Best Places In The World To Retire

Mexico may quarantine an animal entering the country if the owner doesn’t provide a veterinarian certification.
 
If you bring your pet on a flight they generally always check, and if your pets arrives without the certification, then they can quarantine the pet until a Mexican veterinarian checks it out. Relative to driving to Mexico, many of my clients say they were never asked for their animal’s papers, but it’s possible that they will ask, so it’s good...

Mexico may quarantine an animal entering the country if the owner doesn’t provide a veterinarian certification.
 
If you bring your pet on a flight they generally always check, and if your pets arrives without the certification, then they can quarantine the pet until a Mexican veterinarian checks it out. Relative to driving to Mexico, many of my clients say they were never asked for their animal’s papers, but it’s possible that they will ask, so it’s good to get the certification.
 
I believe you need to get the certification 7 or 10 days before you leave that states that your pets have all of their vaccinations and they don’t have certain diseases. For people who have multiple pets, you can bring in somewhere in the area of three pets per person. As a result, it’s important, for example, if you have five pets and you’re two people, you put up to three pets in one person’s name and the other in the other person’s name because if one person has more than three pets, they will pay a tax.  By mistake, some people will just say, “Oh well, the wife will go to the vet and put all the pets in the wife’s name,” but when they come on board the plane, they hear “You have five animals in your name. You need to pay a tax because you’re only allowed to bring in three.”

 

(Dog riding in a car, pictured.)

You will find a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) branch here and they have a big 4^th of July celebration at the Balboa Yacht Club so expats from all over Panama come to celebrate the 4^th of July. Even Panamanians have joined their celebrations but VFW sponsors it.

The history of Portugal is a very broad question, so I will address it just in summary form.
 
500 years ago, Portugal owned half of the world and 500 years later we are just a little small humble country of Europe, which can tell you quite a bit.  We were, 500 years ago, a very important country, responsible for controlling half of the goods produced of half of the world. Spain had the other half. And then came the Dutch, the English; the explorers, and they took over some...

The history of Portugal is a very broad question, so I will address it just in summary form.
 
500 years ago, Portugal owned half of the world and 500 years later we are just a little small humble country of Europe, which can tell you quite a bit.  We were, 500 years ago, a very important country, responsible for controlling half of the goods produced of half of the world. Spain had the other half. And then came the Dutch, the English; the explorers, and they took over some of the rich countries that we controlled.
 
The colonies we had like Brazil, Mozambique, and Angola, survived for the last 300 to 200 years. But as the world developed, it was no longer allowed for countries to have colonies so we released our last colony in 1999, which was Macau in China. We had various dynasties of kings and queens and mixtures of royalty with other European countries.
 
We’re a country of explorers, very brave and courageous because if you could just imagine, 500 years ago, with no conditions, with little wooden boats discovering and crossing oceans and discovering countries, that can tell us a bit of the Portuguese culture. So yes, it’s a very brave culture, and a very brave country. We discovered half of the world and today we’re just a little civilized country of Europe.  

 

(Duke of Vise, Henry the Navigator of Portugal considered the patron of exploration, pictured.)

If you become a non-resident then no you do not have to file taxes.  Becoming a non-resident is a matter of selling all property and closing all personal accounts.  You can leave your RRSP's in Canada but no other ties to the country can remain.  Once you become a non-resident then you do not need to file yearly taxes.  If you are not a non-resident then you will need to file your taxes every year.  

If you become a non-resident then no you do not have to file taxes.  Becoming a non-resident is a matter of selling all property and closing all personal accounts.  You can leave your RRSP's in Canada but no other ties to the country can remain.  Once you become a non-resident then you do not need to file yearly taxes.  If you are not a non-resident then you will need to file your taxes every year.  

The retirees love Ambergris Caye. We have a lot of retirees here. So many of my friends are so much older than me that my mom comes here to visit and she asks me, “Do you know any people your own age?” Well, there are lots of people my own age here but there are many retirees, too. We also have snowbirds or people who are sun seekers. They start to arrive in the beginning of November or the end October. I would take my van towards the beach and I would see them there taking a...

The retirees love Ambergris Caye. We have a lot of retirees here. So many of my friends are so much older than me that my mom comes here to visit and she asks me, “Do you know any people your own age?” Well, there are lots of people my own age here but there are many retirees, too. We also have snowbirds or people who are sun seekers. They start to arrive in the beginning of November or the end October. I would take my van towards the beach and I would see them there taking a morning walk about to see their friends for some coffee. Some of them come to Ambergris Caye for a month or two each year and some of them come for six months. Usually what happens is that they come for a month or two and they extend for six months and then you start seeing them year round.

 
There are lots of things to get involved with here in Ambergris Caye. There are lots of charitable organizations like the Human Society, which is always looking for volunteers. If you are a doctor or a nurse, there are many opportunities for volunteer work here. For instance, we have the Lion’s Club and they have a posting for dentists at the moment, so if you are retired dentist here on Ambergris Caye and you want to help out with this program, you can approach them. They are offering free dental care for the next two weeks. If you perhaps are a retired nurse or a physician and want to go and volunteer at the Polyclinic, they always welcome more help there.
 
There are many things to get involved in here. There are art classes every Thursday and I love going there with my daughter. There are many snowbirds or retirees who come to that class.  A local artist comes along, takes a picture and we all learn how to paint it. It’s a great social gathering.
 
There are lots of potlucks and fundraisers here in Ambergris Caye, too. You can be a part of the community as much as you want or you can stay out of it and just enjoy the beauty of the island. You can go cycling on the beach. If you perhaps got yourself a little sailboat or a jet ski as a Qualified Retired Person, you can surely enjoy that here. You can do pretty much anything you want to do. The island is what you make it. If you do not go out to make an effort and be social and meet people, no one will come knocking on your door and introduce themselves and welcome you to the island, but if you walk into a social gathering, which happens a lot here, usually everybody is welcome and people will introduce themselves. You will have a whole host of people who are willing to introduce themselves to you. There is lots going here on Ambergris Caye that for the relaxed, laid- back life of a retiree, the island suits so well.
 
Ambergris Caye does not, however, cater very well for disabilities, so it is not for retirees who have some medical issues.  If you just need regular medication for things like high blood pressure or things like that, you can certainly get care here.
 
If you retire here on Ambergris Caye, you are still close to your families, especially if you are from the US, because there are a lot of direct flights from the US that go straight into Belize City. Whether you choose to live here on the island or on the mainland, it is very accessible.
 
Belize is an English-speaking country, so perhaps if you got into an age where you do not really want to learn new tricks, you don’t have to go out and speak another language to get along in life. I know people who come here fluent in Spanish and try to speak to people who are also fluent in Spanish, but they would always answer back in English. It is very easy to understand the terminologies of the locals and to understand how the island works. The way of life here is a bit different, but it is just a bit simpler, which I think very much suits the retiree.