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My father retired and moved to Costa Rica. He is frugal (nice way of saying cheap lol), so he loved that the rent was cheap and included a maid etc. He did have trouble adjusting to the VERY laid back attitude and lifestyle there, such as you need a leaking pipe repaired and they say they will be there Thurs. and come in 3 weeks. I remember him wanting a big screen tv and not being able to get it and having to somehow get one shipped to him from the US. He also was very lonely for family. His kids could not afford to come visit. Ultimately though he was diagnosed with cancer there and after trying medical treatment there and not liking it, he retunred to the US for treatment and passed away another year later.
Another thing to really consider is make sure you do not go to a country that has the potential of politial unrest or you could find yourself in a bad situation. Costa Rica was ok at the time but on a jungle tour one time my father and the group he was with crossed over the border into Nicaragua and were actually shot at.
We were thinking about Costa Rica a few years back but have since changed our minds. I would rather stay in the USA and buy a small building lot in Alabama and build a tiny retirement house than go overseas. Mexico even looked good, but it is getting expensive there as more Americans go south.
You are right on the point. I have lived in Costa Rica, Mexico and Roatan. Not all they used to be. Expensive and lots of crime. I understand why, the "have nots" want what the "Haves" got.
The Escape Artist site is part of a group that sells international real estate. They make everything sound like paradise because they want to sell you international real estate. The way to tell how credible they are is to choose someplace that you've been and know something about and compare their descriptions of it to what you know to be true. There are often big differences.
I'm considering retirement outside the USA. I lived overseas for a couple of years and found it to be very stimulating. I enjoy the challenge of finding my way in a new culture and learning a new language. I'm even considering living for one year in several different countries before making a more permanent choice. I'm single and have no close family members to keep me here, so I'm opting for adventure.
Yes, but the site gives you ideas of places you can retire to. Anyone should know not to take the word of a site trying to sell property and do further research.
What countries are you planning on living in for a year? Are there that many that don't require an American to have a visa?
What countries are you planning on living in for a year? Are there that many that don't require an American to have a visa?
There are dozens and dozens of countries that will grant residence visas to foreign citizens that want to live there, who can simply prove they have a stable retirement income and will not be taking a job from a local person. It's a great way to get money into the local economy and it doesn't cost the local governments anything. The countries that make the process fairly simple are the ones that stand the best chance to attract the most foreign retirees. Panama and Costa Rica have learned the process real well. Some places in eastern europe are catching on too, like Croatia.
Your posts are all so interesting. I will look at Escape Artist. We actually have lived in many overseas countries, some of them Third World, and what you say about Roatan and Costa Rica is disappointing because I was actually considering them. We can relate to lawlessness and a lack of safety. Broken Crayola sorry about your Dad. It sounded really lonely and not at all what he thought it was going to be. And difficult for the kids at home. We may need to re-think and settle in Alabama too!! I wouldn't want our family to be worried about us. We might think we're happy as clams but if the kids are stressed about it all, it would turn sour really quickly.
Why didn't you like Italy? I would love to hear more on this. Italy's mediterranean climate looks so appealing. Please, tell us more!
I've always dreamed of moving to New Zealand. It's not a realistic dream for me because it's just too far from family... but I would also love to hear any thoughts and advice about retiring to Australia and New Zealand.
Why didn't you like Italy? I would love to hear more on this. Italy's mediterranean climate looks so appealing. Please, tell us more!
I've always dreamed of moving to New Zealand. It's not a realistic dream for me because it's just too far from family... but I would also love to hear any thoughts and advice about retiring to Australia and New Zealand.
I worked Law Enforcement in Italy. So perhaps I saw a slightly different angle than most others who have lived in Italy have seen.
Do you recall LA in the 70's? Before the smog regulations, the city/county became known for it's famous pollution. Thick hanging dusty gritty smog. It burnt your eyes, it would irritate your throat, and it left a dark smear on your car or laundry left out to dry.
Italians feel independent and stubborn about doing things as they have for centuries. They do not enforce any smog regulations.
Many servicemembers who had never experienced asthma, suddenly get asthma while living in Italy.
A lot of vehicles run on diesel, and in the tiny narrow streets, with laundry hanging outside above the streets, fresh pasta hanging on racks in front of restaurants drying in preparation for each evening's supper, fresh meats and sausages hanging in windows in the open air, you also have diesel vehicles coughing and sputtering thick smoke, that you can feel in your throat. The grit leaves a layer deposit on everything that is left outside: the laundry, the pasta, the meats and fish.
The US Navy has maintained eight bases in Italy since WWII, in that time we have had water treatment facilities on each base. None of those filtration systems has ever been successful at making the water potable. While I was there, we had just spent another $10million on modernizing the Capodichino water-treatment system. They had finished the previous design, and had finally given-up on getting it capable of making potable water from the local water supply. They rebuild and modernize the system every five years, in the hopes that one day they will eventually be able to filter out the urea from the water. I have had dinner with one of Napoli's municipal water treatment engineers, he told me that he had spent his entire career trying to filter out the urea, and the city had never succeeded in making potable water. We have US engineer's whose entire careers working there has been a matter of enlarging and improving that one facility every few years, in the hopes that one day the water will be safe. The locals are used to having a high urea content in their water, and historically it was first noticed in the water by the Romans. So far, no matter how big and expensive a filtration system we build, we have never been capable of filtering the urea out of the water enough to meet US standards for water.
Anyone will sale you anything for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes. The black-market is huge in Italy, and it does not always make any sense exactly which things are on the black-market. Many homes grow small plots of tobacco and a thriving home industry exists in drying / cutting / rolling tobacco, packaging it in US brand-name cigarette packages that are printed right there in the homes. I carried a carton of Marlboro's under my car seat, twice I was T-boned by Italian drivers trying to con me for insurance money. Both times when the policia arrived, I handed the policia a carton of Marlboro's and the policia quickly gave my vehicle a policia escort away from the traffic accident, and away from the crowds. Everyone wants a bribe.
At least in the case of the US military, the locals knew that we were required to carry full insurance. And they told stories of people who had gotten huge settlements from those insurance companies. So when locals spotted a US owned vehicle it was not uncommon, for them to quickly stage an accident, by someone gunning his vehicle to slam into yours as you drive by. Instantly their will be six old men lying on the pavement screaming in pain, from their injuries. They all want to be paid off, either by you, or by your insurance.
I do not fully understand medicine nor diet. However when we moved to Italy, we began eating in the local diet, the 'Mediterranean diet'; and within one year my cholesterol shot up to over 400. I do not know what my body reacted to there. We lived there for three years, and we have been stateside for six. Maxxing out the cholesterol meds and eating a very strict diet [no red meat, no dairy, no cheese, no mayo, no eggs, no fruits, no fruit juices] I have been able to get my cholesterol down to 260.
Aside from the countries you mentioned that will allow Americans who show a stable retirement income to live in their country (I take it without a visa?), I think there are very few others in which you can just "decide" to relocate. I can't even move to Canada for more than six months of a year WITH a decent retirement package.
The other thing is (though there are exceptions) most people at retirement age have become used to their way of life and their creature comforts become, unfortunate as this may be, most important. Relocating to another country isn't the challenge that we looked forward to and which came to us easily when we were backpacking in our 20s. You have to start over, learn languages, customs, live without the many options that exist in the US. I suppose it all depends to where one relocates and what one is willing to do.
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