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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.

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    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
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    • Investing

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    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

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    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    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
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Home Retirement/Living

On Being An American Abroad In 2025

by Kathleen Peddicord
Jul 06, 2025
in Retirement/Living
0 0
The Registan in Samarkand, Travelling to Uzbekistan

The Registan in Samarkand, Travelling to Uzbekistan / Live And Invest Overseas

The U.S. State Department has issued a Worldwide Caution Security Alert for American citizens. We’re meant to be more cautious as we move around the world and should expect not to be welcome everywhere.

There are spots on the globe I’d prefer to avoid right now… but, in my ongoing, real-time experience moving around this earth of ours… “unwelcome” is not a word that comes to mind.

In the past two months, I’ve spent time in Ireland, France, Panama, Uzbekistan, and now, since Wednesday, the U.S. Midwest.

So far no one here in Illinois has made me feel uncomfortable.

Seriously, everywhere I’ve hung my hat recently, I’ve enjoyed warm receptions.

In Uzbekistan last month, one of the first questions locals asked was, “Where are you from?” When I told them “America,” their faces lit up. They jumped at the opportunity to ask an American what life in America is really like… and to practice their English…

What’s the weather like where we come from, they wanted to know. Is it as hot as in their land?

What’s the food like? Do we eat stews like they do?

What music do we listen to…

They were hungry to know us better.

And I them.

Our weeks traveling the Silk Road have been eye-opening. I’m embarrassed to admit how much I didn’t know about the history and the culture of this part of the world… and still don’t. Lief and I are keen to continue our education.

We’ve begun planning a part three of our Silk Road adventures in 2026, picking up where we left off in Uzbekistan… in the company, again, of our Private Network members.

In addition to my U.S. passport, I carry one from Ireland. At first when folks in Uzbekistan inquired about my origins, I considered telling them I hail from Ireland. I’m ashamed when I think about that now. What was I afraid of?

I couldn’t hide the fact that I’m an American if I tried.

I’ve been living outside the States for coming up on 30 years.

The truth is, I’ve never felt more American than I do today.

I called Baltimore, Maryland, home until I was 35 years old. Growing up, I never thought about what it meant to be American. I took it for granted.

Every year since I left Baltimore, I’ve been more aware of my American-ness.

Lief and I lived in Ireland for seven years, long enough to acquire our Irish passports, and our son was born in Waterford… but we’re not Irish… not really.

After Ireland, we were in Paris for four years. Both our children think of that city as home. It’s where our blended family bonded, where my son, Jackson, started school, and from where my daughter, Kaitlin, left our nest to start college.

We still have the apartment where we four lived together. It’s one of our home bases. In that apartment we store plastic tubs containing school report cards and gifts the kids made us for Mother’s and Father’s days. Indeed, everywhere we look in those 112 square meters brings back memories from when our children were young.

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We’re very connected to Paris, but we’re surely not French.

In Panama, where we’ve been based for nearly 20 years, as in Ireland and in Paris, we’ve put down roots. We have friends, our children have friends…

Our Live And Invest Overseas HQ is in a big old house in Panama City’s El Cangrejo neighborhood. We have an apartment on Avenida Balboa and a house on Panama’s Azuero coast where we’re creating a private oceanfront community of like-minded souls at Los Islotes.

We’re in Panama for the long haul… but we’ll never be Panamanian.

No… we’re American, from our accents to our Levi’s… from Lief’s Stetson to my fondness for fresh corn on the cob on a hot July afternoon.

And we’re undoubtedly American in less obvious ways, too.

I’d say that, when I sit down in a business meeting anywhere in the world, no one else at the table is uncertain of my origins. I could be negotiating the cost of an apartment for sale in Tavira… considering an investment in Panama City… meeting with a new writer in Paris… or discussing residency visa options with an attorney in Santo Domingo…

On the other end of the conversation is a Portuguese, a Panamanian, a Frenchman, a Dominican… what have you. I’m the American. And to the discussion I bring the American perspective.

The longer I’m outside the States, the greater has grown my appreciation for what that means and also for how unique the American viewpoint is.

The rest of the world doesn’t think like we Americans think. That’s neither good nor bad. It just is. And it creates opportunities.

I have the chance, every time I engage with a non-American anywhere in the world, to learn from his ways… and to leverage mine.

We Americans are the world’s optimists. We believe in ourselves and in our collective ability to figure things out… to make things better… to make things work. We’re certain we can… when everyone else is sure we can’t.

Americans are dreamers. We see what something could be more than what it happens to be right now. What’s before us is only a place to start.
And we’re wanderers. What’s over the next hill or around the next bend in the road? Let’s go have a look, we can’t help but suggest.

We value hard work, we like efficiency, and we pride ourselves on our willingness to act on opportunity when we perceive it.

What could we do tomorrow that we didn’t do yesterday… we wonder as we lie awake at night. Let’s get up early in the morning and find out.

How can we make this thing, this idea, this effort better? Let’s roll up our shirtsleeves and see where a little elbow grease leads us.

Those are American sentiments. Wherever we travel in the world, whoever we encounter, personally or in business, these are the attitudes we bring to the conversation.


So, yes, I’d say that, living overseas in 2025, I feel more American than ever.

In a good way.

Happy Independence Day.

Until next time, 

Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord,
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
Tags: 'Expat Life''France''Ireland'american living abroadmove overseasPanamaPortugal
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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
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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

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Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

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Learn More About This Event

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PRE-REGISTER

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VIRTUAL Nov. 13, 2025
Learn More About This Event
PRE-REGISTER
MORE EVENTS

Contact Our Events Team:

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From Outside North America:
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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

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

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