Best Places In The World To Retire

I hear differing things on whether the water in Puerto Vallarta is safe to drink. I hear that it can be drank and that the water in some places in Mexico is a lot cleaner than other parts of the world, including some parts of the US. But then I also hear that you shouldn't drink it.
 
I've drank the water here in Puerto Vallarta and I use it to brush my teeth. By using the water jugs that you get, like the Hinckley & Schmitt's blue water jugs that have a couple of...

I hear differing things on whether the water in Puerto Vallarta is safe to drink. I hear that it can be drank and that the water in some places in Mexico is a lot cleaner than other parts of the world, including some parts of the US. But then I also hear that you shouldn't drink it.
 
I've drank the water here in Puerto Vallarta and I use it to brush my teeth. By using the water jugs that you get, like the Hinckley & Schmitt's blue water jugs that have a couple of gallons of water, you don't have to drink the water out of the tap.  Sometimes I'll run out of that at night and then I'll want a cup of coffee the next morning right when I wake up, so I make the cup of coffee with the faucet water. You can cook with it. 
 
As long as you're not consistently consuming large quantities of water out of tap in Puerto Vallarta, you'll be okay. But to have some here and there is completely fine. It's not really as bad as people make it out to be.

 

(Coffee bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)

At the present time (April 2013) the driving in Panama City, Panama is difficult to describe, but to say the least it is certainly not for the feint of heart.  I know a number of ExPats who absolutely refuse to drive here in Panama City.  I say that there are only two types of vehicles in Panama City = 1. The dented & 2. The soon to be dented.  I have lived in Panama for more than 6 years now and I can honestly say that traffic has improved and I feel...

At the present time (April 2013) the driving in Panama City, Panama is difficult to describe, but to say the least it is certainly not for the feint of heart.  I know a number of ExPats who absolutely refuse to drive here in Panama City.  I say that there are only two types of vehicles in Panama City = 1. The dented & 2. The soon to be dented.  I have lived in Panama for more than 6 years now and I can honestly say that traffic has improved and I feel confident that changes are being made to further improve traffic flow.  I am originally from Chicago and when I first tried to maneuver my vehicle in and around and thru Panama traffic I would find myself having heart to heart chats with myself.  I would say to myself be a man - if you were able to drive while in a big city like Chicago then you should be able to drive in a much smaller city like Panama City... but sometimes myself would respond with "yea but in Chicago there were street signs... in English."  At one time here in Panama there were many intersections with no traffic lights so whoever was the bravest driver had the right of way - traffic lights have been now added at these intersections.  Overpasses and underpasses are being added to areas known to frequently have gridlock.  At one time there were about 3,000 Red Devils (colorfully painted older busses) prowling the streets of Panama but just about all of the Red Devils have been removed from the roads.  And the new mass transit system when it is completed in February 2014 will help a bunch.

No, you don't need a second passport if you retire, work, or live abroad. There is a misconception people have that they need to either give up their US passport or US citizenship but no, you don’t need to. You can have your US passport. 
 
As Americans, we're lucky that we come from a country where we don't really need to apply for even a visa to visit most countries. We can go with our passport. We can usually stay in countries anywhere from 1 to 6 months,...

No, you don't need a second passport if you retire, work, or live abroad. There is a misconception people have that they need to either give up their US passport or US citizenship but no, you don’t need to. You can have your US passport. 
 
As Americans, we're lucky that we come from a country where we don't really need to apply for even a visa to visit most countries. We can go with our passport. We can usually stay in countries anywhere from 1 to 6 months, depending on the regulations of each country. In Mexico, for example, we can stay up to 180 days with a US passport. 
 
A lot of people who move abroad still want to go home once or twice a year and visit their family. You might be living in Nicaragua and stay 90 days before re-entering, because, without a visa, you have to leave and come back in. If you live in Nicaragua, maybe you want to go to Costa Rica or take a flight to Colombia. That’s basically what people do. They leave once or twice a year. They either travel around or go back to the US. You can do that all with your US passport. There's no need to make any changes. Just make sure that your passport is valid for a long time so that you don't have to go get a new one. Even if you lose your passport or you need to get a new passport, you usually can do so at the consulate in that country. It's not a big deal.  Also, if you're planning on traveling a lot, you can order passports now that have extra pages that should last you a long time or you can get pages added to them about $80. 
 
You can choose to continue doing this indefinitely in many countries. What you decide to do depends on the situation and the residency attorney could tell you about that. It could be expensive to get residency. It just depends on the country.  For example, the cost of getting residency in Nicaragua is a fraction of the cost of getting a residency in the UK or in some places in the Caribbean where it can cost over a million dollars. In some countries, it costs a few hundred thousand. In Nicaragua, in Mexico or generally in Latin America, it's always going to be a lot lower, for the most part under $10,000. That might be the route that you take but even if you do that, that doesn’t mean you're going to get a passport from the country that you have residency in. You'll still be traveling on your US passport. 
 
If, for example, you travel to Nicaragua on your US passport and then you want to get a permanent residency or temporary residency in Nicaragua, it could be up to 5 years. You'll still use your US passport to travel. The only time you would need to actually get a second passport would be if you obtain citizenship in that country, which can take 10 to 20 years. You won't really need your second passport under most any circumstances especially if you have a US passport. I can't think of any reason why you would need a second passport.  It would be a luxury to have a second one but it's not a requirement by any means.

 

(Kristen Wilson, relocation export, working on Mexico beach, pictured.)