December 2, 2009
Paris, France
Plus:
- Moving To Cuenca With Kids...
- Yes, You Can Receive Your Social Security Overseas...You Can Even Have It Direct Deposited Into Your Overseas Bank Account...
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Kathleen is out of touch today, making her way back from Paris to the office in Panama. She leaves us, though, with a classique
, an essay originally published in March.
Dear
Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
"Kathleen, I receive and read your e-letter every day. I am British.
"I visited Panama earlier this month to look and see. I don't think I could live in Panama City. It has the bars and the restaurants I'm looking for, but there are drawbacks.
"I went both west for the day, past Playa Blanca, and then north another day, as far as Portobello. The amenities outside the city are negligible. There are limited facilities, including restaurants, bars, etc., of an acceptable standard.
"This week I am in Cyprus, also taking a look. Here there are more amenities, but housing is expensive and food is not cheap because of the exchange rate.
"My wife and I want a luxury lifestyle. In a recent article, you said that Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are good candidates for luxury living on a budget. Are these really the only two options for the kind of lifestyle my wife and I are looking for at a reduced cost?"
Ah...this pesky cost-of-living question. The truth is, it's nearly impossible to pin down, for two reasons.
First, cost of living is completely relative. What's cheap to me is expensive to someone else. It depends on your experience and, mostly, your current coordinates. If you're living in Detroit right now, the entire rest of this world seems relatively costly.
Second, your cost of living depends on
how you want to live.
The reader whose e-mail I share above understands this. He and his wife know what's important to them. They want to retire to a place with the distractions and amenities of a real city. They want a lifestyle that would qualify as luxury, but they don't have a lavish budget. They recognize, therefore, that their retirement destination options are limited.
Just how limited, they're wondering...
You can live well in Panama City. But the reader is right. This city has drawbacks. I cite them regularly. Panama's capital is hot, humid, dirty, and noisy.
In other parts of the country, though, as the reader discovered, you can escape the heat, the humidity, the construction mess, and the noise...you can find what qualifies for me (and many others) as heaven on earth.
My favorite part of Panama is the west coast of the
Azuero Peninsula. An Elysian outpost. The place where, later next year, Lief and I intend to begin building the beach home we've been dreaming about and planning for for more than six years. A big, sprawling Spanish-colonial hacienda overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
On paper, that sounds like it might qualify as luxury. And, if things go according to my plan, yes, the house will be
nice.
But "luxury"? On the west coast of Panama's Azuero Peninsula? Not possible. Not today.
This region is remote. Beautiful, pristine, and virgin...the very best Mother Nature has to serve up. But rustic. No matter how nice a house you build for yourself, you're still hours away from the trappings of luxury. The restaurants, the nightclubs, the casinos, the spas, the shopping, the theaters...those things are back in that hot, humid, dirty, noisy place you came out here to escape.
Lief and I don't mind, because we don't intend to reside in our Azuero beach house 365 days a year. We'll get our fill of luxury living elsewhere...then retreat, with our kids, with our friends, to our little corner of Paradise on the Pacific.
And that's my recommendation to this reader. As his goal is "luxury" retirement (as, I admit, ours is, too), then he should consider perpetual retirement, as I think of it.
Like the reader seeking
luxe living, Lief and I don't have an unlimited retirement budget. And our IRA has taken a hit this past year just like everybody else's.
Still, we have an idea about how we'd like to live once we're ready to flip the switch to the retirement phase of our lives. And that idea doesn't have anything to do with making do or getting by.
That's why our perpetual retirement plan revolves around the following mix of "affordable luxury" destinations:
- First, Paris. This city offers quintessential luxury living. And, yes, you can enjoy it on a reasonable budget. We're spending more to live in Panama City than we did to live in Paris.
- Second, Buenos Aires. Best choice for luxury living in South America. Argentina's capital boasts world-class restaurants, nightlife, and shopping. But, for me, for a place to qualify as "luxury," it must have more than these commercial trappings. It needs also history...an ambiance of charm and culture...plus parks, squares, plazas...places to walk and wander. B.A. has all this.
- Third, Croatia. I like the Istrian peninsula, but for "luxe living," you should look at this country's major cities, especially Dubrovnik. You could live an enviable lifestyle in this walled World Heritage Site town that is beautiful, historic, and home to all the five-star restaurants you could want.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. For more on this tricky cost-of-living question, including budgets under US$1000 a month,
go here.
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"Could you please tell me about the education system for children in
Cuenca, Ecuador? Are there private schools where the language of education is English? What is the cost of tuition at these schools? Are the certificates internationally recognized? What about the hospitals, private and public? The cost of construction? The crime situation? Attitudes toward foreigners?"
-- Derek K., United States
Ecuador Correspondent David Morrill replies:
"The public hospitals in Ecuador are sub-standard, in my opinion, and I'd use them only for an emergency. The private hospitals and private physician/dental care, on the other hand, are first-rate. Mount Sinai hospital is one of the top three in the city. A specialist here charges US$25 for an extended visit (30 to 45 minutes of face time with the doctor). The other two hospitals favored by expats are Santa Inez and the new University Hospital, which is partnered with the University of Boston medical school. Two friends have had major surgery here in Cuenca in the past year, and the results have been very good in both cases. The doctors paid personal visits to them at home, and the final bills were about 10% what they would have been for the same services in the United States.
"I expected to be somewhat of an outsider moving here, but, instead, have been given deferential treatment by most officials and welcomed openly by the local citizens.
"I can't recommend the public schools in Cuenca, but there are several good private ones. Most foreign residents put their kids in the multi- and bi-lingual schools and seem happy with the results. These teach some courses in English. The most popular is probably Colegio Aleman Stiehle, which prepares students for college in Europe and North America. Stiehle has international certification, but I don't know by which authority. Tuition runs US$150 to US$200 a month. "Construction costs are low, about US$30 to US$50 a square foot. The rate of serious crime is also low (less than 20% of the per-capita rate of a comparable U.S. city), but petty and property crime are problems. You have to watch out for your stuff, particularly in the tourist areas of the historic district. In five-plus years here, I've never had a problem, but lots of my friends have lost bags and jackets."
"Would you please write a supplement showing the requirements of the U.S. government for Social Security payments while living in the countries you recommend? I believe that the Social Security Administration requires that you report if you are away from the United States for more than 30 days at a time."
-- Sukumar S., United States
No, dear reader, there is no requirement to report your whereabouts or any absences from U.S. soil to the Social Security Administration (assuming you are a U.S. citizen), and you can receive your Social Security payments anywhere in the world.
The rules for having your Social Security paid outside the States are here:
www.ssa.gov/pubs/10137.html.
If you're not a U.S. citizen, some restrictions may apply. These are detailed on the web page I reference above.
The easiest thing is to have your monthly Social Security payment direct deposited into your U.S. bank account. Then you can withdraw cash from that account using your ATM card anywhere in the world.
In fact, you can even have your Social Security payment direct deposited into your overseas bank account in many countries, including most of Europe and Panama.
