I wrote my first book on retiring overseas in 1987. I was twenty-four years old.
I’ve produced many titles on the world’s top retirement havens in the decades since. As I’ve grown up, so have these ideas, both of retirement and of retiring overseas.
Retirement is no longer the start of the end of your life.
Retirement today is your second act.
And retiring overseas is no longer a lifeline for retirees with seriously skimpy retirement budgets. At least it’s not only that. Today, retiring overseas is also the way to retire large on a budget that’d buy just a ho-hum retirement where you’re living now.
I made my first international move, from Baltimore, Maryland, to Waterford, Ireland, with the support of my longtime employer. He sent me off to establish an EU base for his publishing firm. I did not choose Waterford but the idea of an adventure in the Old World. Ireland was a happy accident.
I made my second international move, from Waterford to Paris, again with the support of the business where I was now a partner. This time I chose the destination. My family and I wanted to experience life in what for us is the world’s most delightful place to be. My business partner accommodated the fancy.
The move from Paris to Panama four years later was my doing.
The year before, I’d left the company that had taken me to Ireland and then to France. I’d retired early but found retirement didn’t suit me. I like being in business so decided to start one.
Two minutes of discussion with my husband Lief led us to agree that, if I wanted to pursue an entrepreneur’s agenda, we’d need to leave France. It might be the least entrepreneur-friendly country in the world.
We also knew from experience that Panama is one of the best places to start and run an Internet business of the kind I imagined. We rented out our Paris pad and bought one-way tickets to Panama City.
Then we spent the next ten years hunkered down in Panama, raising our son and building Live And Invest Overseas. When both were mature enough to take their first independent steps, Lief and I transitioned to a long-anticipated next stage that we continue to enjoy today. We live between Paris and Panama, enjoying the very different pleasures of being at home in both the City of Light and the Hub of the Americas.
Lief and I are hardly retired. We’re working as many hours as ever, but we don’t mind and we don’t have any interest in slowing down. We’re doing what we’d do if we could do anything and we’re doing it in places we’d be if we could be anywhere.
As we look ahead from this pivotal point, we imagine more hard work, which brings us joy, alongside perpetual travel. We’ll continue to divide our time between our home bases in Panama and Paris with regular sojourns in other places we enjoy spending time, from Colombia and Argentina to Ireland and Croatia, as well as many more points on this beautiful earth we’ve yet to discover. We don’t like standing still. Paris, Panama, and beyond works for us.
I share this personal history to make the point that, while “retire overseas” has been my beat for decades, it’s never been my personal agenda. I’ve enjoyed a life of serial adventures overseas funded by enterprises that have allowed me to convert passions for travel, business-building, and real estate investing into cash flow.
Traditionally, retirement has been about withdrawing from the rest of the world and a formerly busy life. I’ve never understood why anyone would want to do that.
After decades of working hard, paying taxes, raising kids, and deferring what you wanted to do because you had no choice but to spend your time doing what you had to do, this phase—no matter at what age you’re fortunate enough to embrace it—is your chance to be more engaged in the world, in life, and in the pursuit of happiness than ever.
Retirement is an opportunity to think big and act boldly, a chance to broaden your perspective and your world, to leverage your decades of experience to this point to take control of your future. Retirement is your chance to add a dose of swagger to your lifestyle.
As you prepare for this critical juncture, I applaud your willingness not to let geography get in the way. Based on my experience, both personal and also helping many thousands of others like you embark along this path, I’d argue that looking beyond your borders is the key to ensuring yourself the richest retirement possible.
Whatever nest egg you’ve got—shoestring or luxe—that budget will buy you a more engaging, more satisfying, and more adventure-filled lifestyle many, many places around the world than it’d ever afford you wherever you’re moving from.
Retiring overseas equals retiring up. A Pacific beach home in Panama costs a fraction as much as one on the coast of California and a penthouse in Medellín, Colombia, one of the most fully appointed cities in the world, can cost less than a single-story duplex outside Des Moines.
Retiring overseas, you can opt for better weather. You can access better and cheaper health care. You can live healthier, losing weight without trying. And you can choose the lifestyle that suits you best—city or beach, Old World or New.
Those are big upsides, but they’re only the start. The real benefits of retiring overseas are less quantifiable but more rewarding.
Retired overseas, you’ll become a better you. The transformation will begin immediately. From your first day at home in your chosen Shangri-la, you’ll be reinventing yourself. You’ll have no choice. Everything and everyone will be different.
Every day will present discovery. Your brain will work overtime to connect new dots and create new routines. You will grow more resourceful, more self-assured, and quicker on your feet in real time.
Six months after you’ve made your move, you might not recognize yourself.
When I left Baltimore bound for Waterford in 1998, I had no idea where that move would lead. No idea that seven years later I would swap Waterford for Paris… then, four years after that, Paris for Panama City.
Had I tried to plan for the long-term, I might never have left Maryland. Looking too far into the future can be overwhelming. Taking the all-important first step requires a leap of faith.
The reward for mustering the courage is enormous. Spending time overseas—full-time, part-time, back and forth, now and then—will enrich your life in ways you couldn’t imagine today. Retiring overseas may not lead where you set your compass initially, but I believe it can get you where you belong.
I promise that, wherever you decide to chase your dream of a bigger, better retirement overseas, the experience will leave you with stories to tell and memories to treasure. I’d say that’s everything.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
