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How To Retire Overseas

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 23, 2011
in Retirement/Living
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A senior couple enjoying breakfast
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7 Reasons Not To Retire Overseas

When you move overseas…

#1: The people will be different from you. They’ll speak a different language (probably). They’ll dress differently. They’ll have different ways of doing business, different ways of showing respect, different ways of celebrating Christmas and their childrens’ birthdays. They’ll take different approaches to serving meals, planting gardens, building houses, paying utility bills, and enjoying their Sunday afternoons…

#2: The way of life won’t be like what you’re accustomed to. See #1 above…

#3: The climate will be different (maybe), and nowhere on earth is the weather ideal or even comfortable 365 days every year. In the tropics, the climate is tropical. Days can be sunny, sticky, sweaty. In the Caribbean, there are hurricanes. In much of the world, there’s a rainy season…when rivers overflow their banks, roads wash out, and things get really muddy…

#4: You’ll encounter bugs. Especially at the beach, but few places in the world are completely bug-free. There are snakes in the jungle.

#5: You’ll find that people take things that don’t belong to them and sometimes do worse things to each other, sometimes much worse. Nowhere on earth is 100% crime-free…

#6: You’ll have to work at building your new life. I have spent time in more than 50 countries in regions across the globe, from China to Colombia, from Morocco to Mexico, from Egypt to Ecuador, and I’ve yet to encounter a group of people I wouldn’t describe as welcoming, friendly, hospitable, helpful, and curious. I’ve also met, all over the world, people who were disinterested, disrespectful, rude, and close-minded. No matter where you decide to launch your retire-overseas adventure, you’ll have to make an effort to seek out people of the first sort, to make like-minded friends, and to become part of your new community. To be really successful at this, you’re going to learn at least a little of the local language (if it isn’t English)…

#7: You’ll need to check your expectations at the border and keep your sense of humor.

Panama, for example, is a Spanish-speaking country in the tropics. Don’t expect the people to speak anything other than Spanish (though many do)…and don’t expect the weather to be anything but tropical (though, in some parts of the country, it is)…

Nicaragua is a Third World country. Sometimes the electricity goes out.

The French invented the word for “bureaucracy.” You’re going to have to wade through a lot of it whenever you try to address any administrative task in this country…

Some parts of the world don’t have to-your-door mail delivery service. Some don’t have street signs or, even, street addresses. In some countries, banks and other businesses close for lunch. Almost all non-tourist Paris shuts down for the entire month of August. During those four months, good luck finding a notaire to close on your property purchase or a plumber to fix your leaky kitchen faucet.

Most of the world takes its holidays very seriously. During Carnival, for example, many Latin American countries close-for business altogether. As in Paris in August, you aren’t going to be able to get much done.

I’ve found that the wisest strategy is to give up trying. Join the rest of the country out in the streets for the fiesta.

If any (or, indeed, all!) of these things bother you, you should think about staying home, wherever that happens to be…

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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