Posted on 08/03/2015 2:09:53 PM PDT by lulu16
What do you do when you want something more and different than you’re getting in your home country? For an increasing number of 60+ women, the answer is to move overseas.
According to the data we collected through our website, Best Places in the World to Retire, there can be a better life out there, if you are willing to uproot and reinvent yourself as an expat in Belize, Nicaragua or Panama.
In addition to the over 5,000 answers and 200 stories on our website, in early July, we released Expats: Expectations & Reality, the first in a series of studies reporting the results of a survey of expats, mainly from the U.S. and Canada and living in Panama, Belize and Nicaragua. For Sixty and Me, we broke out the results just for women, 45 and older (the closest age category we had).
The following are seven smart and reasonable aims these women happily pursued in these small Central American countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at sixtyandme.com ...
Are you thinking of living inland on the mountains (with a view of the volcanos) or at the beach?
He sure seems to like it and his rent is below what a run-down one bedroom would cost in the United States.
Then you would suspect wrong. You can live for somewhere between a third to a tenth of the money in Central America that you can in the US. Lot of folks have nothing but a 2 thousand dollar or so SS to live on...that’s poverty in the US...that’s upper middle class in Central America.
I loved Poland when I was there, the Southern part near the Tatra Mountains was beautiful.
No ads on the overseas website or on the survey. So, it looks very legit. I read it every day because it has new content from expats and contributors in those countries with their actual names!
And Sixty & Me is very respected.
Couples headed to Central America too......
There are cheap places to retire in the US. People have regrets moving far away from home when a spouse dies or when they have major medical problems. And when you get up in age that’s almost guaranteed to happen.
We’re gonna look at San Juan del sur (beach) and Granada (on huge lake with many expats) and Matagalpa (mountains)...maybe to Leone if we have time.
Also might look at Panama, maybe somewhere like Puerto Vallarde or Tulum Mexico (one Pacific, one Caribe).
SFL
Single for Life. If I didn’t have my husband, the dogs, the house with books, would I go from one place to another as the trade winds take me? Maybe...in my dreams.
And you are you tripping around the world?
One of the bad things about living abroad for long periods of time is that you realize that we in the states don’t have a monopoly on nice places to live. Further, by being unwilling to pull up stakes and leave, we give the progressives that much more of a weapon to hold over us.
Bugger that.
We went to Panama, but did not go to Boquete, which is a cool 75 degrees year round and has a huge retirement expat community.
You must report back after you have returned. I’ve been looking at pictures of houses on the bluffs above the Pacific in San Juan del Sur. What’s the attraction in Tulum Mexico?
you’re stuck about 30 years ago. There is first class medical care in Central America for pennies on the dollar. Many American doctors moved down there the last 15 years in fact. Central America has huge “medical tourism” industry....for a reason.
There is also no where in this country where you can live this well for 2-3K a month - a couple can do that in Central America - often on the beach or in the mountains on a lake. You don’t need a car to live in many of these places, because the economy is built on town squares and pedestrians.
About 40% have regrets - meaning about 60% do NOT have regrets. And those with regrets can always come back. We’re not talking about renouncing citizenship....
My husband is on FR. For a moment, I thought you were him (lol).
When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and the grass is always seems greener on the other side.
I think people forget how good it still can be in the US, and they tend to overlook problems in other countries. The cost of living is lower there for a reason.
As to where you live now:
My house and back garden is my world and I am “President for Life” of my world. I can make it warmer if I want or colder if I want. I can shut the whole world out and it just be my Yorkie and me. There are turn off knobs on all electronics so they don't interfere with my libation of Amaretto and even smoke a cigarette with no one yelling my cig is killing them.
I can make it fancy if I want, or down by the beach simple with few clothes on if I want.
If I get sick, I have a good doctor. If I want to spend less, I live on more simple foods that are still healthy. If I want to spend less on electricity, I use fans in the less heated part of the day, saving the lower temp. setting for the highest heat part of the day.
If the economy crashes, I've got food and water, etc..
My point, is, one has to take action to make life the way one wants it wherever that is. I couldn't possibly move the great things I have to another country - I would have to start over and that isn't going to happen since I've already made this location/world operational to my exact liking.
There is also the fact of an American going to another country of which one is not a citizen. If hard times come there, you get no help and probably get hurt because you are a foreigner and foreigners are expendable. There is no way I would leave this country and be a foreigner to others.
Oh we will report back on Nicaragua.....Tulum: the beauty of Cancun (amazing water!!) but much smaller and less expensive...more artsy, more history, more non beach beauty. Mayan ruins, caribe water, fresh fish, fruit, vegetables...healthy lifestyle...almost zero clothing budget. Cancun airport is reasonably close and you’re only two flights away to almost anywhere.
We’re both beach bums...so we’re looking forward to San Juan del Sur. The Pacific doesn’t have the beauty of the Caribbean, but it has the sunsets! I might have to learn to surf (I do slalom ski, FWIW).
Boquete sounds like Matagalpa - no heating or AC needed ever....and Matagalpa is a place where you can live for next to nothing. (but it’s not a beach).
just wallow in your ignorance.....enjoy your death panel and paltry SS check.
Every good idea has one thing in common...NAYSAYERS.
you’re stuck about 30 years ago. There is first class medical care in Central America for pennies on the dollar.
...
Talk is cheap, too.
I still think these “too good to be true” expat websites are looking for suckers.
Thank-you. Now I have more to consider.
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