index that helps users quickly grasp how much more or less they would need to spend in each area compared to their home city. This visual breakdown makes it easy to identify which cities are more or less expensive in specific categories—valuable information for budget planning and more.
Tab 2: Interactive Monthly Cost Planner
The second tab brings a dynamic and user-friendly aspect to the worksheet. Here, users can select a city for each of the 12 months of the year from a dropdown menu. The worksheet is programmed to automatically calculate and display the associated costs for each month based on the selections. Furthermore, it aggregates the total cost for the year, offering a comprehensive view of how your expenses could fluctuate if you moved around or traveled throughout the year. This tool is perfect for digital nomads, frequent travelers, and anyone considering multiple relocations in a year.
This Google Worksheet not only simplifies the complexity of cost of living calculations but also makes planning more interactive and tailored to individual needs. By providing both a broad overview and detailed monthly breakdowns, it helps users make informed decisions based on thorough financial insights. Whether you’re planning a temporary stay or a permanent move, this tool is designed to guide you through the financial implications with ease.
In essence, this worksheet is more than just a set of numbers; it’s a comprehensive planning tool that adapts to varied lifestyles and needs, providing clear, actionable data that helps pave the way for smarter financial decisions in the context of mobility and travel.
You can find the worksheet under Resources on the menu. Your feedback is appreciated, as we continue to evolve this tool for ourselves as well!
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