Kathleen’s New Year’s Challenge, Day 2
You’ve got your list. (If you missed yesterday’s issue, catch up here.)
Now you need another list, this one of destinations that might support the lifestyle you seek.
How do you choose your ideal overseas haven from among the 200+ countries in the world?
I’ve provided a short list of top options as we look ahead to the New Year.
These are the places that I believe make the most sense for living and investing overseas in 2018.
Understand, though, that these are not the only destinations of interest or opportunity. Don’t dismiss a city, town, village, or beach that appeals to you simply because it’s not on my Top Havens For 2018 list.
So start with my list… but add any destination that has your attention…
Could be a place you’ve dreamt of spending time since you were young (I’ve known I wanted to live in Paris since I was 12 years old)…
Could be a place you read about in a book… saw in a movie… or heard about from a friend…
At this point, let your imagination roam far and wide to help you create your own Places I Think I’d Like To Know Better And Maybe Even Where I’d Like To Live list.
OK… so now you’ve got two lists—one detailing what you’d like your new life overseas to look like and a second naming places where you could embrace that lifestyle.
Now here’s the problem…
I can’t take this conversation much further.
Should you launch your new life in the Algarve… or on Panama’s Pacific coast?
Would you be happy in Medellín… or Cayo? At home in Barcelona… or Chiang Mai? Would Las Terrenas… or Paris make sense for you?
I have no idea.
You’ve got to do the work of considering the destinations on your World’s Top Havens list in the context of your personal preferences and priorities yourself.
You’ve got to connect your own dots.
For example:
If you’re looking to make a move overseas on a limited budget, look closely at Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Vietnam, the world’s most affordable places to live comfortably.
If you want a temperate climate year-round, put Cuenca, Ecuador, and Medellín, Colombia, at the top of your list. If you want four seasons, think about Argentina, Chile, Croatia, France, or Italy.
Get the shakes at the thought of life without reliable internet? Take Nicaragua off your list and parts of Ecuador, too. If top-tier infrastructure is a deal-breaker for you, I’d recommend reconciling yourself to city living in Latin America and Asia in general. You can’t count on regular, reliable internet in the “interiors” of most countries in these regions.
Don’t like bugs? Don’t move to a tropical beach.
Get sad without sunshine? Take any country in Northern Europe off your list.
Want to start a business? Come to Panama, the most business-friendly jurisdiction in the world today… or Malaysia, if you want to be on that side of the planet…
Or go anywhere.
Seriously. In today’s world, you could launch a laptop business to support yourself anywhere you have access to the internet.
Travel a lot? Think about Panama in the Americas, France in Euroland, or Bangkok in Asia. From Tocumen you can get anywhere in North or South America with ease… from Bangkok, all of Asia is on your doorstep… and from Charles de Gaulle you’re no more than a couple of hops away from anywhere, period.
Value regular nights of culture? Consider Buenos Aires, Paris, or (more budget-friendly) Medellín.
Want to be far away from the troubles of the world? Think about Cayo, Belize, where life continues safe, simple, and separate.
Making a move with children? Education is your number-one priority. In this case, consider France, Panama, or Argentina, for example.
If you have an ongoing health concern, medical care facilities are your top priority. Put, again, France, at the top of your list if budget is not another of your key criteria… and consider Panama, Malaysia, or Colombia if it is.
Foreign ownership of property is restricted in Thailand, for example, if that matters to you.
Argentineans enjoy drama—in their politics, in their economic policies, in their cocktail party conversation. Will you find that entertaining or unnerving?
France is one of the most legislated places on earth. The French, though, simply ignore the rules and the restrictions and carry on as suits them. Could you?
Taxis in places like Belize City and Granada, Nicaragua, often come minus things like door handles, air conditioning, and tail lights. Will that bother you?
Latinos live life loud and in the street, and they don’t value their own time let alone yours. The French are reserved and formal. Asians don’t have the same ideas about personal space that North Americans do.
Which of those things make you uncomfortable?
OK, over to you…
You’ll have to continue this line of thinking for yourself, but you get the idea.
Meantime, as we begin the countdown to the New Year, we’re gearing up to do everything we can to support your connect-the-dots efforts. We want 2018 to be the year your new life-overseas dreams become reality.
Keep reading. We’re just getting started.
Kathleen Peddicord
