• 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 Retirement/Living

A Retire Overseas Challenge No One Talks About

The Retire Overseas Risk No One Talks About

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 24, 2023
in Retirement/Living
0 0
0
Cyprus: Better Than Your Neighbor’s Retirement To Florida
236
SHARES
3.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Planning for a retirement that includes spending some or even all your time in another country is an increasingly appealing idea with enormous potential upside.

As a result, it’s easier than ever to find help making a plan to retire overseas. However, one challenge you will face as you launch your new life in a new country is seldom discussed.

I Call ItThePanic Stage

No matter how long you’ve planned for this or how much research you’ve carried out, there is a good chance that, sometime during your first year in your new country, perhaps even during your first month in your new home, you’ll wonder what in the world ever possessed you to think leaving home was a good idea.

What were you thinking? You must have taken leave of your senses. Paradise? This place is no paradise. This place is a nightmare.

This isn’t an adventure. This is nuts.

My best advice is to wait out the panic. It will pass.

Moving to Ireland 20 years ago, my husband and I thought the transition would be transparent. We Americans think we know the Irish. They’re just like us, aren’t they? No, they’re not.

Wherever you decide to chase your dreams overseas, even if it’s somewhere as seemingly familiar as Ireland, you’re going to discover that the people living there aren’t like you either… in ways that won’t be apparent at first. You’re going to find that life is more difficult than it was wherever you came from. It will be more complicated and less predictable.

My husband and I arrived as full-time residents in Waterford, Ireland, in November. By February, I was sad. I felt indescribably sad for no reason I could identify. We were comfortable in our rental cottage on the river. We were making friends and settling in.

All was well, but I was, frankly, miserable.

Then we took a trip to Nicaragua. After a few days on that country’s sunny southern Pacific coast, my sadness disappeared. What was going on?

It was the Irish winter. Though I’d traveled in Ireland for years, I’d never lived through an Irish winter. Some days the sun rises after 9 a.m. and sets before 4 p.m. in the afternoon. In between those hours, it’s typically gray, drizzling, overcast, and damp.

Ireland can be a great place to call home, but before you commit to retirement in the Auld Sod, experience it in winter. Spend time in the country in January and February.

Or consider spending only part of the year in the country. Ireland is a place that makes good sense as a part-time retirement haven. You could retire to Ireland each summer, then spend your winters someplace bright and sunny.

That was our strategy. After our first long winter in Waterford, we escaped to the tropics every December and returned to the Emerald Isle in early March, in time to appreciate Irish spring and summer.

A few years ago, I mentioned the phenomenon to a friend preparing to move overseas for the first time, suggesting that he shouldn’t worry about the panic stage he’d eventually experience because it would pass.

My friend smiled and nodded politely, humoring me.

It can be hard to imagine during the excitement of the pre-move phase that after maybe only a month or two in your new home, you might find yourself questioning the move altogether. My friend insisted that it wouldn’t happen to him.

“I’ve spent months researching and making my plan,” he explained with confidence. “I understand what I’m getting into. I’ve thought this through from every angle, and I’m fully prepared.”

A couple of years later, over drinks one night, he remarked, “You know, before my move, when you talked about the panic stage that everyone goes through at some point after relocating to a new country, I laughed to myself. Panic, I thought. Why would I panic? The idea seemed extreme and, frankly, silly.”

“But, I have to tell you,” he continued, “it happened to me. It was maybe a year into my move to Ecuador. I realized that I was feeling out of my element and uncertain in a fundamental way, unsure of myself and my new situation. I was experiencing a feeling that, I had to admit, could best be described as panic.”

I asked what he decided to do.

He responded, “I remembered what you’d recommended. I waited it out. I realized that I was feeling overwhelmed by the frustrations of living in the Third World. I reminded myself why I’d wanted to make the move in the first place and of all the things about Ecuador that I love. There are many. After a little while, the panic passed.”

Your panic phase in your new home could be a result of the weather and the seasons, as it was for us in Ireland. It could be a reaction to the trials and frustrating tribulations of life in a developing country, as it was for my friend. It could be homesickness, which you should be prepared for. You’re going to experience it from time to time.

No country is perfect. Everywhere has its pluses and minuses. The minuses eventually are going to get to you.

Living high in the mountains in Panama may provide glorious views and a gentle, spring-like climate, but you won’t be near a real city or an international airport. You’ll be living a country life among neighbors who, in this part of Panama, speak only Spanish. Sometimes the remoteness will overwhelm you.

Ecuador offers an extremely affordable cost of living, but it is also a Third World country. Retirement in the Third World isn’t for everyone.

Although it was our third international move and our third country of residence since we left the United States, my husband and I experienced the panic stage in Panama, where we struggled to adjust to the tropical climate and to the inconvenience factor.

Panama is working hard to earn recognition as a First World nation, but, right now, it’s not. This is a land where things don’t always work as you’d like or expect.

So, What Should You Do?

The key to being happy in your new home, wherever you decide to make it, is to keep your perspective and your sense of humor. When doubt and frustration creep in, as they will, remind yourself of two things.

First, don’t make any hasty decisions. The moment of panic will pass.

Second, while you’re waiting for that to subside, remember why you chose this country in the first place.

Was it for the beach? Then escape to the coast for a few days of relaxation beneath the palms.

Was it for the super-low cost of living? Take yourself out for a nice dinner on the cheap.

What do you enjoy most in your new home? If you moved there for the fishing, make time to go catch some and then have your friends over for a fish fry.

Think about why you’re feeling uncertain about your decision. Once you identify why you’re second-guessing your move, you can address those points.

If you don’t like the current season, go somewhere else until it passes.

If you’re missing family back home, invite them to come visit. If you’re not happy in the neighborhood where you’ve initially settled, consider another.

Be prepared, at some time during your first year of retirement overseas, perhaps even during the first month or two, to wonder what in the world you’ve done. No, this wasn’t crazy, and it wasn’t a mistake. Wait it out. The panic will pass.

Just on the other side is the new life you came to find.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Peddicord signature
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

Tags: 'Ecuador''Ireland''moving overseas''Nicaragua'expatsliving abroadPanic stage
Share95Tweet59
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

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
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
Street in Cuenca, Ecuador

Adventure Travel In Ecuador

December 7, 2022
Cuenca, Ecuador

Retire To Cuenca, Ecuador

December 6, 2022
Overheard From My Hammock: What You Should Know About Rights Of Possession

Overheard From My Hammock: What You Should Know About Rights Of Possession

December 2, 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.







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