The World’s Top 12 Overseas Retirement Havens
Looking For Something Specific?
July 29, 2009
Panama City, Panama
PLUS:
- How Will You Know When A Place Is Right For You?...
- Qualifying For Belize Residency And Work Visas...
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Here's US$3,000 To Launch Your New Life In Panama...
And that's only the start of what we're prepared to do to help you realize your dreams in the world's #1 retirement, lifestyle, investment, and overseas haven...
Plus, learn how to earn a free invitation to the Global Real Estate Profits Summit, scheduled for October 15-17.
This Special Offer Expires Midnight Friday, July 31.
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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
The trouble with the living, retiring, and investing overseas ideas we consider each day is that, the more closely you look at them, the more confusing the choices become.
Once you open your mind to the possibility that you could spend your time or your money anywhere...where in the world should you think about going? The options can seem overwhelming.
It helps if you can clarify your objective or agenda. To that end, here are shortcuts:
- World's Most Affordable Retirement Haven:
Cuenca, Ecuador
Cuenca, Ecuador, is the most affordable place you'd want to live in Latin America. Other places may be a bit cheaper, including some places elsewhere in Ecuador, but you'd be removed from the conveniences of a city, you wouldn't have access to certain services, amenities, and conveniences that make life comfortable, and your standard of living might be reduced. In Cuenca, you could live well, perhaps better than you're living now. Your life could be enriched, your breadth of experience expanded. All at an almost unbelievably low cost. Cuenca amounts to the world's best quality of life buy for the money. You could enjoy a comfortable life in this charming colonial city on as little as US$700 a month...
Read details of our complete Cuenca, Ecuador, budget here...and our complete Cuenca Retirement Report here.
- Best Place To Retire To The Beach:
La Barra, Uruguay
La Barra, Uruguay, is our number-one choice for a sophisticated retirement by the sea. This is oceanside living that's also cosmopolitan and international. La Barra is a tidy town of neat white houses perched on a peninsula that stretches into the clear blue Atlantic. It's a small, walkable city that boasts the comforts, amenities, services, distractions, and entertainments of much bigger ocean resort communities, minus the high-rises and the tourist trappings. The beaches are among the best in Uruguay.
The cost of living is low. Yes, you could live for a little less elsewhere in Uruguay--in Atlántida or Salto, for example--but, in La Barra, you're buying a higher standard of living. La Barra is this country's (and one of the worlds') best seaside choices.
Read our complete La Barra Report here.
- Best Place To Escape To The Mountains:
Morelia, Mexico
Situated beneath the southern end of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range and nestled in the Guayangareo Valley, near Lake Cuitzeo, Morelia, Mexico, may be the coolest town you've never heard of. It is a hill town, situated more than 6,000 feet above sea level, solidly laid-out by its original planners hundreds of years ago.
Morelia is a walk back through time. Horses are still a means of transportation, and vendors sell freshly killed chickens, orchids, even dirt from the backs of donkeys. Yet this surprisingly undiscovered town is also firmly established in the 21st century, with Internet cafés, even a Wal-Mart.
Mexicans say this is their favorite part of their country, but the rest of the world has yet to catch on. If you know anything about expat life in Mexico, you understand how unusual this is. Most lovely livable hill towns in this country have been overrun with gringos. Not so Morelia.
This is just fine with Morelia's 750,000 inhabitants, who are happy to keep their town their secret. They and the few expats who have made homes here embrace the mellow quality of life in this special place. They have chosen Morelia because they don't want to mingle with expats. They want to live in Mexico. Weaving through the city's many historic sites are happy pedestrians, families with ice-cream-covered children, and young people indulging in pineapple pastries and other local specialties. This is a place to come to enjoy and appreciate the simple pleasures of life...
Access our complete Morelia, Mexico, Retirement Report here.
- Best Health Care:
Panama City, Panama
For top-notch health care at a far more affordable cost, look to Panama. A complete blood workup at Panama City's gleaming new Hospital Punta Pacifica, managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International, is US$36. A full physical with an English-speak doctor, likely trained in the United States, is US$50. While a home-care nurse can charge $25 an hour in the States, in Panama City, they can cost US$25 a day.
I recently spent the day in the Emergency Room of Panama City's other top choice for health care, the Hospital Punta Paitilla, for the treatment of a spider bite. I'd had an allergic reaction to the bite, plus the area had become infected. The entire day's adventure, including blood work and other lab tests, injections for the infection and the allergic reaction, and the kind care of an English-speaking doctor who knew what he was doing, came to a grand total of US$70.
Certainly, the country's best medical facilities are located in Panama City, and, if health care is a concern, you should stick close to the capital. However, the standard of care elsewhere can also be acceptable. I tumbled off a motorbike while riding in the mountains around Boquete several years ago and landed on my head. I was unconscious for an hour and, when I woke, had total amnesia. It turned out not to be as scary an experience as that might sound, but I did have a concussion and lots of gashes and scrapes. I was taken to the medical center in David, the nearest big city, capital of this country's Chiriqui province. While David is a big city within the context of Panama, this is a hinterland region, very rural. Yet, the U.S.-trained doctor on duty spoke perfect English and had access to the equipment he needed to care for my injuries. I spent the night in the clinic, then was released to a friend's care. The bill for the entire experience was less than $300.
You can arrange local Panama health insurance (with a US$300 annual deductible) for US$150 a month or less, depending on your age. Note, though, that most local Panama health insurance plans accept new applicants only through age 64.
My top retirement living pick in Panama is El Valle, in the mountains just two hours outside Panama City. Living in El Valle, you'd enjoy cooler temperatures than in the capital, with easy access to its top-notch medical care. You can read our full El Valle, Panama, Retirement Report here.
- Best Living Among The Vines:
Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is wine country, and, where vines grow, the living is generally good. Argentines enjoy good food, good vino, and good conversation, and, here in the interior of this country, these things are the priorities of life. A friend who relocated to the Mendoza region of Argentina recently practically gushes in reports of his new life. "My garden is bursting at the seams," he writes, "though I don't look after it. My gardener does. Honestly, it's a feast for the eyes, and the luscious grapes that hang from the vines around me are going to produce wine with my name on it."
My friend is so pampered here, he says, that he feels like a guest in his own home, for Mendoza not only boasts a great qualify of life, but that lifestyle comes at a very affordable cost. My friend's gardener earns US$100 a month. A round of golf is US$4; a cup of coffee is 95 cents; and a good table wine is US$2 a bottle.
This region is a good choice for the active retiree who isn't ready to sit back rocking on his front porch. There's skiing, hiking, climbing, bird-watching, white-water rafting, kayaking, even kite-surfing. And golfers rejoice: Argentina has more golf courses than the rest of Latin America combined. After a day hiking or kayaking, tango the night away at one of Mendoza City's many entertainment venues or relax at the spas of Pismanta, which offer everything from hydro-massages and mud-therapy treatments to a vaporarium.
Wine, relaxation, and sports are a recipe for a great vacation, but what about day-today living? Mendoza's laid-back atmosphere, safe cities, strong infrastructure, unspoiled culture, affordability, and friendly people combine to create an idyllic lifestyle. Perhaps the most livable place in the region is Mendoza City, which offers all the sophistication of London or Paris, including five-star restaurants, diverse entertainment, rich culture, a well-respected university, sophisticated and polite people, and performing arts venues that match those of any European city, but at an affordable cost to rival that of Mexico.
Read more about the good life in Mendoza in our full Country Report here.
- Ease Of Residency:
Belize
Ten years ago, the government of Belize enacted legislation to allow Qualified Retired Persons (QRP's) to obtain permanent residency in this country. In many ways, this program is the most efficient route to foreign residency anywhere in the Americas. And, while the QRP visa allows you full-time residency, you can enjoy the benefits of being a QRP even if you spend as little as two weeks a year in Belize.
Belize's QRP program offers not only the equivalent of a U.S. Green Card to foreign residents aged 45 and older, but it also grants a host of other incentives designed to encourage foreigners to come and bring their money. These incentives include a permanent exemption from all Belize taxes, including income tax, capital gains tax, estate tax, and import tax on household goods (up to US$15,000), automobiles, boats, even airplanes. The only requirements are that you or your spouse be 45 years of age or older, that you consider yourself to be retired, and that you show that you have at least $2,000 a month in income to support yourself in Belize (from a pension or some other regular income).
In practical terms, the "consider yourself to be retired" requirement means that, as a QRP, you can't apply for a work visa. This is not to say that you couldn't do international, Internet, or even local Belize business as an entrepreneur. You just can't take on traditional "employee" work.
Under these circumstances, the benefits of the QRP program could be significant, especially if you have active business income from outside the States. In this case, as a non-resident American, your first US$91,400 in foreign-earned income (for 2009; the amount is adjusted upward annually) would be exempt from U.S. tax. And, again, as a QRP, you're also exempt from Belizean tax.
For more information on qualifying as a QRP resident in Belize, get in touch here.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. Or maybe you're looking for...
- The World's Best Weather? That'd be Cuenca, Ecuador...
- Best Lifestyle Bargain In Asia? That's Chiang Mai, Thailand...
- Top choices if you're Moving With School-aged Children? Look at Costa Rica...or Panama
- Best place in the world today to Start An International Business? Panama City...
- Top choice if you Don't Want To Learn A New Language? They speak English in Belize...
- World's Most Tax-friendly Jurisdictions for the American abroad right now? Belize, Panama, and Uruguay...
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101 Things You Should Know Before You Even Think About Living, Retiring, Or Investing Overseas
Shipping your belongings across international borders...moving with your children...or a pet...obtaining residency...getting a visa...opening a bank account...getting the best international phone rates...learning a new language...using VOIP...obtaining an international driver's license...working with an overseas real estate agent...shopping for international health insurance...
This is everything we wish someone had told us before we set off on our own live and invest overseas adventures. And it's available to you right now Free. Details here.
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