Top Health Insurance Options For The Retiree Abroad
Aug. 22, 2010, Panama City, Panama: Bupa is the top option for international health insurance. The cost of your premium will depend on your age, your pre-existing conditions, and, most important, your place of residence when you purchase the policy.
AND: Panama City Sliced Thin...Choosing The Overseas Haven That's Right For You--Here's How You Get Started...Retire To Medellin?...
Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
Since we left the States about 13 years ago, we've carried Bupa international health insurance. Our policy is based in Ireland, as that's where we were living when we bought it.
Now we're in Panama, and we're thinking that, were a condition to develop for Lief, me, or young Jackson that required long-term, ongoing care, we'd likely have to travel back to Ireland to get it. That seems impractical, so we're moving our Bupa coverage to Panama.
Practically speaking, we're getting new international health insurance. The exercise is requiring health inquiries and doctor's visits. The good news is that, even though Lief and I are now both over 40 (we weren't when we purchased our original coverage in Ireland), our premium costs will be very affordable, only slightly more than what we've been paying all these years for our Ireland-based coverage.
Specifically, our new policy will cost US$3,500 per year for the three of us, or (if you do the straight math) about US$300 per month, again for our family of three. As I said, that seems very affordable to me.
And it includes coverage worldwide. We can seek treatment and be covered under this policy anywhere in the world, including in the United States.
That is not to say that this is U.S. insurance. This is an important point to understand. When I've written about the cost of international health care in the past, readers in the States have written back to quote the premium prices they were quoted by Bupa when they inquired about international insurance based in their home country.
Bupa is international health insurance. It is not U.S. health insurance, and I don't recommend it as such. You might be able to purchase a Bupa health insurance policy while you're resident in the United States, but it will cost you dearly. One American reader living in the United States wrote recently to say that he'd shopped for a Bupa policy for himself and his wife and been quoted an annual premium of US$11,000.
The cost of your international health insurance will be determined by the following things: your age, any pre-existing conditions, and, most important, where you're residing when you purchase the policy. That is where the policy's coverage will be based.
The United States is the most expensive place in the world right now to seek medical care. Bupa knows that as well as the rest of us.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. These complicated and very personal issues related to choosing health insurance to cover you during your live- and retire-overseas adventures are discussed in detail inour "Top Health Insurance Options For The Retiree Abroad," which is being updated into a dramatically expanded edition to be published later this month.
If you've purchased the current edition of "Top Health Insurance Options For The Retiree Abroad" within the past year, don't buy this one. We'll send it to you with our compliments. That's our promise with every product you purchase from us--we'll send you every new and updated edition of that product published within 12 months of your purchase at no cost.
If you haven't yet bought this important retire-overseas resource, however, watch this space for details when this new-and-improved edition is available.
P.S. What else this week?
Scouting in Medellin this past week, I've been reminded of the long-term sense of having some of your real estate investment portfolio in rentals.
Rental investments won't make you rich, but they can provide solid, reliable returns in the range of 5% to 8%.
In the current climate, to me, a reliable 5% or 8% net annual yield sounds pretty good (and any appreciation in the value of the property is a bonus).
How do you get started building a portfolio of rental investments?
And where should you be looking now to expand an existing portfolio?
There are no "golden markets" anymore, no place where you could buy almost anything and do well. Those days are over.
But that does not mean it's not possible to make solid returns using this strategy. What it does mean is that you need to be discriminating. While there are no more golden markets, it is also true that it's possible to buy a rental that could produce a reasonable net yield (5% to 8%) in many, many markets right now, even those that may seem down or struggling overall.
Start by looking at markets with tourist track records. Paris. The Algarve. Places that attract visitors even while times are tough.
Second, think through your exit strategy from the start. Even if your intention is to hold the rental long-term, understand who your eventual end-buyer would be. You won't likely hold forever, and it's a good idea to have an idea going into any investment who you might sell to when you're ready to cash out.
This helps to put the acquisition into perspective. The French leaseback, for example, is a great hassle-free rental investment in the world's top tourist destination (France). But it's an investment. You aren't going to live in a leaseback unit (no more than maybe several weeks a year)...and neither is anyone else. So your buyer, when you're ready to exit, will have to be another investor.
On the one hand, this limits your potential universe for selling on. On the other hand, investors are always going to be looking for ways to own French rental units.
Meantime, an apartment in Paris (or Buenos Aires or Panama City, etc.) could, theoretically, eventually be resold either to another investor or to an end-user, someone interested in residing in the city.
Third, consider inventory supply and demand. The Costa del Sol, for example, is ridiculously over-supplied.
The key consideration, though, when looking to buy to let overseas is the rental manager.
You can act as your own rental manager, but I don't advise it. If you're not residing physically in the same place as the rental unit, I say definitely don't do it. I've had 15 years of investor landlord experience in more than a dozen countries. This isn't something you want to take on yourself, unless you're prepared to make it your full-time occupation.
Engage someone who knows the market, who has marketing infrastructure in place, who has developed a client list you can leverage, and who can show you proven management systems (for reservations, for inventory control, for reporting, etc.).
Our first apartment investment in Paris rented extraordinarily well the first year. However, the rental manager spoke no English and was perpetually late with reporting. So we switched to another manager, an American. Yes, he spoke English (though, by this time, it didn't matter so much, because we'd learned to speak French), but he, too, was perpetually late with reporting...and, more to the point, he got us less than half the occupancy we'd enjoyed the year before (though the market was stronger and tourism figures were up).
When you make a rental investment, you're choosing, first, a market; next, a rental manager; and, finally, a property. Before you make a particular buy decision, seek advice from the rental management agency you're planning to work with. What's more rentable? Two bedrooms...or one?
What matters most to would-be renters? Location, of course...but other, less obvious things can be critical. In Paris, you'll struggle to make a decent return off a fifth-floor rental in an apartment building with no elevator.
I don't recommend long-term unless you're well familiar with the market and have a rental manager who really knows what he or she is doing. In many markets, it can be difficult to evict a long-standing renter.
When we made the decision to rent our Paris apartment long-term, we interviewed potential rental managers. The one we chose impressed us because she made a point of telling us, with a voice of long experience, to whom she would not rent.
"We won't rent to such-and-such people, because they throw wild parties."
"We won't rent to so-and-so people, because they don't respect other peoples' property."
Etc.
In some contexts, her positions might be termed discrimination. We saw them as risk management.
As I said, this past week in Medellin, my attention has been focused on rental investment opportunities. This is a market where the demand seems to be strong enough to make a rental investment make sense. Certainly, the per-square-meter purchase prices are low enough to make the numbers work. I'm preparing a complete report for Marketwatch members.
Aug. 22, 2010, Panama City, Panama: Bupa is the top option for international health insurance. The cost of your premium will depend on your age, your pre-existing conditions, and, most important, your place of residence when you purchase the policy.
AND: Panama City Sliced Thin...Choosing The Overseas Haven That's Right For You--Here's How You Get Started...Retire To Medellin?...
Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
Since we left the States about 13 years ago, we've carried Bupa international health insurance. Our policy is based in Ireland, as that's where we were living when we bought it.
Now we're in Panama, and we're thinking that, were a condition to develop for Lief, me, or young Jackson that required long-term, ongoing care, we'd likely have to travel back to Ireland to get it. That seems impractical, so we're moving our Bupa coverage to Panama.
Practically speaking, we're getting new international health insurance. The exercise is requiring health inquiries and doctor's visits. The good news is that, even though Lief and I are now both over 40 (we weren't when we purchased our original coverage in Ireland), our premium costs will be very affordable, only slightly more than what we've been paying all these years for our Ireland-based coverage.
Specifically, our new policy will cost US$3,500 per year for the three of us, or (if you do the straight math) about US$300 per month, again for our family of three. As I said, that seems very affordable to me.
And it includes coverage worldwide. We can seek treatment and be covered under this policy anywhere in the world, including in the United States.
That is not to say that this is U.S. insurance. This is an important point to understand. When I've written about the cost of international health care in the past, readers in the States have written back to quote the premium prices they were quoted by Bupa when they inquired about international insurance based in their home country.
Bupa is international health insurance. It is not U.S. health insurance, and I don't recommend it as such. You might be able to purchase a Bupa health insurance policy while you're resident in the United States, but it will cost you dearly. One American reader living in the United States wrote recently to say that he'd shopped for a Bupa policy for himself and his wife and been quoted an annual premium of US$11,000.
The cost of your international health insurance will be determined by the following things: your age, any pre-existing conditions, and, most important, where you're residing when you purchase the policy. That is where the policy's coverage will be based.
The United States is the most expensive place in the world right now to seek medical care. Bupa knows that as well as the rest of us.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. These complicated and very personal issues related to choosing health insurance to cover you during your live- and retire-overseas adventures are discussed in detail inour "Top Health Insurance Options For The Retiree Abroad," which is being updated into a dramatically expanded edition to be published later this month.
If you've purchased the current edition of "Top Health Insurance Options For The Retiree Abroad" within the past year, don't buy this one. We'll send it to you with our compliments. That's our promise with every product you purchase from us--we'll send you every new and updated edition of that product published within 12 months of your purchase at no cost.
If you haven't yet bought this important retire-overseas resource, however, watch this space for details when this new-and-improved edition is available.
P.S. What else this week?
- I remind you regularly that no country (including Panama) is one market. Every city and region within any given country is its own market, with its own supply-and-demand dynamics and its own pricing.
In addition, within any city of any size, again, different markets are at work--as they are inPanama City.
We've been living in Panama City for two years. In that time, we've lived in three neighborhoods, each of which couldn't be more different from the others. And these are but three examples of the thin-sliced markets you'll find in Panama's capital city...
- Medellin is a city of parks and flowers, from interactive outdoor museum-parks, where children can build and experiment, run and play, to an aquarium, an amusement park, delightful botanical gardens, a planetarium, a "Barefoot Park" with a Zen garden, and dozens of small parks and treed plazas.
Yesterday morning, Lief and I sat in the Parque El Poblado, enjoying the sunshine and the breeze, a few minutes' walk from our hotel, watching the people of Medellin go about their Sunday. One lane of Avenida El Poblado had been roped off as a bicycle lane, and cyclist after cyclist passed, families, athletes, teenagers...
There's no shortage of things to do in this town, both outdoorsy and more cerebral. This is an industrial, economic, and financial center for this country, but also a literary and an artistic one. Newspapers, radio networks, publishing houses, an annual poetry festival, an international jazz festival, an international tango festival, an annual book fair, and, back in 1971, Colombia's answer to Woodstock, the Festival de Ancon, all have chosen Medellin as their base.
- I fear I underestimated you, dear reader. I expected some backlash as a result of my dispatches from Medellin, Colombia, this week. Instead, our e-mailboxes overflow with e-mails of interest, curiosity, and:
"Thanks, Kathleen. Your reporting on Medellin has been great. I was at the concert in this city in 1971 that you mentioned!..."
"Kathleen, just wanted to let you know that I am currently in Medellin, Colombia. Ironic, huh? I leave Thursday, but I will be moving back here to live full-time in about a month..."
Plus...
- Before you can begin to consider where best you might relocate overseas, you've got to get to know yourself better. What's important to you? What things would you miss from your current life if they weren't part of your new one?
What services, amenities, niceties, and distractions could you not live without? What hassles, hurdles, frustrations, and difficulties would you find intolerable?
For example...
Scouting in Medellin this past week, I've been reminded of the long-term sense of having some of your real estate investment portfolio in rentals.
Rental investments won't make you rich, but they can provide solid, reliable returns in the range of 5% to 8%.
In the current climate, to me, a reliable 5% or 8% net annual yield sounds pretty good (and any appreciation in the value of the property is a bonus).
How do you get started building a portfolio of rental investments?
And where should you be looking now to expand an existing portfolio?
There are no "golden markets" anymore, no place where you could buy almost anything and do well. Those days are over.
But that does not mean it's not possible to make solid returns using this strategy. What it does mean is that you need to be discriminating. While there are no more golden markets, it is also true that it's possible to buy a rental that could produce a reasonable net yield (5% to 8%) in many, many markets right now, even those that may seem down or struggling overall.
Start by looking at markets with tourist track records. Paris. The Algarve. Places that attract visitors even while times are tough.
Second, think through your exit strategy from the start. Even if your intention is to hold the rental long-term, understand who your eventual end-buyer would be. You won't likely hold forever, and it's a good idea to have an idea going into any investment who you might sell to when you're ready to cash out.
This helps to put the acquisition into perspective. The French leaseback, for example, is a great hassle-free rental investment in the world's top tourist destination (France). But it's an investment. You aren't going to live in a leaseback unit (no more than maybe several weeks a year)...and neither is anyone else. So your buyer, when you're ready to exit, will have to be another investor.
On the one hand, this limits your potential universe for selling on. On the other hand, investors are always going to be looking for ways to own French rental units.
Meantime, an apartment in Paris (or Buenos Aires or Panama City, etc.) could, theoretically, eventually be resold either to another investor or to an end-user, someone interested in residing in the city.
Third, consider inventory supply and demand. The Costa del Sol, for example, is ridiculously over-supplied.
The key consideration, though, when looking to buy to let overseas is the rental manager.
You can act as your own rental manager, but I don't advise it. If you're not residing physically in the same place as the rental unit, I say definitely don't do it. I've had 15 years of investor landlord experience in more than a dozen countries. This isn't something you want to take on yourself, unless you're prepared to make it your full-time occupation.
Engage someone who knows the market, who has marketing infrastructure in place, who has developed a client list you can leverage, and who can show you proven management systems (for reservations, for inventory control, for reporting, etc.).
Our first apartment investment in Paris rented extraordinarily well the first year. However, the rental manager spoke no English and was perpetually late with reporting. So we switched to another manager, an American. Yes, he spoke English (though, by this time, it didn't matter so much, because we'd learned to speak French), but he, too, was perpetually late with reporting...and, more to the point, he got us less than half the occupancy we'd enjoyed the year before (though the market was stronger and tourism figures were up).
When you make a rental investment, you're choosing, first, a market; next, a rental manager; and, finally, a property. Before you make a particular buy decision, seek advice from the rental management agency you're planning to work with. What's more rentable? Two bedrooms...or one?
What matters most to would-be renters? Location, of course...but other, less obvious things can be critical. In Paris, you'll struggle to make a decent return off a fifth-floor rental in an apartment building with no elevator.
I don't recommend long-term unless you're well familiar with the market and have a rental manager who really knows what he or she is doing. In many markets, it can be difficult to evict a long-standing renter.
When we made the decision to rent our Paris apartment long-term, we interviewed potential rental managers. The one we chose impressed us because she made a point of telling us, with a voice of long experience, to whom she would not rent.
"We won't rent to such-and-such people, because they throw wild parties."
"We won't rent to so-and-so people, because they don't respect other peoples' property."
Etc.
In some contexts, her positions might be termed discrimination. We saw them as risk management.
As I said, this past week in Medellin, my attention has been focused on rental investment opportunities. This is a market where the demand seems to be strong enough to make a rental investment make sense. Certainly, the per-square-meter purchase prices are low enough to make the numbers work. I'm preparing a complete report for Marketwatch members.
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Kathleen Peddicord
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group. With more than 25 years experience covering this beat, Kathleen reports daily on current opportunities for living, retiring, and investing overseas in her free e-letter.
Her book, How To Retire Overseas—Everything You Need To Know To Live Well Abroad For Less, was recently released by Penguin Books.
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