I’ve been spending time and money in this country since 1997.
I’ve been living here full and part time since 2008.
I’ve raised my son here. Based my business here. Made every kind of property investment it’s possible to make from pre-construction condos to commercial buildings and from productive land to land for banking and the legacy undertaking that is Los Islotes on Panama’s gloriously undiscovered Veraguas Pacific coast.
Based on all that experience, what do I say to anyone who asks me what I think of Panama today?
“Get on a plane and come see for yourself,” I suggest.
Because if you aren’t taking a good close look at all that Panama has to offer right now, you’re missing out.
This is true regardless of your agenda.
Whether you’re looking to improve your lifestyle…
To make some money…
Or both…
Panama should be at the top of your list.
My Live And Invest Overseas business is based in the heart of Panama City. We’re in good company. The Panamanian capital is home to hundreds of international operations, including some of the world’s biggest from Estee Lauder and Nike to Dell, Caterpillar, Nestle, and on and on.
I appreciate the great advantages that Panama offers the globally minded entrepreneur, but, to be honest, I don’t love Panama City.
Panama City is a boom town… crowded, dirty, noisy, and hot.
My now 27-year-old son, on the other hand, enjoys every chance to return to the town where he grew up. He and his friends from school hit the clubs, the restaurants, the casinos.
Panama City is recognized by his generation and other folks younger than me as Miami South.
My favorite thing about Panama City is driving out of Panama City, across the Bridge Of The Americas, headed west.
Because while Panama City is not my lifestyle cup of tea, life out at Los Islotes, west of the capital and way down at the bottom of the western coast of the Azuero Peninsula, is my definition of paradise. No nightclubs or casinos in these parts. No shopping malls or fast food either. This is a frontier.
Privacy, elbow room, and a chance to create your own reality in the most virgin natural setting imaginable—those are the things that attracted Lief and me to this outpost in the first place and those are the things we most appreciate about this secret coast still.
Panama City is the most developed city in the region and increasingly recognized as a brand-name city on the world stage alongside Miami and Dubai…
Panama’s Veraguas coast is one of the most unspoiled spots on our planet…
In between are just about every other lifestyle option you could be in the market for… from cool, comfortable living among a welcoming community of fellow expats in Panama’s highlands…
To beaches that are weekend-commutable, within a couple of hours drive of Panama City…
Pounding Pacific beaches that attract the world’s best surfers…
And tranquil Caribbean beaches ideal for unplugging and recharging…
This little country is hugely diverse not only when it comes to lifestyle. Panama also offers one of the world’s most diversified investment markets.
Venezuelans, Colombians, Hondurans, El Salvadorans, Argentines, and others from across Latin America… when they have capital to safeguard, they put it in Panama.
Americans and Canadians, too, likewise, prize this safe-haven marketplace… alongside the French, the Dutch, the Irish, the Spanish, Norwegians, Brits…
As well as, increasingly, investors from Dubai and across the Middle East…
Anyone anywhere seeking safe harbor… they’re looking to Panama.
I sat down with longtime friend in Panama Jose Bern for a conversation to launch my new Living And Investing Overseas With Kathleen Peddicord podcast. (Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to hear when it’s released.)
Jose’s father Herman was one of the first people I met in Panama. Herman took me to see the beach just outside Panama City that he was preparing to develop.
Today, nearly three decades later, that Playa Bonita is a Westin-branded stretch of coastline. We hosted our recent Beachfront Living Event here in July…
In the decades since we connected with him, Herman’s Empresas Bern has become “The Brand That Built Panama City”… headed up now by Jose.
As Jose put it when we spoke, investors who want to grow their money need to go to a place that’s growing.
After decades of firsthand experience on the ground in this country, I can tell you…
Boy, howdy, yes indeed. Panama’s growing.
If you’re interested in expanding your lifestyle… or your investment portfolio… or, like me, both…
I strongly recommend that you come on down and see this little country for yourself.
I’d love the chance to show you all that Panama has to offer in person.
Until next time,
