• 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
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • 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 ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • 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 Retirement/Living

The Cost Of Retiring Overseas

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
May 20, 2010
in Retirement/Living
0
manage your cost of living with the right tools
250
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

What Nest Egg?

Your retirement nest egg has been marginalized, and you’re thinking there’s no way you could afford to retire overseas.

This is probably the most often given reason for why someone who’s interested in the idea of launching a new life in a new country hesitates or even abandons the idea altogether. And it’s the least valid.

Here’s the truth: You can’t afford not to retire overseas.

I’m speaking both literally and figuratively.

Let’s begin with my literal point. You could retire to Cuenca, Ecuador, for example, and enjoy a comfortable life in a safe, pleasant colonial city on a budget of as little as US$700 per month if you own your own home. If you don’t, you could rent a “local”-style apartment for as little as US$100 a month, making your total monthly nut as little as US$800 per month.

This is a very scaled-back budget. You wouldn’t be living the high life, but you’d be enjoying an interesting one in a pretty city where the weather is perennially pleasant.

I give you many other options for living affordably many other places around the world in these dispatches week by week…from Nicaragua to India, from the interior of Panama to Malaysia.

The real point to be made with regards to your cost of living anywhere in the world is that you can control it. Not completely but more than you might realize. You choose, for example, whether to import your previous lifestyle with you or to go local. I mentioned above that you could rent a “local-style” apartment in Cuenca for as little as US$100 a month. You could also rent an apartment in that city for many times that amount, depending on the kind of building, the level of services and amenities (a doorman, for example, or a swimming pool), and the location within the city you opt for.

Here in Panama City, to take another example, you can shop for fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat at the local markets. The variety is tremendous, and the selections are fresh and organic.

Or you can choose to shop at the big American-style grocery store called Riba Smith, where you can stock up on things like Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Texas steaks, proscuitto ham, Italian cheese, and French wine. Two overstuffed bags from the market might cost you US$20. Two bags of Riba Smith specialties could cost you US$100 or more.

Wherever in the world you’re calling home, you choose not only where you live and where you shop, but also which cable and Internet plans you sign on for, how you make international phone calls, how often you eat out in restaurants, whether or not you employ a maid, whether you invest in owning a car, and how often you run your air conditioning units.

I say again, you control your cost of living, at least within broad ranges. And, bottom line, it is possible to live for very little many places around this planet.

Now for my metaphorical point.

You owe it to yourself to go find out for yourself just how affordable and, more important, just how fun spending time overseas can be. A new life in a new place isn’t for everyone, and there can be, in fact, practical reasons why you couldn’t or shouldn’t reinvent your life in a foreign country. However, frankly, the only legitimate ones I can think of have to do with health issues. Otherwise, any obstacle you can imagine could be overcome.

Maybe it won’t be easy. The truth is, any move to another country is a lot of hassle and a lot of work. It’s easier to stay put and to do nothing. But where would that leave you at the end of the day? What stories would you have to tell? What adventures to remember?

Years ago, at a conference in the Dominican Republic, I met an American from Tennessee who explained that he had been researching opportunities in that country for two years.

“I’m convinced the DR is a place I want to be,” he told me, “but I’m just not sure the timing is right.”

“Have you considered other options?” I asked.

“Well, before I started looking closely at the Dominican Republic, I researched Costa Rica for four years.”

“What did you end up doing there?”

“Oh, I never did anything. After four years of looking, prices had risen so high that I figured it no longer made sense.”

“Ah, well, that happens,” I offered.

The truth is, it happens a lot. I have business associates who follow a strategy they refer to as, “Ready, fire, aim.” I think it works for life, too. That is to say, as our own Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst puts it, “You can plan to retire overseas…or you can retire overseas and then make some plans.”

Carry out your due diligence. But realize that, all the while you’re researching, your life is passing. That gentleman from Tennessee I met in the Dominican Republic was so worried that another, better option might come along that he could never bring himself to carry through with any one particular choice. He was a smart guy, but he continually second-guessed himself, his thinking, the timing, and the options. He kept researching, investigating, and scouting, trying to identify the right time to move and the best place to go.

There is no “right” time, and there is no “best” place.

But there is a place that’s best for you right now. You just need to get off your derriere and go find it.

You can’t afford not to.

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: 'where to retire'how much do i need to retirehow much to retireproperty overseasretirement planning
Share125Tweet52
Previous Post

How To Retire Overseas When Your Spouse Doesn’t Want To

Next Post

Investing In Timber

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.

Related Posts

3 Popular Seaside Towns In Mexico Within Driving Distance Of The States
Lifestyle

3 Popular Seaside Towns In Mexico Within Driving Distance Of The States

by Lee Harrison
May 4, 2022
0

One of the most valuable conveniences you could hope for when purchasing a home abroad can be the ability to...

Read more
The Best Places To Live Abroad And Launch A New Life

The Best Places To Live Abroad And Launch A New Life

April 27, 2022
The Eiffel tower in Paris from a tiny street

While Away Your Days In Paris

April 26, 2022
A view of Cinta Costera in Panama City, Panama

One Of The Greatest Melting Pots

April 25, 2022
A relaxing Panama shoreline

Is Retiring In Panama Still A Good Choice? If So, Where?

April 24, 2022
Ferragudo, Algarve, Portugal

How One Couple Discovered A Great New Life In Algarve

April 21, 2022
Portuguese beach villa in Carvoeiro classic fishing boats

Retirement In Algarve, Portugal, Is A Breeze For Americans

April 17, 2022
Next Post

Investing In Timber

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.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

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 2022

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

© 2008-2021 - 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

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

The World’s Best Places To Be In 2022?

Discover Them Here…

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.