Best Places In The World To Retire

For us, retirement in Yucatan has been fabulous. When people ask me what I miss, I say, “We miss some longtime friends that we don’t get to see very often. We also miss Greek and Chinese food.” But we have adjusted.

 

I had a really interesting and challenging job that it was never who I was but it’s rather what I did. When I closed that chapter and opened up a new chapter of my life, it’s just as interesting and exciting but...

For us, retirement in Yucatan has been fabulous. When people ask me what I miss, I say, “We miss some longtime friends that we don’t get to see very often. We also miss Greek and Chinese food.” But we have adjusted.

 

I had a really interesting and challenging job that it was never who I was but it’s rather what I did. When I closed that chapter and opened up a new chapter of my life, it’s just as interesting and exciting but it’s totally different. If we wrote and sealed in an envelope what we thought what life would be like here in Yucatan, we would have grossly underestimated how wonderful it’s turned out. It’s partially because we tend to be A Type, gregarious people.

 

We have been adopted by the community and we have engaged. I am a Rotarian. I was never a member of the Rotary Club in the States but I am here so I have a weekly meeting. The Valladolid English Language Library, which was founded after we came here, has a monthly get together with expats with an English language presentation on some topic. There are a number of social events here that are free of charge and some concerts that we regularly go to. Every Sunday night, half a block from our house on the main square, they block off the street in front of the city hall. There 14-piece Latin band and there is free dancing on the street from 8 PM to 10 PM every single weekend. We go over to one of the restaurants right on the square. We have a standing reservation for a table at 8 PM. We have a light snack and a drink and quite often, some friends, either Mexicans or expats will join us. Life is good here.

 

We have also discovered that about an hour and a half away, depending on where in Merida we go, there are a number of concerts like the Yucatan State Symphony, or Chamber of Music subscription series. There is also an art community there with gallery openings. We have decided that it doesn’t matter if we drive an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes to these events. We have also gotten lazy because one of our staff, Freddie, who happens to speak English (but that’s not the criteria), drives us.  We helped him get his driver’s license and he is a good driver. So I don’t drive very often when we go to Merida anymore. Freddie drives for us instead. I can’t afford a driver in Chicago but we have one here.  

 

(Benefit concert for the Valladolid Pueblo Mágico Rotary Club, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.) 

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or...

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or four nationalities who were very transient. The Algarve doesn’t have quite the same transient society that I felt in Southern Florida, but certainly from a heterogeneous perspective, there are a variety of nationalities that reside in the Algarve. It’s fairly likely that your neighbors will be Portuguese, English, Dutch, or German because of the number of people from those countries who have settled in the Algarve. 

 

Most of the people who move to the Algarve would tend to be wealthy by Portuguese standards and comfortably middle class or wealthy by international standards. Most people who have made the decision to come here so they do so because they are financially able to afford to do so. This is a pensioner’s paradise.  These are people who have their pensions intact and can afford a good living in the Algarve, where you could easily live on a lot less than you would if you were living in London, New York, Stockholm, Helsinki or Paris. And so, what we find is that people here who come from abroad and in particular the pensioners have a much higher quality of life and spending power, than the average across Portugal and from whence they came.  

 

(Jose Mourinho, Portuguese football manager, pictured.)

When you retire in Panama on the Pensionado Visa, you cannot work, but you can own a company. Me, as an example, being a Pensionado, I cannot work, but I can own a company and pay income taxes on my company’s income to the government of Panama.

 

If you come to Panama with a Friendly Nations Visa, you could own a company, but in many respects, you cannot work. Moreover, if you cannot work, you cannot have income. Hence, you cannot pay taxes either.

When you retire in Panama on the Pensionado Visa, you cannot work, but you can own a company. Me, as an example, being a Pensionado, I cannot work, but I can own a company and pay income taxes on my company’s income to the government of Panama.

 

If you come to Panama with a Friendly Nations Visa, you could own a company, but in many respects, you cannot work. Moreover, if you cannot work, you cannot have income. Hence, you cannot pay taxes either.