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Home Retirement/Living

Why We Didn’t Include These Retire Overseas Locations

9 Places Not To Retire Overseas

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Sep 12, 2021
in Retirement/Living
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Civic Centre across Maitai River, South Island, New Zealand

Alamy/Greg Balfour Evans

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As we finalize plans, presentations, and panel discussion talking points for this week’s Retire Overseas Virtual Conference kicking off bright and early tomorrow morning, we’re reminded that some of our top picks can be surprising.

Some of the destinations we’ll be featuring are not as widely publicized as others that we have chosen not to include.

Why have we omitted some of what are typically thought to be the most desirable overseas retirement havens from the list?

We don’t normally approach this conversation from this perspective, but I thought it might be helpful to share our thinking on places we’re choosing not to include.

This is not to say that these would be “bad” places to live or retire… simply that we don’t count them among the world’s best today…

Why Not Loja Or Otavalo?

loja ecuador square
Image Source: flickr/Angie Drake
Loja

We chose to feature Cuenca as part of our Retire Overseas Virtual Conference program over other, also-popular Ecuadorian choices.

Why? First, the existing expat community. Although other towns in Ecuador have begun to attract foreigners, Cuenca is the hub for expat retirees in Ecuador.

We also like the city itself, prefer it over its competition. This is a colonial gem, an architecturally beautiful city with a great deal to offer by way of culture—opera, theater, museums, galleries…

Good luck finding this level of sophistication and infrastructure anywhere else in Ecuador outside Quito (which we also would not recommend as a place to live).

Why Not Uruguay?

San Francisco Fisherman's place near the town of Piriapolis in the Uruguay Coast
Alamy/Kseniya Ragozina

Uruguay has gotten expensive, too expensive for the lifestyle on offer, and it’s likely to become more expensive still.

Uruguayans are used to the devaluation of their peso. They refer to appreciation as atraso cambiario, “the exchange rate is running late.” Because of this phenomenon, prices for many big-ticket items in Uruguay (including real estate, cars, and even high local salaries) are quoted in U.S. dollars.

Why Not Brazil?

A wave crashes at Praia da Costa, Vila Velha, Espirito Santo, Brazil
Alamy/Andre Seale / VWPics

High crime rates keep much of Brazil off our radar and out of our survey. That said, along the northeast coast in the Fortaleza area, you can enjoy super-cheap coastal buys in safety.

Further, the bureaucracy, red tape, and corruption at all levels involved with getting anything done in this country are significant downsides to life here. The country doesn’t make establishing residency easy and offers no retiree benefits program.

Also, Brazilians speak Portuguese, which, for most of us, is not as easy to muddle through as Spanish, French, or Italian.

Why Not Ajijic, Chapala, Or Merida?

Wooden sculpture and cafes on the main plaza in Ajijic, Mexico
Alamy/Greg Vaughn
Ajijic

Mexico offers many well-publicized options for the foreign retiree. Why did we choose Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán, specifically, over the rest of the choices for next week’s conference? Because these destinations offer the best options anywhere for the retiree looking for developed Pacific coastal living on a budget.

Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador all also offer Pacific coast options, but none is anywhere near as fully appointed as Puerto Vallarta, which offers marinas, country clubs, golf courses, shopping, and fine dining.

Mazatlán, meantime, offers the full package—life on a beautiful Mexican beach with the comforts, amenities, and distractions of a real city backing it up.

Why Not New Zealand?

The Waiwhakaiho River, the city of New Plymouth, and Mount Taranaki, New Zealand
Alamy/travellinglight

We like New Zealand as a part-time retirement spot, but we didn’t include it in our program this year because it’s just not a realistic full-time option for the typical retiree. The truth is, New Zealand (like Australia) isn’t keen on the idea of foreign retirees and doesn’t make it easy for the retiree to establish residency. In fact, in most cases, it’s not possible.

Why Not Costa Rica?

Turquoise water in Tamarindo Beach, Costa Rica
Alamy/Oscar CB

About four decades ago, Costa Rica decided to make a business of the foreign retiree. The Costa Ricans invested in a formal and successful advertising campaign, targeting Americans primarily. Tens of thousands of would-be retirees from the States took up the invitation and relocated to this beautiful land of hills and rainforests.

The benefits Costa Rica offered retirees who became resident were terrific, including the original pensionado program against which others were measured for decades. In addition, way back when Costa Rica made a name for itself as a top retirement choice, the cost of everything from groceries and eating out to prime coastal property was super cheap.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and, thanks to investors and speculators, Costa Rica wasn’t so cheap anymore, neither its cost of living nor its beachfront real estate. And, while prices had risen dramatically, the infrastructure hadn’t kept pace. Retirees were happy to overlook falling bridges and unpaved roads when prices were low. Harder to rationalize putting up with failing infrastructure in the face of appreciating costs.

Worse, after working so hard to woo American and European retirees, Costa Rica seemed to change its mind. The Costa Ricans didn’t eliminate their famous pensionado program; they simply eliminated most of the tax breaks it had promised, as part of a deficit-reduction austerity package.

And they didn’t grandfather in existing pensionados. So those who’d chosen Costa Rica for the retiree benefits it offered were surprised and disappointed to find that those benefits existed no more. Now the Costa Rican government is considering a further pensionado program adjustment. They’re talking about increasing, maybe substantially, the minimum monthly income requirement to qualify. And, again, if the change is made, existing pensionados won’t be grandfathered in. To renew your status, you’d have to qualify under the new requirements.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

Tags: 'Brazil''Ecuador''retire to costa rica''retirement'Mexico'New Zealandretire abroadretire overseasRetire To Ajijicretire to BrazilRetire To MeridaRetire To New Zealandretire to UruguayUruguay
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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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