Best Places In The World To Retire

Restaurants in Chapala and Ajijic are relatively inexpensive. You can go to a taco stand on a street corner or to a fancy, sit-down restaurant. You can get a typical Mexican meal at a small mom and pop, hole in the wall restaurant and can get enchiladas and a drink for US $3 per person.
 
The best restaurant in town (a designation I think many people in town would agree to) is called Tango. It is an Argentinian Steak place. It’s very well run, and they have very consistent...

Restaurants in Chapala and Ajijic are relatively inexpensive. You can go to a taco stand on a street corner or to a fancy, sit-down restaurant. You can get a typical Mexican meal at a small mom and pop, hole in the wall restaurant and can get enchiladas and a drink for US $3 per person.
 
The best restaurant in town (a designation I think many people in town would agree to) is called Tango. It is an Argentinian Steak place. It’s very well run, and they have very consistent and great service. You can get a very healthy portion of steak at Tango for $12. Then you could order your side dishes, like you would in most steak restaurants. A couple can have a bottle of wine and two steaks, salads, and some dessert for $50. If you would go to the same place in Washington State, you would spend well over $100. 
 
The restaurants in Chapala and Ajijic are very competitive and I believe they provide very good value.  There are lots of restaurants here so they would have to go on a very low margin to attract the Mexicans and the retired Americans or Canadians who are here on pension. Even if Chapala and Ajijic is a tourist area, we don’t have huge tourist prices. We don’t have many short-term tourists.  Rather, we have long-, or extended-stay visitors, so the restaurants have to attract people who come back to Chapala and Ajijic over and over again.
 
In general, restaurants here in Chapala and Ajijic cost half or even less than half of how much they cost in the US for the same quality of food and the same ambiance. We have an Italian restaurant here that serves homemade pasta. We just went out recently to celebrate my daughter’s birthday and my portion of fettuccini with carbonara sauce cost 110 pesos, or about or $6. It was homemade pasta made by a professional Swiss-Canadian chef, who has been around the block. They have great service and you could be sitting outdoors in December. Not bad!  

 

(Steak dinner at Bruno's Restaurant in Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)

You don’t need to be a resident in order to live in Belize. You can come to Belize as a qualified retired resident or you can be a tourist. But as a tourist, you can only get a 30-day tourist visa that is renewable every 30 days up to 6 months, or something like that. If you want to stay in Belize long term, certainly, the retired residency or the Permanent Residency Program is what you want to have.
 
The Permanent Residency Program is pretty straightforward. You have to...

You don’t need to be a resident in order to live in Belize. You can come to Belize as a qualified retired resident or you can be a tourist. But as a tourist, you can only get a 30-day tourist visa that is renewable every 30 days up to 6 months, or something like that. If you want to stay in Belize long term, certainly, the retired residency or the Permanent Residency Program is what you want to have.
 
The Permanent Residency Program is pretty straightforward. You have to obtain a work permit for an entire year and not leave the country for more than 14 days within that first year.  Then, after a little bit of paperwork, which includes a police report and some blood work, you will get your work permit.
 
There are two kinds of work permits: the employer work permit and a self-employed work permit. The self-employed work permit allows you to operate as a consultant or an independent whereas an employer work permit means you own something like a farm, or you’re working in a bar, a restaurant, or a hotel, etc. The employer work permit could translate into the first step of the residency process for permanent residency. With your work permit intact you can then apply for residency. There is a little bit of fee involved but the paperwork is essentially the same and, once you become a permanent resident, you do not need any more visas because as a permanent resident, you are entitled to live and work in Belize.
 
The Qualified Retirement Residency Program is for people who are 45 years and older, who are interested in not working in Belize, but in retiring in Belize. It allows people moving to Belize to bring in their goods and their personal items without any duty for up to a year.

We pay our maid US $200 a month. She works for us 28 hours a week. She has worked for me for 9 years and never misses a day. She cleans our entire house, does all the dishes, laundry and ironing. She is honest and I trust her with our pets and our children. It is true we could pay someone less or have them work longer hours but I am very happy with my arrangement.

We pay our maid US $200 a month. She works for us 28 hours a week. She has worked for me for 9 years and never misses a day. She cleans our entire house, does all the dishes, laundry and ironing. She is honest and I trust her with our pets and our children. It is true we could pay someone less or have them work longer hours but I am very happy with my arrangement.

Whether or not you need to own a car in Panama depends on how do you feel about it, and previous experience in other Latin cities.  For first time visitors driving is little complicated as streets are not properly marked, and traffic is very heavy, due various projects that affect traffic.  A good recommendation would be to bring a good road/city map, in order to be a little better prepared.

 

Public transportation, hotel and regular taxis are...

Whether or not you need to own a car in Panama depends on how do you feel about it, and previous experience in other Latin cities.  For first time visitors driving is little complicated as streets are not properly marked, and traffic is very heavy, due various projects that affect traffic.  A good recommendation would be to bring a good road/city map, in order to be a little better prepared.

 

Public transportation, hotel and regular taxis are available all over the city.

 

But if you are a resident, you definitely need a car, especially after you know your way around, and found that patience is a very good virtue.