Best Places In The World To Retire

The Portuguese language is a very formal language, but like everything else in the world today it’s becoming more and more relaxed.

 

There is a generation of Portuguese who are “old school” who would stand up when elder people come in to a room, and that, in Portuguese would never refer to their mother or father using the informal of “you”, “tu.” Today, in general, young children today will be less formal but...

The Portuguese language is a very formal language, but like everything else in the world today it’s becoming more and more relaxed.

 

There is a generation of Portuguese who are “old school” who would stand up when elder people come in to a room, and that, in Portuguese would never refer to their mother or father using the informal of “you”, “tu.” Today, in general, young children today will be less formal but in certain levels in Portugal there are still very strict rules of who you are, where you are, where you’ve been, and how you live.

 

On average now it’s a lot easier going than it used to be.  I was talking to a friend of mine today about the time when girls would go out there would always have to be chaperone because the parents wouldn’t let it be any other way.  These days if you told a 12 year old they needed to have a chaperone, they would say, “Are you crazy?” 

 

In America, even if you’re the president of the company, people would say to you, “Hi, Bob,” whereas here in Portugal it would always be “senior doctor” or “senior professor” or “mister engineer.” You would never use the more informal way of speaking; until you became friendly with them, there’s always that formality. So you would never say, for example, “Senior Bob” you would say “Senior Johnson,” you wouldn’t say the first name. So there are small things like that that would be a faux pas. 

 

The Portuguese are really, really impatient when they get behind the wheel of a car. They drive like lunatics on the motorways and you wouldn’t think it was the same race of people that gets behind the wheels of their cars and they sit on your bumper or don’t let you in.  For them, it’s “me first, me first,” which is odd, because they’re not like that we’re they’re chatting to you, but behind the wheels of their cars, you do have to be careful, or, alternatively, you just do what they do.   

 

(1836 sketches of women of Portugal, pictured.)

 
We first thought that we would like to live in Turks and Caicos, some small islands with a small population in the Bahamas.  One of the things we thought we liked about it was the...

 
We first thought that we would like to live in Turks and Caicos, some small islands with a small population in the Bahamas.  One of the things we thought we liked about it was the beach.  It started out that we walked on the beach every day.  Then, we walked on the beach a few times a week, then, once a month.  It turned out that the beach wasn’t as important to us as we thought.  If we had bought in Turks and Caicos without fully understanding this, it would have been a mistake, at least for us.  (Maybe not for you, if you really love the beach.)
 
Later, we came down to Panama, to Boquete, to visit friends who lived here and were enthusiastic about retiring here, so their attitude influenced us.  In addition, the cost of living and the lifestyle we saw in Panama were totally different than what we had in Toronto, Canada, which is where we’re from, so we decided to build a vacation home in Panama.  Having a vacation home in Panama worked for us because we could visit before making the final move.
 
We knew more what we wanted because we had already done the beach scenario at Turks and Caicos, and even though we enjoyed it there, it became clear to us that our priorities were for golfing, the social activities in a retirement community, and the weather, so the beach started to take a second position, because we found that in Boquete, we had the things that we discovered were most important to us.
 
Another very important factor is the cost of living.  The cost of living in Panama is much, much less than in Toronto, Canada, which you realize when you come here to Panama.  This becomes an eye opener, and you think “I can come down here to Panama with my US $2,000 to $3,000 per month pension and live quite nicely.”
 
This is one of the reasons why, if you’re on a budget, Panama is much better than Turks and Caicos.  The costs in Turks and Caicos are unbelievably high for food and other items.  Everything is imported.  I used to joke that when we went down to visit for two or three weeks, it felt like I had to take out a second mortgage just to finance the purchase of our groceries.  I was talking with a woman yesterday who has her home on Curacao who told me that her electrical bill was something like $1,000 / month.  Many of these places are very nice and have picturesque beaches, but when it comes to actually living there, when push comes to shove, it’s very, very expensive.
 
In Boquete, which is up in the mountains, the weather is especially nice, if you like cooler weather in the evening.  Here at Tucan, in Arraijan, we’re closer to the ocean, so the weather is not as cool in the evening.  We do, however, have other advantages that may appeal to you: 

Is this the best place for you?  Maybe, if these things appeal to you. Find out what you want and then find your best place.

Belize is a melting pot. We have people here from every country in the world. We all get a long; we don't have segregation of any kind and for any race. It's like what America used to be. 

 

The beautiful thing about Belize is that every local has the right to own a piece of land. There are a very few places like that. In Guatemala, 80% of the land is in the hands of 20% of the people and the poor men can't buy a piece of land over there. But...

Belize is a melting pot. We have people here from every country in the world. We all get a long; we don't have segregation of any kind and for any race. It's like what America used to be. 

 

The beautiful thing about Belize is that every local has the right to own a piece of land. There are a very few places like that. In Guatemala, 80% of the land is in the hands of 20% of the people and the poor men can't buy a piece of land over there. But Belize is different. Belize is a cut above. The 3 countries surrounding Belize--Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras-- their wage for an uneducated worker is US $3 a day. In Belize, it's US $10 a day, more than 3 times more. So we have nobody on the street begging. In Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, there are people everywhere begging. We don't have any beggars in Belize.