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Home Lifestyle

After A Little Time Apart, Panama Feels More Like Home

On Coming Home To Panama

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Sep 05, 2017
in Lifestyle, Panama, Real Estate
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 “I don’t know if I should tell you guys this or not,” began our 17-year-old son Jackson as we exited Tocumen International Airport and began the drive to our apartment in Panama City…

Uh, oh, I thought…

“But now, for me, Panama is home,” he continued, calming my apprehension and getting my attention at the same time.

“I know I’ve always said that I think of Paris as home,” Jackson carried on, “but, really, I grew up in Panama. Most all my memories of being a little kid are from Panama.

“I know my way around every inch of Panama City,” Jackson continued with a big smile. “I’ve got loads of friends here. Everywhere I look I remember something fun. This is my town.”

Lief and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. This revelation was news to us.

“And that’s ok,” young Jackson added. “I’m ok with this being my home base. I’ve missed Panama these past two months we’ve been away. I’m really excited to be back.

“Look,” he continued, holding out his phone. “I have messages from all my friends here asking if we can get together tonight. Is it ok if I go out?”

Lief and I were a little surprised by Jackson’s enthusiasm but share it. After two months in Europe, we, too, are delighted to return this week to the Hub of the Americas, where we feel established, settled, comfortable, welcomed, and at home… just like our son, it seems.

These past two months traveling in Europe, Lief and I have felt adrift. I’m a big fan of habit. I count on it to keep me on point. When we left Panama late June, Lief and I walked away from all routine built to that point… and our lives have continued to unravel since.

On one hand, I embrace the freedom. Following Jackson’s graduation from high school in June, we’ve enjoyed a level of flexibility heretofore completely unknown to us.

“Want to go watch the Palio in Siena?” Lief asked in July.

“Sure!” I replied… and we went. No children’s schedules to coordinate, no office staff to manage (all the office staff was back in Panama City)… why not take off for a horse race in Italy?

After two months of that level of liberty, Lief and I are ready for some workaday responsibility.

“Put us to use!” we’re begging our Panama City team now that we’re back among them. “What can we do to help?”

We’re digging in… and downsizing.

As empty-nesters we no longer need the big apartment where we’ve lived with Jackson all these past years… so we’re swapping those 450 square meters for a one-bedroom loft apartment down the road. The movers are packing all around me as I write.

In fact, we’ve owned the little apartment we’re moving into this week for more than 14 years. Lief bought it as one of our first investments in Panama… and he bought it solo, informing me after the fact that he’d signed us up for a pre-construction unit in a new building going up on Panama City’s Avenida Balboa.

Lief made the purchase, eventually took delivery of the apartment, and then organized the furnishing and decorating before I laid eyes on the place.

“What’s a wife to think,” I remember writing to a friend at the time, “when she shows up to see the apartment her husband has purchased in a foreign city for the first time to find that the place has been outfitted as a bachelor’s pad? Should I be worried?”

In truth, Lief set up our Pacific-view apartment not as his man cave but for rental. The property has served well in that context, earning us 12% to 18% net return per year ever since. Plus, today the apartment is worth more than two times what we paid for it. Not a bad buy…

Especially as now, finally, as long planned, the apartment will also be serving as our Panama City address. Our plan from here on out has us coming and going regularly from Panama. When in the country, we’ll divide our time between the office in Panama City and our Los Islotes development out on the Azuero coast. When in Panama City, Lief’s first foray into Panama property markets will be our home.

Better run. My marketing staff has requested a meeting. It’s great to be back.

More on our return to Panama tomorrow…

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: expats panamaexpats panama cityinvesting panamainvesting panama cityliving panamaliving panama cityproperty panamaproperty panama cityraising children panamaraising children panama cityrentals panamarentals panama city
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What I Quickly Learned About Safety And Guns In Panama

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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