Best Places In The World To Retire

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Dental care in Nicaragua has improved but it is not up to par with the dental care in the US just yet. If you are going to have a root canal or extensive dental procedures, I wouldn’t recommend that you go outside of Managua to get that type of dental care because the doctors outside of Managua are not up to speed with technology compared to dentists from Costa Rica, who are more highly-trained.

 

Dentistry is not at a high-tech level in Nicaragua just yet, but...

Dental care in Nicaragua has improved but it is not up to par with the dental care in the US just yet. If you are going to have a root canal or extensive dental procedures, I wouldn’t recommend that you go outside of Managua to get that type of dental care because the doctors outside of Managua are not up to speed with technology compared to dentists from Costa Rica, who are more highly-trained.

 

Dentistry is not at a high-tech level in Nicaragua just yet, but in general, I would be more comfortable going to a dentist in Managua for more complicated procedures than to a dentist in other parts of the country. Depending on the complexity of the procedure that needs to be done, I would recommend going to Costa Rica, where the dentists are more highly-trained.

 

 

Portugal is divided into three regions—north, center, and south. The southern part of Portugal is more rural and is where we tend to get a lot of European expats from Germany, England, and France. The center of Portugal, where Lisbon is included, we tend to get other nationalities, such as Brazilians, we’re starting to get some Americans, Canadians, and even from Asia; Japanese. And then in the north of Portugal, we get a lot of expats from the the wine producing countries,...

Portugal is divided into three regions—north, center, and south. The southern part of Portugal is more rural and is where we tend to get a lot of European expats from Germany, England, and France. The center of Portugal, where Lisbon is included, we tend to get other nationalities, such as Brazilians, we’re starting to get some Americans, Canadians, and even from Asia; Japanese. And then in the north of Portugal, we get a lot of expats from the the wine producing countries, people from New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa because this region is very famous because of the Port Wine.  There are a lot of wine vineyards up north in Portugal and these people come to retire because of the weather, because of the lifestye, and many other factors. They tend to come straight to the north of Portugal.  There are also a lot of old beautiful palaces and villas for which the purchase price in Portugal is very affordable for people coming from these countries. So it tends to be divided. Europeans go more to the south of Portugal, the wine-producing countries go to the north of Portugal, and in Lisbon it’s a mixture of many cultures.
 
In order to make any generalizations about the expats in Portugal depends a lot on the age factor.  Several weeks ago the Portuguese Tourism Board released a brilliant video just with foreigners, expats talking about our country. In this video are shown people from all ages, from all sectors talking about our country. From a scientist to doctors, to architects—every single field is represented and there’s someone telling their story about Portugal.
 
The view of these people of Portugal is that it’s great living here.  When, as a country, we struggled economically a few years ago, we immediately understood that we’re dependent on every single penny that entered our country. So for a long time, 500 years ago when we started discovering the world, we’re all in contact with many cultures and we had to have a lot of public relations in our blood to achieve what we did. We negotiated with India, Asia, Brazil, and that made us a very easygoing culture. We’ve adapted through all these years and when we had the economic struggle a few years ago, we knew immediately that we had to treat foreigners very well coming here so they would remain and they would spend their money here and they would help us economically. So therefore, we got used to that way to exchange information with foreigners and the process had been like this for the last 20 or 30 years.
 
In Portugal we like foreigners because the foreigners have done a lot of good for us that helped develop our country. So we are very grateful for the foreigners; very, very grateful. And we all have open smiles, we open our houses to foreigners, we invite them with food because we’re so eager for them to get to know our culture that we receive them very well. Our opinion about foreigners is wonderful; it’s great, absolutely great. 
 
Recently, there have been a few issues because the European Union now is wide open, and because of all these problems with the Middle East and we have become a bit suspicious of some of the people from Middle Eastern countries, but with the rest of the world we are completely open-hearted.  

 

(Visitors at Blue Hostel and Suites, Cascais,  Portugal, pictured.)

You can rent a home in Belize for as little as US $150 per month, if you rent a home that’s amongst the villagers or in the town. In this case, you would live among the people and rent a Belizean home. You can get it very inexpensively, but you won’t be able to find this on the Internet, though.
 
Before renting you would have to come to Belize, do your homework, search, and look at the areas.  They have signs outside.
 
We also have hostels.  You...

You can rent a home in Belize for as little as US $150 per month, if you rent a home that’s amongst the villagers or in the town. In this case, you would live among the people and rent a Belizean home. You can get it very inexpensively, but you won’t be able to find this on the Internet, though.
 
Before renting you would have to come to Belize, do your homework, search, and look at the areas.  They have signs outside.
 
We also have hostels.  You can just rent a room in a house that is very, very inexpensive, perhaps as low as BZ $200 (US $100) per month. I’ve also seen rentals for US $1,500 per month. Usually this would be for a home, usually near the water or on a beach, perhaps 3-bedrooms.  It may be a little bit more on the islands or in the more touristy areas. There is a big range of prices.
 
For US $500 in the Corozal area, you would be able to get a nice one-bedroom, one-bath apartment, condo, or a smaller home.  Sometimes, people build their houses with a space down below to rent.  This could be a 2-bedroom, 1-bath or a 1-bath, 1-bedrooom rental within 200 feet of the water. You can also find a very nice condo, with 1-bedroom and 1-bath. You can find some homes but you have to really go and search for those for about US $500 per month. 
 
A 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,500 square foot home in Corozal would probably be about US $1,000 per month, either furnished or unfurnished, utilities extra.

 

(Seaside home in Corozal, Belize available for long term rental, pictured. )

Answering what is the overall cost of living in Panama is like asking how long is a piece of string?   The figure will vary greatly with your lifestyle.  A Panamanian family of 4, with no car, eating at home, can get by on $600 a month.  If you live in the city costs will generally be higher, especially if you want to have a restaurant meal once in awhile.

 

If you own your property, drive a car, pay for health insurance and want to socialize, you...

Answering what is the overall cost of living in Panama is like asking how long is a piece of string?   The figure will vary greatly with your lifestyle.  A Panamanian family of 4, with no car, eating at home, can get by on $600 a month.  If you live in the city costs will generally be higher, especially if you want to have a restaurant meal once in awhile.

 

If you own your property, drive a car, pay for health insurance and want to socialize, you probably won't have much change out of $2000 a month for a couple.  You CAN get by on half of this, and you CAN easily spend double this amount, it al depends......

 

If you do not own your property, rent will take a big bite out of your budget, anywhere from $600 to "sky is the limit" on a monthly basis.  Utilities are relatively cheap, but be careful of the electric bill if you run your air conditioning 24/7.
 

You need to be ready to file taxes! The United States has a highly stringent policy when it comes to the taxation of its citizens and permanent residents (i.e., those with a green card). The US government taxes all of its citizens based on worldwide income, which means it does not matter where the money is earned. US citizens and permanent residents may be able to exclude up to $100,800 in foreign earned income provided they meet certain qualifications. Given the high exclusion...

You need to be ready to file taxes! The United States has a highly stringent policy when it comes to the taxation of its citizens and permanent residents (i.e., those with a green card). The US government taxes all of its citizens based on worldwide income, which means it does not matter where the money is earned. US citizens and permanent residents may be able to exclude up to $100,800 in foreign earned income provided they meet certain qualifications. Given the high exclusion amount, most US expats end up not owing any taxes, although they are required to file a tax return. In countries with a higher income tax rate than in the US, it is often preferable to utilize the foreign tax credit, rather than the foreign earned income exclusion to eliminate US tax liability. The foreign tax credit addresses the issue of double taxation. 
 

US persons (including entities) with an interest or signature authority over foreign financial accounts that have an aggregate balance exceeding $10,000 are required to file the FBAR (FinCen 114). The FBAR is separate requirement from your tax return. Failure to file the FBAR carries hefty penalties. Its important to note that with the implementation of FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), foreign financial institutions are providing the IRS with the details of foreign financial accounts held by US persons. As a result, non-reporting is an increasingly risky proposition.