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Your Personal Bailout Plan

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 09, 2009
in Retirement/Living
0
Retirees in Ecuador enjoying a glass of wine with lunch.
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Bailing Out To Cuenca, Ecuador

“Retire in style overseas and live better than you do now on as little as US$694 a month.”

We make this promise often…and it’s a big one. So big that it can seem hard to believe. So bear with me for a minute.

If you could retire and live comfortably…in a safe, friendly community…with dramatic and expansive mountains views from your bedroom window…or the gentle lapping of the sea upon the sand just beyond your back door…

With help around the house or maybe someone to tend your garden for you every day…

If you could, in effect, step outside what’s going on in much of the world right now…and restart your life in a place where the closing figure for the DOW and the dollar-euro exchange rate aren’t the primary topics of conversation…where you don’t have to worry what the government’s next “bailout” brainstorm might mean for you…

Because you’ve got your own plan.

You’ve got a plan to restart your life someplace new and beautiful and exciting and fun…where family still matters and evenings are spent with friends and neighbors indulging in that forgotten art called conversation…

Sounds too good to be true, right? Somebody’s crazy fantasy.

As we maintain in these dispatches every day…this isn’t marketing hype. These promises are based in reality. We know, because we know people already living the life we’re describing. Lots of them.

Time for brass tacks. Where do you go to find this fantasy life?

Cuenca, Ecuador.

As our man in Latin America Christian MacDonald puts it:

“I believe Cuenca to be the best place for an expat to retire. It’s not the cheapest, but I think it’s the best quality of life for the money.

“At just over 400,000 people, Cuenca is the perfect size. It’s small enough so that you always see someone you know when walking around town and you know how to get around, how to get things done. What’s more, people know and remember you, which makes you feel at home and part of the community.

“But Cuenca is not so small that it doesn’t have all the services you need. It’s the provincial capital of Azuay, so you have the state and municipal offices at your convenience. There are good restaurants, plus theater, orchestra, and plenty of festivals.

“The colonial architecture, Andean markets, and heritage of the city make you feel that you’re really experiencing another country and a rich culture…

OK, OK…enough color. Let’s get to practicalities. How much to retire to Cuenca?

Our man Christian says, “Allow US$1,430 per month if you’re planning to rent.”

“I believe you could live in Cuenca comfortably on about US$1,430 per month,” Christian continues, “if you are renting a home. This is for two people.”

Here’s how Christian’s budget breaks down:

  • Rent (for a new and modern apartment of 2,600 square feet): US$450
  • Building fee (typically required with a rental): US$150
  • Food: US$240
  • Transportation (public transportation is great, both within the city and between cities; city buses are plentiful and inexpensive; taxis are about US$1.50, and a four-hour ride to Guayaquil is about US$8; owning a car is an unnecessary expense, and, in fact, typically a burden): US$40
  • Electricity: US$30
  • Telephone: US$20
  • Internet: US$35
  • Cable TV: US$25
  • Entertainment: US$240
  • Full-time, live-in maid: US$200

Again, this budget is for two people…and it’s for a very comfortable life in a big, comfortable apartment.

In other words, you could live (still well) for less. You could rent a “local”-style apartment for about US$100 per month…and, renting a local place, you’d have no HOA fees. This would get you about 600 or 700 square feet in an older building with no doorman or garage…and it would cut your budget by US$500 per month.

Meaning you and your significant other would be living your new life in the charming colonial city of Cuenca for US$930.

Still more than you think you can afford? How about US$851 a month? If you’ve got a bit of capital (in this country, it doesn’t have to be a lot), you could buy a little place of your own…and eliminate your monthly rent altogether. Granted, in place of the rent, you’d assume a property tax obligation. Of about US$21 (based on a big house in the city).

Don’t think you need the full-time, live-in household help? That’d cut your budget by another US$200…meaning that you and your husband, wife, partner, or pal could be living together…in a beautiful, comfortable, safe, friendly place…on a budget of as little as US$651 a month.

No kidding.

Kathleen Peddicord

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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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