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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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    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
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    • 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

    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
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    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

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    Oct. 15-17, 2025

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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

    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

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    Learn More About This Event
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    Learn More About This Event
    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

    Unlock The World

    • Access Your Library

    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
    • 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

  • My Library
Live and Invest Overseas
 Moving Out Of The U.S?

THE 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE IN 2025

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Home Retirement/Living

How To Leave The U.S.: 11 Essential Expat Tips

11 Insider Tips To Help You Plan Your Dream Retirement Overseas

by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 02, 2024
in Retirement/Living
0 0
A view of Paris with the Seine River and the Eiffel tower in the background on a sunny afternoon. How To Leave The US

Adobe Stock/engel.ac

I’ve made four international moves across three continents with two kids, a dog, a turtle, a

husband, and one fast-growing business.

What have I learned?

Here you go…

1. The first step to any move abroad is to set your priorities and to be honest in the process

What matters to you most? Evenings at the theater? English-speaking friends? A low cost of living? A reliable internet connection?

Don’t kid yourself. If you can’t imagine life without a Maytag washer and dryer, for example, or Sunday afternoons watching the big game, you may need to rethink the entire proposition.

2. Make all decisions jointly with whomever you will make the move

Your spouse’s ideas about what he or she wants may shock you… and vice versa. Better to get them on the table sooner rather than later.

3. Retirement Abroad: Recognize that no place is perfect

No climate is ideal. No city is 100% crime-free. Manage your expectations when planning your retirement overseas.

4. Understand that no other country on Earth is as convenient as the United States of America

In many places, shops, banks, dry cleaners, and government offices close for lunch and call it quits each day by 5 p.m. You can’t run errands on your lunch break… or on Sundays.

In some countries, you must pay utility bills in person. In the developing world (not only in Latin America and the Caribbean, but in emerging Europe, too), appointments and schedules are more suggestions than commitments.

And only a handful of real estate markets outside the States operate with Multiple Listing Services, meaning the search for your new home in paradise will be inefficient at best.

5. Don’t leave your good sense at the border

That is, don’t mix alcohol and property buying…

We call it “Margarita Madness.” It’s a syndrome that can set in shortly after your arrival in any sunny, sandy, tropical locale.

The water’s turquoise, the sand is soft, and the palms are swaying. That guy you just met in the bar downtown (the one who shared a couple of rum punches with you), he’s now driving you along the beach road bordering his development, pointing out where his clubhouse will be, where the marina will go, where your new home could be positioned.

Look at that view. Feel that breeze. Boy, it doesn’t get better than this…

And, you know, we’ve got only two lots at this price remaining. A couple of buyers are expected in town tomorrow. I’d hate for you to miss out…

Would you buy a piece of real estate under those circumstances back home? A piece of property you’re seeing for the first time in a place where you’ve never been before? From a guy you met in a bar?

You need to do more due diligence when investing in a piece of property in another country, not less.

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6. There’s no such thing as the world’s top retirement haven, no one-size-fits-all Shangri-la

The only one who can determine the best place for you to retire is you.

There are dozens of beautiful, affordable, friendly, safe, charming places where you could choose to spend time in “retirement.” It’s a question of what you’re looking for and of what’s most important to you (see #1 above).

7. If you are an American, your Medicare won’t cover you once you leave U.S. soil

Don’t worry, you have options.

8. Plan Your Retirement Overseas: Rent first

Don’t buy a new home in paradise until you’ve tried that paradise on for size for several months. Even if the country turns out to be your ideal retirement haven, maybe the city or the region or the neighborhood where you land at first isn’t where you ultimately want to be.

Give yourself time to get the lay of the land before committing to a property purchase.

9. Plan Your Retirement Overseas But Be Prepared For Panic

In more than three-and-a-half decades speaking with people who’ve made the move to another country, I’ve yet to know one who didn’t experience a moment of, “What in the world have I done?”

Expect to question your sanity for having ever considered the idea of moving so far from home and hearth, if only briefly. Expect it, prepare for it, and understand that it will pass.

Everything you made the move for is waiting for you. You just need to give your perspective a little time to adjust.

10. Get local tax advice in the country where you’re planning to reside before you take up residence

When we moved to Ireland some 25 years ago, we met with Ernst & Young in Dublin during one of our pre-move visits.

This turned out to be one of the smartest moves we made (though we didn’t realize it at the time).

In Ireland then (this is no longer true today, as the relevant tax legislation has been amended since), if you organized your financial affairs according to a certain strategy that the advisor at Ernst & Young detailed for us, you could reduce your annual Irish tax burden substantially.

I won’t waste your time with the details, as they’re no longer relevant. The point is that the strategy had to be employed before we had an Ireland address. If we’d waited until we’d taken up residence in the Emerald Isle, our annual tax obligations would have been considerably greater throughout the seven years we called Ireland home.

11. Pay Attention To Your Gut When Planning Your Retirement Overseas

A place either feels right… or it doesn’t.

All your research and figuring in advance is important, but nothing substitutes for the feeling you get when you hit the ground. Let your heart lead you where you’re really meant to be.

Until next time,

Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

 

Tags: 'Expats Overseas''health insurance''retirement''Taxes'americans abroadAt Home Abroadliving overseasrenting propertyretiring overseas
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has reported on opportunities for Americans to live, retire, and do business overseas for 40 years. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 24, established businesses in 7, renovated and built properties in 6, and educated her children in 5.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets from the east coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland, then to Paris, France, and finally to Panama City, Panama, where she has based her Live And Invest Overseas business. Peddicord and her husband, Lief Simon, now divide their time between Panama and Paris.

Peddicord was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. She opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Waterford, Ireland; Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France. Peddicord launched Live And Invest Overseas group in 2008 and has built it into a successful multimillion-dollar business. Today, she shares her firsthand experience of expat life with more than 500,000 readers of her publications, including Overseas Opportunity Letter and Overseas Living Letter.

Kathleen has been featured often in The New York Times, MSNBC, AARP, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and more and writes monthly about expat matters, international real estate, and offshore diversification for Forbes and U.S. News.

Kathleen has written several books including the memoirs “At Home In Ireland” and “At Home At Los Islotes” and her latest title “At Home Abroad,” all published by Lahardan Books. Her best-selling "How To Retire Overseas: Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad” was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and her “Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)” was published by Wiley in August 2020.

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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

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Meet Our Experts

Real Estate

Overseas Property Alert 

 

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

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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

READ MORE

Explore Our Latest Posts

 

Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

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VIRTUAL Nov. 13, 2025
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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

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  • The Simon Letter: Wealth Protection Insights
  • Global Property Advisor: Global Investment Opportunitites
VISIT OUR STORE

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