Number One Place To Retire In 2009
Nov. 14, 2008
Panama City, Panama
PLUS:
- Don't Retire To Panama...Don't Even Think About It...
- The World's Top Retirement Haven You've Never Heard Of (You'll
Be Hearing A Lot About It In Months And Years To Come...But,
Remember: You Read It Here First)...
- How Much Money Do You Need To Retire Young?...
- Taken For A Ride This Morning In Panama City...
- Don't All These People Realize This Is Low Season?...
AND:
- Three Important Panama Introductions...
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Dear Overseas
Opportunity Letter Reader,
Panama is the world's top
retirement haven.
That's hardly news, you may be thinking.
And, in fact, it's hardly true.
I'm writing today to set the
record straight.
Don't retire to Panama. Don't even think about
it.
The truth is, you couldn't if you wanted to. You couldn't
retire to Panama anymore than you could retire to the United States or
to New Zealand.
You don't retire to a country. You retire to a
city or a village or a beach or a neighborhood...
You could,
therefore, for example, contemplate the idea of retiring to Panama
City.
What a thought. The city from where I write this morning
is at the top of the list of the world's best offshore, tax, banking,
and business havens. But retirement? Maybe if you're looking to start
a business during this phase of your life. Otherwise, you might find
it hard to put up with the racket, the mud, the crowds, the crazy
traffic, the testy taxi drivers, the ever-present construction
crews... If I weren't here to do business, I know I would.
I
don't recommend Panama City as a retirement haven.
Neither do
I, any longer, recommend Boquete, the picturesque mountain town of
wildflowers and waterfalls in this country's interior. The tiny
outpost has been so widely recognized as the best place on earth to
spend one's retirement years that that statement is no longer true.
Boquete is beyond discovered, and the cost of real estate in the
region reflects this.
Still, big picture, Panama is hard to
beat. As I explained earlier this week, its
program of special benefits and discounts for foreign retirees is
the current gold standard. As a pensionado in this country,
you're treated like a king (or queen).
Plus, Panama is a
low-tax jurisdiction, a travel hub, and an international banking
center. The cost of living is affordable. In particular regions, the
cost of real estate is a bargain. The standard of health care in
Panama City is excellent.
In my mind, no country compares as a
potential retirement haven.
So...what am I saying? Retire to
Panama? Don't retire to Panama?
That's it. Don't retire to
Panama. Retire to El Valle.
That's the word this morning
from Overseas Retirement Letter Editor-in-Chief Lynn
Mulvihill and her team, who, in their current issue, hot off the
virtual presses, name El Valle, Panama, as the best place in the
world to retire in 2009.
"After spending a month in the
melting heat of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula," writes Overseas
Retirement Letter Contributing Editor Lucy Culpepper in the
new issue out today, "we craved a cooler, greener place. Panama had
been on our minds for almost a year, and El Valle--conveniently
positioned not too far from Panama City, yet high enough to be cooler
and less humid--kept popping up on our radar.
"El Valle de
Anton ('El Valle' to the locals) lies at an altitude of approximately
2,000 feet in the Province of Coclé to the west of Panama City. The
population of almost 7,000 is made up of natives, retired and working
Panamanians, and retired and in-business expats.
"Apart from
its natural beauty," continues Lucy in her report, "two things are
immediately striking about El Valle: its sense of community and the
undercurrent of wealth. The town has grown along a straight, not
particularly attractive, thoroughfare. But turn off the main road,
down any sidestreet, and you'll enter the other world of El Valle..."
You're going to be hearing a lot of El Valle over the coming few
years. It's the next Boquete. It offers everything Boquete offers,
including springlike weather year-round...plus some (it's far more
accessible from Panama City, for example)...and, because no one today
knows it exists, it remains a quiet and, critically, a highly
affordable place to enjoy your retirement days.
The world will
catch on. Meantime, dear would-be retiree abroad, get ye to El Valle
today.
If you're a subscriber to the Overseas Retirement
Letter, watch your mailbox. Lucy's full report on why and how
to retire to El Valle, Panama, is featured in your current issue, on
its way to you as I write.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S.
Today's issue of the Overseas Retirement Letter features
more un-average retirement advice, as Retirement Planning Expert Paul
Terhorst puts it. In the current issue, Paul takes up the question,
"How much money do you need to retire young?" Paul's un-average answer
to this question on everyone's mind right now will surprise (and
delight) you.
P.P.S. If you're not a subscriber already to
Lynn, Paul, and Lucy's
Overseas Retirement Letter, become one here now.
---------
A Rolls-Royce Lifestyle on a Dodge Dart Budget
Retire in Style Overseas...and Live Better than You Do
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"Beachfront
hideaway...elegant, big-city apartment... hillside vineyard... In the
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"But overseas today, you
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are already living well around the world.
I’d like to show you how to join them..."
----------
TODAY:
"I'm sorry to be so late," explained my assistant Marion, as she
rushed through the door this morning. "But my taxi driver took me on a
sightseeing tour of Panama City.
"When I got in, there
was a man already in the cab. 'I'm taking him to the store,' explained
the driver. 'OK,' I replied, knowing that, as it's nearly impossible
to get a taxi in this city during rush hour, I really had no choice
but to cab-share with the man in the front seat.
"We dropped
the man off at the store down the road, then the driver turned off the
engine. 'We have to wait for him,' he explained, when he saw the look
on my face. 'He has to buy gasoline. Then we'll take him back to his
car where it ran out of gas.'"
***
"Panama continues to buzz," writes veteran global real
estate investor (and my husband) Lief Simon this morning in response
to a friend's e-mail inquiry overnight.
"This is the new Miami
from a Latino point of view. The South Americans come here to shop now
rather than going to Miami. The malls in Panama City are full of
Venezuelans and Colombians. It's closer for them, the shopping is just
as good, and they don't have to deal with the hassles of U.S.
immigration and customs.
"Real estate in the city has hit a
wall, with regards both to pricing and to sales; prices in Panama City
are soft and will come down. However, Panama City is a market unto
itself, and the level of activity elsewhere in the country is not
declining but increasing.
"Americans are coming still, but
this market is increasingly made by Europeans, who are arriving on the
scene in ever-greater numbers. On my flight from Newark to Panama the
other night, the plane was full. About a third of the passengers were
Panamanians; another third were Americans, the rest were Europeans.
"And this is the off season."
FROM THE MAILBAG:
"I would like more information on Panama, please."
--
Cindy B., United States
See above, dear reader.
In addition:
- For answers to your visa, residency, incorporation,
banking, and property purchase questions, get in touch with
Rainelda Mata-Kelly, our recommended Panama attorney. Rainelda
has been helping foreigners establish residency, launch
businesses, and invest in real estate in this country for many
years. She speaks perfect English.
- The two best options for establishing residency in
Panama right now are the pensionado visa (Rainelda
can help with the paperwork for this) the reforestation visa. The
best outfit for organizing your reforestation investor visa is
United Nature.
- For real estate purchase in Panama City, we heartily
recommend Giulia Gonzalez. Again, Giulia's English is
perfect, and she has many years experience helping foreign buyers
find and purchase in this city. Further, Giulia can help you shop
both to buy and to rent. (She found our apartment for us.) Reach
Giulia here: Panama@LiveAndInvestOverseas.com
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