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Comparing Panama And Colombia: Living, Retiring, Investing

Panama City Versus Medellín––Retire Overseas Face-Off

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Aug 06, 2020
in Colombia, Comparison, In Focus: Panama, Investing, Lifestyle, Panama
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panama city bay palm tree

Image Source: iStock/Leonid Andronov

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First, we compared Cuenca, Ecuador, with Medellín, Colombia…

Then we looked at a more outside-the-box comparison, thinking through how Panama City, Panama, squares off against Paris, France. (Spoiler alert: In this face-off, Paris came out the cheaper choice.)…

Now let’s look at how up-and-comer Medellín, Colombia, stacks up versus long-standing number-one retire-overseas choice Panama City…

Here’s how

I’d lay this out…

Panama Pros

The modern urban skyline of Panama City, Panama
iStock/SL_Photography
  • World’s top offshore haven
  • Bona fide tax haven, taxing income on a jurisdictional basis
  • Uses U.S. dollar, meaning no currency exchange risk
  • Specific countries visa program (which can mean a work permit)
  • Best infrastructure in Central America
  • Strong economy
  • Quality, affordable health care
  • Diverse lifestyle options, including Pacific and Caribbean coasts, islands, mountains, and Panama City
  • Top choice for entrepreneurs
  • Super accessible, with many direct flights daily to and from North America and Europe

Panama Cons

  • Hot and humid in Panama City and on coasts
  • Traffic congestion in Panama City
  • Poor service standards
  • Panama City not suitable for walking
  • Strong mañana attitude

Colombia Pros

Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia
Alamy/Mehdi33300
  • Top investment haven with enormous upside
  • Best health care in Latin America at a cost that can be 90% less than U.S. costs for comparable care
  • Strong economy
  • Welcoming locals
  • First-world, even luxury lifestyle options
  • Working hard to compete for foreign attention
  • Easiest and cheapest residency option in the world today; pensioner option requires income of only US$820 per month at today’s exchange rate… and you can process the application yourself
  • Many lifestyle options on offer, including sophisticated, Euro-chic city living, Caribbean beach, world-class colonial towns, rural landscapes, and the finca lifestyle
  • South America rather than Central America… and there is a difference

Colombia Cons

  • Necessary to learn some Spanish
  • Less existing expat infrastructure
  • Not a low-tax jurisdiction
  • Air pollution in Medellín and Bogotá

Let’s Take A Closer Look

In the context of the issues most important to the would-be investor or retiree, here’s how these two countries stack up against each other…

1. Cost Of Living  Colombian flag

Remember the exchange rate. Right now, thanks to the U.S. dollar’s continued strength versus the Colombian peso, Colombia can be the greater bargain by far.

2. Cost Of Real Estate  Colombian flag

Again, thanks to the exchange rate, real estate in Colombia can be 60%+ cheaper, apples to apples.

Also note that, while it’s possible to own luxury in both Medellín and Panama City, Panama City luxury now comes at a much higher cost.

3. Climate  Colombian flag

Way more comfortable in Medellín than Panama City, for example, but both countries offer many different climates.

4. Quality Of Life  Colombian flagPanamanian flag

What are you looking for? Both countries offer city, coastal, mountain, and rural choices.

5. Ease Of Residency  Colombian flag

Colombia is perhaps the world’s easiest place to establish residency right now. No lawyer is required, and we’ve known people to go through the process in one hour.

On the other hand, Panama’s Friendly Nations visa program is the best option in the world today if you want to work.

6. Banking And Doing Business  Panamanian flag

Panama is the clear winner, thanks to:

  • Banking infrastructure
  • Lack of exchange controls
  • No currency risk
  • Much more English spoken
  • Available labor pool and possibility to acquire work permits for non-local labor

7. Infrastructure  Colombian flagPanamanian flag

A tie.

8. Taxes  Panamanian flag

Panama is the screaming champion on this score, a true tax haven, while Colombia qualifies as a high-tax jurisdiction, with, for example, a corporate tax rate as high as 34%.

However, if you’re a retiree making a move with retirement income, you probably don’t have to worry about this. For the retiree, a move to a new country should be a tax-neutral event.

9. Health Care  Colombian flag

Top-quality, international-standard care is available in Panama City. Outside the capital, the standard of care in this country falls.

Eight of the top 35 hospitals in all Latin America are in Medellín. Other cities in Colombia have similarly top-standard facilities.

10. Ease Of Settling In  Panamanian flag

Panama City is a kind of halfway house for expats, a very easy and comfortable first step overseas. Medellín is an emerging expat destination, though more discovered and therefore easier to navigate as an expat or foreign retiree all the time.

Bottom line, though, Colombia is more challenging in this regard unless you speak Spanish.

Which Is Right For You?

Depends on your circumstances, personal preferences, and agendas…

I say: Why choose?

Spread your life around a little. Live or invest in both!

Kathleen Peddicord

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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