More Shortcuts For Launching Your New Life Overseas
In Sunday’s dispatch, I pointed you to top options if your primary agenda in seeking out a new life in a new country has to do with reducing your cost of living, elevating your standard of living, realizing your dream of a life at the beach, or pursuing adventure abroad without having to invest in learning a new language.
Today, more shortcuts based on other compelling reasons for seeking out a new life in a new country…
For Great Weather:
- Tropical Weather That’s Not Too Hot, Not Too Humid:Belize
- Four Mild Seasons: Uruguay or Croatia
For Doing Business:
- Panama: In this day and age, you could start a business anywhere. Therefore, before you can determine where best you might indulge your entrepreneurial inclinations, be clear in your agenda. Are you moving to a new country to start a business? Or are you interested in retiring overseas and thinking that, once there, you’d like to find a productive (and maybe profitable) way to fill your days? Then, as important, will your business be local or international? Will you have a storefront (perhaps retail) or an office where customers or clients will visit…or are you thinking more along the lines of an Internet or consulting enterprise?
If you’re moving for the purpose of starting a business, then put the business requirements first. The ease and the costs of incorporating; corporate and income tax rates; the infrastructure; and the local English-speaking labor pool…these things become top priorities.
I’ve started and operated businesses in eight countries. When I decided two years ago to launch my Live and Invest Overseas undertaking, I considered options for where to base it in the context of my previous 23 years of international doing-business experience…and I targeted Panama City. Hands down, this is the world’s top jurisdiction for starting and operating a business, certainly the best choice in the Americas (an important consideration if you’re planning to do business with the North American marketplace).
For Easy Access Home:
For Part-Time Retirement Overseas: Perhaps you’re not ready to make the leap for good. Maybe you’ll never be prepared to cut the ties back home with your children, your grandchildren, the home you’ve lived in for decades, or ongoing business concerns completely.
These are good reasons to retire overseas part-time. Two others are the weather (why not move south when the snow begins to fall up north?) and budget. If your retirement nest egg is modest, your prospects for retirement living in the United States may seem grim. On the other hand, if you spend half the year someplace where the cost of living is significantly reduced and rent out your home while you’re away, your retirement funds could expand accordingly during the months you’re “back home.” Retirement could go from a source of concern to a cause for excitement.
Other places that make sense as part-time retirement choices are those where establishing full-time residency is a hassle or even impossible.
Top part-time havens include:
- Mexico (very accessible if your starting point is North America)
- Croatia (where full-time foreign residency is all but impossible to organize but part-time living is a pleasure)
Kathleen Peddicord
