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Don’t Move To Panama If…

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
May 15, 2009
in Panama, Retirement/Living
0
A skyline view of Panama City with a red sign saying, "Panama. We're Open For Investment."
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Deciding to Move to Panama?

“Panama is a Spanish-speaking country in the tropics,” I remarked to the assembled group at the start of this morning’s conference program here in Panama City…stating the obvious.

“That is to say,” I continued, “don’t move to Panama if you don’t want to live among people who speak Spanish.

“And don’t move to Panama if you don’t like tropical weather. At least don’t move to Panama City. It doesn’t get any steamier.”

Here are nine other reasons I suggested you may not want to choose Panama:

  1. There are bugs at the beach and snakes in the jungle.
  1. This is a Catholic country. People take the Catholic feast days seriously. If you intend to run a business here, understand that your staff won’t be working on religious holidays.
  1. There’s no national to-your-door mail delivery service. You’ll need to engage the services of a mail-forwarding service (for example, Mailboxes, Etc.).
  1. Don’t move here if you don’t like loud parties. Latinos do.
  1. Don’t move to Panama if you don’t like firecrackers. Latinos do.
  1. Don’t move to Panama if you’re bothered by taxis with no door handles, no window handles, no air conditioning, no seatbelts, or, in extreme cases, no seats.

  1. Latinos don’t like to disappoint…so they won’t tell you, “no.”

“Can you fix this leaky faucet?” you might ask a Panamanian plumber.

“Si, Senor, no problem.”

Which can translate to mean that, yes, this man can fix your faucet.

Or it can translate to mean:

“Well, maybe, if I’m able to find the replacement parts.”

“Well, I’m not sure, because I’ve never seen a faucet like that one before.”

“In fact, no, I can’t fix that faucet, because I’m not really a plumber…”

  1. Mañana does not mean tomorrow. One cynical friend, living in Latin America for the past 10 years, maintains that, in fact, “mañana” means: “I don’t care about you at all. Maybe I’m wasting your time and money, but that’s not my problem.”

I’ve been traveling in this part of the world for 25 years but living here only 10 months. Perhaps my view will become more jaded in time. Right now, my definition of mañana is: “I hope to be able to address this request within a day or so, but I can’t make any promises…”

  1. Don’t move to Panama if you’re easily frustrated by red tape. You’ll have to deal with a lot of it as you engineer your move.

Note, though, that this is true no matter where you decide to relocate. Think about it. Over your lifetime, you’ve gotten a Social Security card, a driver’s license, and a credit card. You’ve opened a bank account and gotten an ATM card. You’ve bought a car. You’ve arranged health insurance, car insurance, homeowner’s insurance. Etc.

Now you’re moving somewhere new. And you need all those things anew. Plus you need a residency visa, if you’re intending to live in the place full-time.

Now you’re trying to do all these things in a place where the people speak another language and the cultural divide isn’t insignificant.

A place where people don’t want to tell you, “no,” even if that’s the answer to your question…

Don’t let this put you off. Just don’t try to go it alone. Get help from an attorney experienced at helping expats establish themselves as foreign residents.

Kathleen Peddicord

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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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