• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home Countries Panama

Relocating To Panama For Retirement

We Refused To Give Up On Our Dream... And Just Look At Us Now!

Peg Fairbairn by Peg Fairbairn
Sep 18, 2018
in Panama, Retirement/Living
0 0
0
Sunset at Panama Azuero Coast
255
SHARES
3.6k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

I’m a retired schoolteacher, and April is a retired accountant.

How did we end up at this stage of our lives living in a custom-built home of our own on one of the world’s most beautiful coastlines?

We refused to give up on our dream… that’s how!

We’d always wanted to retire to the beach. I grew up on Martha’s Vineyard in a house with a view of the ocean. For me, life on the water has always been as good as life gets.

However, when April and I did the math we realized we’d never be able to afford that lifestyle anywhere in the United States.

We were looking at retirement on a schoolteacher’s pension. With ever-escalating taxes, ridiculous rent, astronomical cost of health insurance, and all the other financial baggage of life in modern America, we were facing a pretty meager retirement existence Stateside.

We were worried how we’d afford to retire at all… much less how we’d retire to the beach.

That realization could have been the end of our beach retirement plan…

Had it not been for one fateful night at a cocktail party in Austin when a gentleman making small talk told me about expats he knew who’d moved to a waterfront community overseas.

I’d never heard the word “expat” before that night… and “overseas”? Who moved overseas?

The morning after the party I went online… where, with Google’s help, I was introduced to a world of possibility that had never before occurred to me.

Loads of people, I discovered—typical, average Americans like me—were reinventing their lives in exotic locales around the world.

These expats I read about online, with monthly retirement incomes not that different from ours, were living in beautiful waterfront homes serviced by full-time maids and enjoying meals out four or five times a week.

Retired in Texas, April and I were going to be doing good to make it to Chipotle once a week on our budget.

Eventually, my research led me to Kathleen Peddicord’s book, “How To Retire Overseas“… and that’s where I first read about Panama.

When most people, including, I admit, me at first, hear “Panama,” they think of canals, hats, and pineapple-faced dictators from the 1980s.

Yes, there is a canal, but Panama hats are actually from Ecuador and Manuel Noriega is dead.

Modern Panama, I came to learn in my research, is politically stable, a hub of international business and banking, and one of the fastest-growing economies on the planet. Its infrastructure, from roads to subways and internet speeds, is unparalleled in Central America.

Riding into Panama City from Tocumen International Airport (Latin America’s busiest hub), the skyline looks more like Singapore or Hong Kong than some third-world outpost.

And, once you get out of hectic Panama City, you find beautiful tropical islands fringed with soft white sand and coconut palms and mountain retreats where howler monkeys wake you up in the morning and migrating songbirds sing you to sleep at night.

Our families thought we were nuts, but, not long after I read about the charms and advantages of Panama, April and I hopped on a plane and put in motion a plan that would land us, frankly, in the retirement of our dreams.

We defaulted into the idea of retiring to another country out of desperation. We weren’t going to be able to retire at all in Texas. Anything seemed better than that.

Now, five years into our move to Panama, settled at Los Islotes on the western Azuero coast in a beautiful 2,500-square-foot home all our own with a dazzling view of the Pacific Ocean, I can tell you that the real upside of this has nothing to do with money.

The real upside is the experience itself. Retiring to Panama has been the adventure of our lifetimes… and we’re just getting started!

Peg Fairbairn

Tags: expats panamain focus panamaPeg Fairbairnretire azuero coastretire panamaunretirement panama
Share104Tweet63
Peg Fairbairn

Peg Fairbairn

Peg Fairbairn, a former middle school science teacher, is the author of In Focus: Panama, a weekly newsletter published by Access Panama and Live and Invest Overseas.

Related Posts

Small fisherman boats at the bay and the houses in El Rompio village near town of Chitre in Panama
Retirement/Living

Where To Retire Abroad In 2023

by Sophia Titley
January 30, 2023
0

Where's the best place in the world to reposition yourself overseas in 2023? The answers are found in our just-released...

Read more
Cyprus: Better Than Your Neighbor’s Retirement To Florida

A Retire Overseas Challenge No One Talks About

January 24, 2023
Picturesque lane with flowers in an Italian hill town

5 More Things To Check Before You Move Overseas

January 11, 2023
View of Valletta, Malta old town skyline from Sliema city on the other side of Marsans harbor 

The 10 Best Places To Live Or Retire In Europe In 2023

January 3, 2023
Beautiful Coimbra town in Portugal

Portugal: The Best Place To Live Is Also One Of The Safest

December 27, 2022
Los Islotes, Panama

Starting A School In Panama Near Los Islotes

December 14, 2022
Trekking Barefoot To Los Islotes Through The Jungle

Trekking Barefoot To Los Islotes Through The Jungle

December 13, 2022

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.







Get Your Free Panama Report Today!

​​Simply enter your email address below and we'll send you our FREE REPORT - 101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.
 

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2023

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

The World’s Best Places To Be In 2023?

Discover Them Here…

Sign up for FREE and learn how to live the good life on a modest budget, find bargain property, and more. Plus, check out our free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE.

RETIRE OVERSEAS AND LIVE LIKE ROYALTY

Get Your Free Panama Report Today!
 

​​Learn more about ​​​PANAMA and other countries in our free, daily Overseas Opportunity Letter​​, as well as our ​In Focus: ​Panama ​newsletter​​​​​​. Simply enter your email address below and we’ll send you our FREE REPORT – ​​​101 Things You'll Wish Someone Had Told You About Panama.