March 23, 2011:

"Kathleen, I so enjoy your e-mails and look forward to attending your Orlando seminar in the fall. Here's a question I have that other readers may also have: What should a future expat consider if he/she is single and looking to relocate overseas on his or her own?

"I'm in my 50s, female, and not necessarily looking for romance...but you never know. Really, I would like to know about what it would be like to be single in certain locales. I'm especially interested right now in Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay, and possibly southern France..."

--Diane O., United States

"Kathleen, there is a topic that has not addressed that I am aware of that I think needs discussion. That is of single women who are interested in relocating on their own to a Spanish-speaking country.

"I had a friend who had to give up her farm in Belize because, after her husband left, the men workers would not do anything she asked them to do!

"I think there is a huge potential market among women interested in living in inexpensive warm places.

"I like your style, Kathleen, and I would love it if you would tell us the whole truth about the possibilities or no possibilities in this regard..."

--Christie O., United States

"Kathleen, I hope you will include more thoughts on single women moving abroad alone. It's a daunting thing when you have always lived in the United States surrounded by friends and family.

"Thanks for your newsletter and especially your comments about 'know thyself.' That is very important because there is more to life than the cost of living..."

--Lori T., United States

"I am a single woman and all of your material seems geared to couples. I currently live in rural New Mexico and have had difficulties over the years because I am a single woman.

"I will be living off of my Social Security in retirement and so will not have a large income. I enjoy gardening and will be looking for a rural piece of property where I could grow food. I am considering Central America.

"Can you tell me which cultures are most accepting of single women and what kind of special difficulties might I anticipate relocating on my own, if any?"

--Mary Catherine M., United States

"Are there many single women who do this?"

--Joan M., United States

"I'm a 56-year-old single American woman. I'm finding it more and more difficult to imagine staying employed until I'm 65, and being able to afford retirement in the United States on my Social Security, which will amount to US$2000 a month once I do retire.

"So I want to find out where I might be able to retire comfortably. Which countries are safest for single women?"

--Nancy J., United States

"Kathleen, are there any sites where I could communicate with single women who have taken the plunge in retiring to Panama on their own?"

--Helen C., United States

"Kathleen, I am a single woman who is close to retirement age and would like to retire to one of the places that you write about. But the very thought scares me, as it is a very large step to take on my own. I was wondering if you have some sort of a group for single women. Some way I could bounce some of my plans and fears off other single women in the same situation or where I could correspond with women who have made a move on their own already and who could encourage and advise me..."

--Joy P., United States

These and the literally hundreds of other e-mails like them that we've received in past months are a big part of the reason we've inaugurated our Overseas Retirement Circle. This is how you connect directly with like-minded folks looking to do just what you're looking to do--to start over, to reinvent themselves, to live, to retire, or to make some money overseas.

That is, single women readers, I invite you to connect with fellow single women readers...here.

No, the Overseas Retirement Circle is not for single women only. It is for anyone looking to become part of a fast-growing retire-overseas community. It is a chance to connect with others who have the same concerns, questions, and frustrations that you have...and who you can turn to for support and real-world, firsthand insights into what it's like to live, retire, and invest in countries all around the world.

No matter what your circumstances, you'll find, among the Overseas Retirement Circle membership, others who share them.

You can read more about this retire-overseas fast track here.Continue Reading:

• Retire To Cayo, Belize

I was 23-years-old, a just-starting-out travel writer, in Belize for the first time.

The Belize tourism board had helped to arrange my trip and had organized, as part of it, three nights at Mick's Chaa Creek jungle lodge in the Cayo.

"You should see this part of the country," the tourist board rep had advised. "Everyone is paying attention to Ambergris Caye and the other islands off the coast of Belize City. But there's another Belize, out in the Cayo...a more interesting Belize."

It turned out to be one of the most fortunate recommendations of my career.

Mick met my jeep wearing khaki shorts and carrying two gin and tonics, one for himself and one for me. He ushered me to the open-air, thatched-roof bar, and asked what I was up for.

"So," he said, "do you want the standard tour...or would you like a real taste of this place?"

I've never been one to go for standard if an option is proffered.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"In the morning," Mick suggested, "I'll have our driver take you into the jungle to stay with a Belizean family down on the river. They're friends of ours. You'll like them."

I slept the next night in a lean-to alongside the small thatched hut of Mick's Belizean friends. They lived quietly and happily without electricity or indoor plumbing. The women ground corn for tortillas in great stone bowls and cooked over open fires. They washed themselves and their clothes in the river that ran cold and clear just down the hill.

Only the 13-year-old son spoke English. He asked if I'd like him to show me around. I followed him up the mountainside, in the rain, slipping in the mud, and hacking my way with a stick through the thick jungle growth. The boy stopped near the top of the mountain and pointed to a hole in the ground. Then he shimmed through the hole on his stomach and disappeared. I was to do likewise, I figured, and got down on my stomach like a snake to slide into the tunnel after him.

Just inside was a ledge...and beyond the ledge was a great cavern...and beyond that cavern, a bigger one...and another one...and, finally, one with a cathedral ceiling and a kind of altar in the center of the space.

All along the ledges along the cavern walls were pots and pottery shards. "Why doesn't the Smithsonian Institute or someone come to collect those artifacts?" I asked Mick the next night, back at Chaa Creek.

"There are so many caves like that one and so many artifacts...just so much of that stuff all around these mountains. The Smithsonian comes down and collects pieces and catalogues discoveries, but they'll never find it all."

What were Mick and his wife Lucy doing in the middle of the jungle in the middle of the Cayo in the mid-1980s, before anyone else was paying any attention to this little corner of the world?

They'd arrived nearly 10 years earlier. As Mick told the story:

"We bought some land with the thought that we'd become farmers. Only we didn't know anything about farming. We asked our farmer neighbors for help, and they were happy to show us how to plant and when to harvest.

"Meantime, we noticed that, now and then, backpackers would happen upon us. At first, we'd invite them to unroll their sleeping bags outside our back door. Then we decided to build a hut where they could spend the night. We gave them a salt shaker and some matches...

"Eventually, not only backpackers, but other travelers, too, began finding their way out to this part of the country. We built another hut, a nicer one...and then some more. Things developed organically..."

In the almost 25 years since my first visit, I've been back to Belize at least 20 times. It's one of my favorite places in the world...rugged and undeveloped...an outpost...a country founded by pirates and appealing, still, to modern-day corsairs.

On the one hand...

On the other hand, this tiny English-speaking country blessed with both a long Caribbean mainland coast and, as well, a multitude of small outlying sand-fringed cayes, has made a name for itself among the world's beach-lovers and sun-seekers.

The beachfront property market out on Ambergris, for example, went haywire last decade. Prices catapulted.

But it was never Ambergris that got my attention.

I was drawn, from that first trip, inland, to the jungle and the Mayan ruins, the rivers and the waterfalls, the caves and the rain forest. This part of Belize is largely, blissfully unchanged since I first laid eyes on it...since, even, the Flemmings first laid eyes on it.

Except that, today, you can enjoy the Cayo in comfort.

The first few times I stayed at Chaa Creek, we had no electricity and read by candlelight before falling asleep to the night sounds coming through the open windows...

There was no telephone. Mick had a short-wave radio in his tiny office off the end of the bar....

There were no washing machines, no radios, no televisions...

A stay at Chaa Creek was an absolute escape.

I appreciate the hot showers and air conditioning available now in this part of Belize as much as the next girl...but, I've got to say, my fondest memories of Chaa Creek pre-date them.

Kathleen Peddicord

P.S. The Cayo will be one of the destinations of focus during our next Live & Invest in Belize Conference, planned now for Nov. 14-16. The VIP spots for this event are filing very quickly. I believe that, as of this writing, at least half of them have been sold. More information here.Continue Reading:

• Single Women Retiring Overseas

First, though, I want to add the usual caveats and disclaimers that I offer every time I take up this country budgets discussion.

How much will it cost you to live in Overseas Retirement Haven XYZ?

The only honest answer is, I have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you.

One section of the book I wrote for Penguin last year ("How To Retire Overseas") is given over to detailed budgets for living in the world's top 14 retirement havens. According to these budgets I've compiled (with help from contacts living in each place), Ecuador and Thailand are the most affordable of the countries I consider in the book, Argentina (specifically, Buenos Aires), Belize, and France the most expensive.

My publisher at Penguin may not appreciate my making this point, but, the truth is, these budgets, and any others you might come across for living anywhere in the world, are almost meaningless. At best, they're guidelines, starting points. Don't interpret them literally and don't bet your entire future on any promise they may seem to hold out.

Here's the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas: You can spend as much or as little as you want to live almost anywhere. Some places are generally more affordable than others, and a handful of places are absolutely cheap. But globalization means you can enjoy more or less any standard of living more or less anywhere on earth, if you're willing to pay for it.

The exceptions are some absolutely cheap locales such as Ecuador, India, Thailand (outside Bangkok), and the Philippines (outside Manila). In these places, your cost of living is artificially low because, frankly, there isn't much for you to spend your money on. This is not to say that, in these places, you couldn't enjoy a comfortable, interesting, exotic, even fun, exciting, and adventure-filled life. But you'd be living simply, because you'd have no option. The only life in these places is the simple life.

If cost of living is your primary motivation for thinking about moving to another country, I recommend you focus on these choices. If you're not looking to move on a super-fixed income (of, say, US$1,200 a month or less), you have many good options, and here's what I strongly suggest:

Stop obsessing over this cost-of-living question. Yes, of course, you need to know that you'll be able to afford to live in whatever country you decide to try on for size, but here are a few other things to remember, as well.

Most important, as I've pointed out over and over and over and over again, your cost of living almost anywhere is controllable. It will not be the same as my cost of living in that same place or, necessarily, the cost of living in that place for anyone else you might speak with.

Most expense items--everything from housing to health care, from travel to entertainment, from your monthly grocery bill to your phone/cable/Internet package--are hugely variable and can be managed.

I met a gentleman recently, an American, living in downtown Panama City on a budget of US$800 a month. I wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't itemized his monthly costs for me. He's renting a small furnished house (without air conditioning), in a local neighborhood, for US$400 a month and controlling his other expenses so effectively that they amount to no more than another US$400 a month.

Lief and I are spending more than five times that amount each month to live in the same city.

Maybe you could live in Panama City on US$800 a month, or maybe that lifestyle would make you miserable. Maybe you'd spend more than Lief and I are spending to enjoy the standard of living you're looking for. We know people who do. Panama City is a place where you can find almost any product or service you might be in the market for…and avail of it if you're willing to ante up.

Second, cost of living is a forever-moving target, especially if you're living in a country whose currency differs from the currency in which you derive your income.

Third, none of this is really the point.

The point is that you can control your cost of living, within parameters, almost anywhere in the world.

So, one more time, I can't tell you how much it will cost you to live in any of the places I recommend you consider launching a new life. I can, though, with the help of my far-flung network of correspondents already at home in these places, give you broad and general guidelines for reference...as a starting point.

One more thing before we get to the numbers. Just as a one-size-fits-all budget for living in any country is next-to-meaningless, so is any budget that claims to represent the cost of living in any country overall. A budget for Panama, Belize, France, Thailand, or Malaysia, is useless, because the cost of living in Panama City, for example, is nothing like the cost of living in Boquete or Las Tablas...etc.

Without further ado, here's what our correspondents figure it costs to live in...

• Las Tablas, Panama:

Rent: US$300
Transportation: US$50 (occasional bus and taxi fares)
Electricity: US$100 (more if you run your AC full-time)
Gas: US$5 (used for cooking)
Telephone: US$30
Internet: US$25
Cable TV: US$30
Full-time Household Help: US$150
Groceries: US$300
Entertainment: US$80

TOTAL: US$1,070

• Cayo, Belize:

Rent: US$600
Transportation: US$25 (occasional bus and taxi fares)
Electricity: US$85 (more if you run your AC full-time)
Gas: US$20 (used for cooking)
Water: US$55
Telephone: US$75
Internet: US$75
Cable TV: US$25
Full-time Household Help: US$350
Groceries: US$200
Entertainment: US$75

TOTAL: US$1,585

• Medellin, Colombia:

Rent: US$700
Transportation: US$15 (occasional metro and taxi fares)
Electricity: US$50 (more if you run your AC full-time)
Gas: US$25 (used for cooking)
Telephone: US$10
Internet: US$20
Cable TV: US$20
Full-time Household Help: US$350
Groceries: US$400
Entertainment: US$300

TOTAL: US$1,890

This would constitute a higher-end budget for living in Medellin. In a more out-of-the-way neighborhood, you could rent a small, unfurnished apartment for as little as US$210 a month (we know someone doing this). You could forgo the maid service. You could reduce your going-out expense...

Making those changes brings the total budget down to less than US$1,000 per month.

One more time...cost of living is a moving target.

Kathleen PeddicordContinue Reading:

• Buying Electronics Overseas

Feb. 3, 2011:

"Kathleen, in an e-dispatch earlier this week, you said that 'Every DVD player is programmed to play DVDs from particular zones.'

"That's not entirely true. You can buy zone-free DVD players in Europe and Asia fairly easily now. Most people I know would not buy any other kind. It's the only thing that makes sense for people who buy DVDs in different countries."

--Nick J., United States

Yes, good point. You can find these throughout Latin America now, too. We've learned (the hard way), though, to be sure to have the machine checked before taking it out of the store. In our experience in Panama, for example, a setting adjustment is required. Easier to have it made before you get the player home.Continue Reading:

• How To Figure Your Cost Of Living

Jan. 17, 2011:

"I was thinking about relocating to Colombia (Barranquilla or Medellin) but read somewhere that one couldn't get a bank account there until you've been a resident for six months. Is that right?"

--Facebook Fan

Yes. To open a bank account in Colombia, you must either have a cedula (which you receive after obtaining legal residency) or otherwise be able to prove to the bank that you have been living in Colombia for six months (hard to do without a cedula).

That said, you have an option. Before or until you're able to open a bank account in this country, you can open an account with what's referred to locally as a "fiduciary." This is a private bank or a securities agency (something like a Schwab account). This isn't quite as good as a bank account from an operating point of view but, again, a viable alternative.

I'll have more on these kinds of practicalities in my "Medellin Part 2" update (my follow-up to last month's issue devoted to this city) for Overseas Retirement Letter subscribers later this month.Continue Reading:

• Retire To Ambergris Caye, Belize