• 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

World’s Top Retirement Havens

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 01, 2012
in Retirement/Living
0
Foreign Retirement Havens
208
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The World Map This First Of The New Year

Looking at the world map as we launch New Year 2012, here’s what we see:

Perennial Bests

  • World’s Top Retirement Haven: Panama

Yes, still, Panama. Panama City is no longer cheap, but elsewhere in the country sure can be. And, for such a little country, Panama serves up tremendous diversity, meaning you can find almost any retirement lifestyle you might be looking for, from cosmopolitan Panama City to Caribbean island hideaways, Pacific coast fishing villages, colonial cities, mountain towns, and expat enclaves.

In addition, Panama offers more than a dozen options for establishing residency, international-standard and very affordable health care, downright cheap health insurance (if you qualify), and the best infrastructure in the region. This country is safe, stable, and accessible…everything a retiree could be looking for.

  • World’s Most Affordable Retirement Haven: Ecuador

We don’t rank Ecuador best retirement option overall, because it’s less developed and more Third World than Panama. Also, technically, this country taxes residents on their worldwide income. (I say technically, because, though the law is on the books, it isn’t currently enforced. But it could be…if the local tax collectors ever got around to it.)

All that said, Ecuador offers diverse and appealing lifestyle options, from big-city Quito to Andes mountain towns and (our favorite choice) colonial Cuenca, where a couple could retire very comfortably on less than US$1,000 per month.

  • Best Luxury Beach Retirement Choice: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

If your budget is a bit bigger, and you’ve dreamt your whole life of retiring to the coast, our perennial pick for luxury coastal retirement remains Puerto Vallarta. This stretch of Pacific coast offers the best of the Southern California lifestyle, supported by marinas, golf courses, international-standard shopping and dining, a charming old town center, and a growing expat base. Puerto Vallarta isn’t a super-cheap choice but a best-lifestyle-for-the-cost choice. A couple could retire here and enjoy all the amenities and diversions on a budget of US$2,500 to US$3,000 per month, depending on your rental expense.

  • Best Caribbean Retirement Choice: Ambergris Caye, Belize

Ambergris Caye is Quintessential Caribbean, established and growing expat community, and an affordable cost of living and of real estate, certainly compared with more developed Caribbean options.

  • Best Old World Retirement Choice: France

Not everyone is looking to retire to the tropics or the developing world. For the best of life on the Continent, look to southwestern France, where life can be as good as it gets and more affordable than you might think.

  • Best Place To Escape The World: Cayo, Belize

Back-to-basics. That’s the mantra of Cayo. This beautiful, off-the-radar region of rivers, ruins, and rain forest.

  • World’s Best Place To Start A Business: Panama

Again, as we’ve been reporting for the past five years at least, Panama has been and remains the best place in the world to base an international or Internet business. Set yourself up properly, and your business will pay no local tax (and, perhaps, depending on your situation, no tax, period).

Panama also offers a good pool of educated, English-speaking labor (evidenced by our own Panama City-based staff) and international-standard telecommunications and is a global travel hub. The country checks every box on the would-be entrepreneur’s wish list.

  • Best Place To Open An Offshore Bank Account: Belize

You don’t even need to travel to Belize to do it. This is one of the few places in the world where a non-resident can open a bank account from a distance. It’s also one of the remaining jurisdictions that respects banking privacy (though we don’t think this will last much longer). The process of opening an account is straightforward and relatively hassle-free. Also important, Belize remains an under-the-radar choice. No one is paying much attention to what’s going on with Belize banks (or Belize anything else). That has its advantages.

Emerging Bests

  • Top Property Investment Pick: Medellin, Colombia

We’re not the only ones who’ve identified Colombia, specifically Medellin, as an emerging top investment haven. Legendary real estate investor Sam Zell says “Colombia is the next star of Latin America.” His company has invested US$75 million and is looking to invest more.

We’re not Sam Zell, but we’ve bought, too, for the yield.

  • Top Resort Investment Pick: Philippines

The Philippines offers many good resort rental investment options from Manila to Cebu to Boracay, and its appeal as a vacation destination for Asians, especially South Koreans, continues to expand, giving the Western investor diversification in currency and economics.

  • Top Currency Investment Opportunity: China

Correspondent Paul Terhorst says you should consider getting a piece of the yuan action…and he has an interesting strategy for how.

  • Top Retirement Haven Of The Future: China

Correspondent Paul Terhorst, who has spent more than three decades perpetually retired, much of that time in Asia, also says that now is the best time in our lifetimes to see this part of the world…and that China, specifically, is emerging as one of the world’s best retirement options.

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: 'Global Property Investing'Offshore BankingWorlds Cheapest Places To Retireworlds top retirement havens
Share83Tweet52
Previous Post

How To Retire Overseas In 2012

Next Post

Taxation For Foreign Residents in Uruguay

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

Exotic wooden huts on the water, Maldives
Colombia

How To Move Overseas Despite A Pandemic

by Sophia Titley
May 24, 2022
0

One of the biggest lessons of the past two-and-a-half years has been this: We all need to seize opportunities when...

Read more
Rocks in the water next to the sandy beach in Ecuador

The Best Places To Retire In Latina America

May 23, 2022
3 Popular Seaside Towns In Mexico Within Driving Distance Of The States

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

May 4, 2022
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
Next Post
punta del diablo uruguay

Taxation For Foreign Residents in Uruguay

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.