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      Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

      • Spain
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      • Safest Places For Retirement
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    • Budgets

      How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

      The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

      Super Cheap

      • Chitré, Panama
      • Santa Marta, Colombia
      • Phuket, Thailand
      • Dumaguete, The Philippines

      Cheap

      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Kyrenia, Cyprus
      • Hua Hin, Thailand
      • The Algarve, Portugal

      Affordable

      • Valencia, Spain
      • Cascais, Portugal
      • Las Terrenas, The DR
      • Pisa, Italy
      • La Rochelle, France
      • Mazatlán, Mexico

      Luxury

      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Kotor, Montenegro
      • The Panama City Beaches
      • Paris, France
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      • Home
      • Countries

        Top Destinations:

        Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

        • Spain
        • Portugal
        • Panama
        • Belize
        • Colombia
        • Cyprus
        • Mexico
        • France
        • Montenegro
        • Browse All Countries

        Best For:

        • The Best Places To Retire
        • Health Care Abroad
        • Cost Of Living
        • Investing in Real Estate
        • Establishing Residency
        • Gun Laws In The World
        • English-Speaking Countries
        • Safest Places For Retirement
        • Best Places In Latin America
      • Budgets

        How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

        The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

        Super Cheap

        • Chitré, Panama
        • Santa Marta, Colombia
        • Phuket, Thailand
        • Dumaguete, The Philippines

        Cheap

        • Medellin, Colombia
        • Boquete, Panama
        • Kyrenia, Cyprus
        • Hua Hin, Thailand
        • The Algarve, Portugal

        Affordable

        • Valencia, Spain
        • Cascais, Portugal
        • Las Terrenas, The DR
        • Pisa, Italy
        • La Rochelle, France
        • Mazatlán, Mexico

        Luxury

        • Ambergris Caye, Belize
        • Kotor, Montenegro
        • The Panama City Beaches
        • Paris, France
      • Resources

        Global Living

        • Living & Retiring Overseas
        • Raising A Family Abroad
        • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
        • Offshore & Diversification

        Making Money

        • International Real Estate
        • Banking
        • Employment
        • Investing

        Follow Us:

        • Meet Our Experts
      • Real Estate

        Join our Weekly Newsletter
        Overseas Property Alert

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive expert insights on the best international real estate investment opportunities.






          We Value Your Privacy! We will not share your email address with anyone else, period.

          Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

          • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

          Explore Our Latest Posts

          • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

          Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

          • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
        • Conferences

          Upcoming Events

          • Explore Our Events Site

          International Property Summit

          Caribbean Virtual Conference

          Live and Invest In Spain Conference

          PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

          June 18-20, 2025

          VIRTUAL

          July 17-19, 2025

          Valencia, Spain

          Sep. 17-19, 2025

          LEARN MORE
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          • MORE EVENTS

          Contact Our Events Team

          Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
          1 (888) 627 8834
          From Outside North America:
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          Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

          Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

        • Store

          Unlock The World

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          • Explore Our Store
          Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

          Services

          overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
          The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
          Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

          Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

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          Home Lifestyle

          Why Returning To America Has Made Me Glad I Live Overseas

          World’s Greatest Country?

          by Lief Simon
          Jul 07, 2023
          in Lifestyle
          0 0
          Bridge of the Americas, Panama

          iStock/LisaStrachan

          I’ve been back in the United States for a short while—and I’ve already had enough.

          My takeaway is that, to borrow a line from Will McAvoy’s opening monologue in the first episode of the HBO series “Newsroom,” America isn’t the greatest country in the world.

          Now, if you’re an American reading this, before you reach for the delete key in anger or begin typing out an email to tell me how I’m all wet, stick with me.

          Quality Of Life In America

          In every way that you can measure quality of life, the United States doesn’t rank number one. It ranks well in many categories but not best in any one that I’m aware of (now’s your chance to send an email telling me how I’m wrong… I’ll appreciate being set straight).

          However, this is a big place, and, even in categories where the United States excels overall, parts of the country lag far behind the developed world.

          Take infrastructure, for example. Every time I’m in the United States, I’m struck by the poor quality of the infrastructure. The roads I’m traveling every day here in rural Illinois aren’t in any better condition than roads I drive anyplace else in the world where I spend time.

          And they’re far worse than roads in France, for example, where I’ve got a lot of experience behind the wheel.

          This is true not only in the context of roads in northern Illinois.

          The broken asphalt and pot holes I’m bumping over every day here are similar to those in downtown Houston and suburban Baltimore, two other places in this country where I’ve spent time in the last few years.

          Cell phone coverage, likewise, is hit and miss. Here in Woodstock, my phone gets one bar at best and most calls are going straight to voicemail. The internet service is maddening.

          And it’s not just infrastructure…

          What Is Going On With Health Care And Diet?

          Health care in the United States is a factory experience. One reason I’m here in Illinois is to help my mother with some health problems. The experience is eye opening in the worst possible way.

          Old people in this country go to various doctors regularly for one ailment after another. The result in every instance, as far as I can tell, is for the doctor to prescribe a pill or an injection.

          Two out of three commercials on television are for prescription drugs. “Ask your doctor about blah, blah, blah,” every one of them recommends in the end. And loads of aging Americans do. They ask, the doctors write out a prescription, and the patient goes away to buy more drugs to take along with all the other drugs he’s taking, feeding the health insurance and pharmaceutical conglomerates that run the health care industry in this country.

          All those drugs come with long lists of side effects, counter effects, and potential complications.

          Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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            And don’t even get me started on the insane bureaucracy surrounding Medicare and U.S. health insurance and working out what’s covered and what’s not, what you’ll pay out of pocket and what you won’t…

            In no other country on earth is health care bureaucracy so complex—or health care itself so expensive. In Panama, Kathleen and I pay US$35 to visit an excellent, English-speaking doctor. In France—ranked by the WHO as the best health system in the world—a family doctor visit costs 25 euros. And 70% of that can be reimbursed if you’re part of the national health care system.

            There are excellent private health care facilities all over the world that rival any center of excellence in the States…

            Despite all the medicating in the States (or, I’d say, at least in part because of all the medicating), the health of the average American is critically low. I haven’t checked the statistics, but my observational experience suggests that better than 70% of people in this country are overweight and half those are excessively overweight.

            They go to their doctors with complaints related to being overweight. Rather than counseling the patient on lifestyle choices, the doctor, to make the point again, writes out a prescription.

            It’s not like that elsewhere…

            I don’t want to get into a debate about why people get fat (there, I used the word… not very “woke” of me). However, I believe that, in most cases, it’s because they eat too much and exercise too little.

            The poor eating habits of the average American are understandable. You have to work hard here to eat healthy. I estimate that more than two-thirds of the grocery store where I’ve been shopping is given over to nonfood items. For every aisle offering fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and bread, there are at least two selling candy, chips, cakes, doughnuts, soda, and a lot of nonfood that I’ve never seen before.

            I’ve taken to reading the nutritional labels on each item I’m considering buying. Every processed product has sugar listed among the top five ingredients. It’s no wonder more than 10% of the population of this country suffers from diabetes… and another 35% is considered pre-diabetic.

            Enough about food.

            Too Many Lawyers

            Let’s talk instead about attorneys!

            Television commercials in this country sell one of three things—drugs, charities, and lawyers. “Were you ever exposed to XYZ? If so, you may be eligible for a payout. Get in touch now to talk about filing a suit…” recommend the sleezy attorneys in bad suits.
            Like prescription medications and sugary foods, lawsuits have become an industry in this country. We should all aspire to go our whole lives without one, but they are being pushed on us from all angles.

            (Forty million lawsuits are filed in America every year… and no doubt many of them are frivolous. Indeed, my latest issue of Simon Letter is all about how you can protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits by going offshore.)

            Will My Neighbors See The Light?

            Here in northern Illinois, most people seem happy with the lifestyle they’ve been sold. I’d say that’s because they’re not aware of the alternatives.

            Like Will McAvoy, I’ve undertaken a mission to civilize. Or, well, to expand the minds of my neighbors here in Woodstock.

            How’s it going so far? Not so well…

            “Where do you live?” one lady wanted to know.

            “Part of the year in Panama and part of the year in Paris,” I told her.

            “But Paris is so dirty!” she said. “Everyone I’ve known who’s been there says the French are filthy. How can you stand living like that?”

            Funny, I thought, I’m wondering the same thing about you.

            I’m not anti-America and I’m certainly not anti-American, but I am anti-the lifestyle that I’m seeing all around me.

            And appreciating the diversified lifestyle I’ve developed over the past 30 years more every day.

            Stay diversified,

            Lief Simon signature

            Lief Simon

            Editor, Simon Letter

            Tags: 'France'Live abroadlive overseasPanamaParis
            Share95Tweet59
            Lief Simon

            Lief Simon

            Lief Simon has lived and worked in 7 countries on 5 continents and traveled to more than 75 countries. His real estate investment career began with a $5,000 down payment on a three-flat building in Chicago. Less than three years later, Lief sold the building for a leveraged return of 3,000%—$150,000 in profit after closing costs and commissions.

            From there, he turned his attention overseas and has bought property in 24 countries including France, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Belize, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, Romania, and beyond. Thanks to his decades-long career as a global property investor, Lief has built a multi-million-dollar portfolio that includes rental properties, significant land holdings, and 7 personal residences.

            Lief has established residency in 3 countries and acquired a second passport from Ireland.

            In 2008 Lief and wife Kathleen Peddicord made the most important investment of their lives—a 215-acre oceanside finca, known as Los Islotes. There, on Panama’s largely undiscovered Veraguas coast, they’ve installed underground electricity, water, and internet and built a forever family home that sits at the heart of their ultimate vision: a gold standard private residential community for those in search of a true safe haven escape.

            Lief’s latest book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer,” collects all the wisdom he has learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.

            He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches. For real estate investment opportunities, check out his monthly Global Property Advisor service.

            If you’d like to meet Lief in person, join him for one of our upcoming in-country conferences. You’ll find further details here.

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                  HOME

                  Top Countries

                  • Spain
                  • Portugal
                  • Panama
                  • Belize
                  • Colombia
                  • Cyprus
                  • Mexico
                  • France
                  • Montenegro

                  Best For:

                  • Health Care Abroad
                  • Retirement Living
                  • Cost Of Living
                  • Investing in Real Estate
                  • Establishing Residency
                  • Gun Ownership
                  • English Speakers
                  • Safety
                  BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

                  Budgets

                  How Much Will It Cost
                  To Live Overseas?

                  Super Cheap

                  • Chitré, Panama
                  • Santa Marta, Colombia
                  • Phuket, Thailand
                  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

                  Cheap

                  • Medellin, Colombia
                  • Boquete, Panama
                  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
                  • Hua Hin, Thailand
                  • The Algarve, Portugal

                  Affordable

                  • Valencia, Spain
                  • Cascais, Portugal
                  • Las Terrenas, The DR
                  • Pisa, Italy
                  • La Rochelle, France
                  • Mazatlán, Mexico

                  Luxury

                  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
                  • Kotor, Montenegro
                  • The Panama City Beaches
                  • Paris, France

                  Resources

                  Global Living

                  • Living & Retiring Overseas
                  • Raising A Family Abroad
                  • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
                  • Offshore & Diversification

                  Making Money

                  • International Real Estate
                  • Banking
                  • Employment
                  • Investing
                  Meet Our Experts

                  Real Estate

                  Overseas Property Alert 

                   

                  How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams

                  VISIT SITE

                  Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

                   

                  Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

                  READ MORE

                  Explore Our Latest Posts

                   

                  Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

                  EXPLORE

                  Conferences

                  INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY SUMMIT

                  PANAMA CITY, PANAMA June 18-20, 2025
                  LEARN MORE

                  CARIBBEAN VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

                  VIRTUAL July 17-19, 2025
                  LEARN MORE
                  PRE-REGISTER

                  Live and Invest In Spain Conference

                  Valencia, Spain Sep. 17-19, 2025
                  LEARN MORE
                  PRE-REGISTER
                  MORE EVENTS

                  Contact Our Events Team:

                  Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
                  1 (888) 627 8834

                  From Outside North America:
                  1 (443) 599 1221

                  Working Hours
                  Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

                  Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

                  Store

                  Overseas Havens Reports

                  • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

                  Conference Kits

                  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

                  Lahardan Books

                  • Titles on living and investing around the world

                  Services

                  • Overseas Living Letter: Affordable Retirement Guidance
                  • The Simon Letter: Wealth Protection Insights
                  • Global Property Advisor: Global Investment Opportunitites
                  VISIT OUR STORE

                  Free Report

                  THE 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE IN 2025

                  FREE REPORT: The 10 Best Places To retire in 2025

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