Is there religious freedom and religious tolerance in Mexico?
Alicia Gomez - Collins Real Estate
My family is Catholic but if there is someone in our family who is thinking of converting to another religion, that is okay. They can do that. In my group of friends, we have Catholics and other religions but it doesn’t matter because in the end, we know that we worship the same God but with different names. If you are not Catholic you shouldn’t worry at all.
(Catholic church in Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)
My family is Catholic but if there is someone in our family who is thinking of converting to another religion, that is okay. They can do that. In my group of friends, we have Catholics and other religions but it doesn’t matter because in the end, we know that we worship the same God but with different names. If you are not Catholic you shouldn’t worry at all.
Shannon Davies - El Rey Hotel / Belize Travel Services
Cable TV in Belize costs around US $23 per month and the installation fee is $72.
There are about 100 plus channels here in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, and it is about the same number of channels in Belmopan. The cable company here in Ambergris Caye is the same company in Belmopan. Placencia has a different cable company, so the prices and channels may be a bit different.
Cable TV in Belize costs around US $23 per month and the installation fee is $72.
There are about 100 plus channels here in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, and it is about the same number of channels in Belmopan. The cable company here in Ambergris Caye is the same company in Belmopan. Placencia has a different cable company, so the prices and channels may be a bit different.
How's the nightlife and entertainment in and around San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?
Gabriela Urcuyo
The nightlife in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua is every day of the week. Entertainment could start at a local restaurant and end at the local disco with a great salsa or whatever is new in the music industry. You will always meet great local people as well as the backpacker who is just going through.
The nightlife in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua is every day of the week. Entertainment could start at a local restaurant and end at the local disco with a great salsa or whatever is new in the music industry. You will always meet great local people as well as the backpacker who is just going through.
In general, how does the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) affect me if I move overseas?
David McKeegan
The way that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) affects you if you move overseas is it may be very difficult or impossible to open a foreign bank account.
The FATCA reporting requires all banks to essentially provide a 1099 to the IRS for their US clients or face some serious withholding requirements on their US assets. Some banks have decided it’s easier to not bank US citizens than to deal with the reporting. This is one of the...
The way that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) affects you if you move overseas is it may be very difficult or impossible to open a foreign bank account.
The FATCA reporting requires all banks to essentially provide a 1099 to the IRS for their US clients or face some serious withholding requirements on their US assets. Some banks have decided it’s easier to not bank US citizens than to deal with the reporting. This is one of the main reasons so many people are renouncing their US citizenship. Imagine if you lived in NY and moved to NJ and you could no longer have a bank account!
(Dime Savings Bank in Brooklyn, New York pictured.)
What's the price of a home, condo or apartment in Panama?
James David Audlin - Editores Volcán Barú
My experience is limited to the rural western province of Chiriquí, where I have rented a casita (cottage) and have looked at some homes for sale.
The answer, as is true anywhere in the world, depends on what you are looking for. Here in Chiriquí, especially in the overpriced Boquete area (overpriced because of the high proportion of gringos living there), a lot of U.S. citizens come here and find their money goes a lot farther if they want to build tasteless, gaudy...
My experience is limited to the rural western province of Chiriquí, where I have rented a casita (cottage) and have looked at some homes for sale.
The answer, as is true anywhere in the world, depends on what you are looking for. Here in Chiriquí, especially in the overpriced Boquete area (overpriced because of the high proportion of gringos living there), a lot of U.S. citizens come here and find their money goes a lot farther if they want to build tasteless, gaudy McMansions. Labor costs are relatively low here, for instance. If you are satisfied with an ordinary home, and not a Walt Disney castle, a home with basic U.S. standards of electricity and plumbing, it can be done in the mid-tens of thousands, especially if (as I would recommend) you are there every day overseeing workers to make sure the job is done as you wish. Unwatched workers will sometimes skimp on the corners, and tools and materials have a tendency to walk away.
If, like me, you choose to live more like the wonderful people in this beautiful country, instead of being ostentatious about your relative wealth (even a middle-class retiree is far wealthier than most Panamanians), then you can find some lovely homes for surprisingly little money. I rented a beautiful cottage for my first year here - completely furnished and television and internet included - for $300 a month. Simple but very nice homes can be purchased for around $10,000ish, especially if you shop. By that I mean looking around personally yourself. If you go through a real estate agent, the price will be a lot higher. Your best means is word of mouth, and driving around and asking the owners.
How much does it cost to have a cell phone in Portugal?
Luis Teixeira da Silva - Algarve Senior Living
Getting a cell phone in Portugal could be free if you are on a contract or a postpaid plan. Otherwise, it could cost anything from zero to € 1,000 (US $ 1,100 or £ 740). An iPhone 6S costs around €800 (US $ 880 or £ 590) at the moment. The latest Samsung would cost you about the same amount, more or less. Cellphone service is cheap. You can get unlimited calls for just €7.50 (US $8.25 or £ 5.50) a month.
Generally,...
Getting a cell phone in Portugal could be free if you are on a contract or a postpaid plan. Otherwise, it could cost anything from zero to € 1,000 (US $ 1,100 or £ 740). An iPhone 6S costs around €800 (US $ 880 or £ 590) at the moment. The latest Samsung would cost you about the same amount, more or less. Cellphone service is cheap. You can get unlimited calls for just €7.50 (US $8.25 or £ 5.50) a month.
Generally, telecommunications is neither cheap nor expensive. You can get a full package, which includes your fixed line phone that also includes your cable TV with a couple hundred channels, a couple of mobiles for that package, and unlimited calls to European landline numbers in the evenings and weekends for around €30 (US $ 33 or £ 22) to €40 (US $ 45 or £ 30) a month. You can also add special services like unlimited calls to Europe during the day, which is great if you have business calls, for an additional €5 (US $5.50 or £ 4) a month. You can personalize the package according to your needs.
It was the middle of the Christmas High Season, when house rental prices are the highest and house rental vacancies are the lowest. (The euphemistic term for this is “Landlord’s Market.”)
My wife, Jet, our two dogs and I we were in Chetumal, about as far south as you can go and still be in Mexico.
I am so tired of seeing the words 'their,' 'there' and 'they're' misused that I thought I would put all three in the title of this post. That way, anyone who might chance on this post could at least see that each of the homonyms is spelled differently and might also deduce from the example that each has a different meaning.
Besides the purpose stated above, the title of this post refers to the reasons people I met in Panama had either settled there already or were exploring that...
While the wheels/tires are 21st century (oh, OK, 20th century), the technology behind this freight mover is thousands of years old. I found it interesting and amusing that the local hauler still uses oxen to pull heavy loads.
What I did not know is that many times, while autos and trucks couldn't pull out mired vehicles on the local roads, a team of oxen could. I guess that eight hooves are better than 4x4 drives sometimes. Slow, but...
My family is Catholic but if there is someone in our family who is thinking of converting to another religion, that is okay. They can do that. In my group of friends, we have Catholics and other religions but it doesn’t matter because in the end, we know that we worship the same God but with different names. If you are not Catholic you shouldn’t worry at all. 
The way that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) affects you if you move overseas is it may be very difficult or impossible to open a foreign bank account. 
Getting a cell phone in Portugal could be free if you are on a contract or a postpaid plan. Otherwise, it could cost anything from zero to € 1,000 (US $ 1,100 or £ 740). An iPhone 6S costs around €800 (US $ 880 or £ 590) at the moment. The latest Samsung would cost you about the same amount, more or less. Cellphone service is cheap. You can get unlimited calls for just €7.50 (US $8.25 or £ 5.50) a month. 
Here was our situation: 
I am so tired of seeing the words '
While the wheels/tires are 21st century (oh, OK, 20th century), the technology behind this freight mover is thousands of years old. I found it interesting and amusing that the local hauler still uses oxen to pull heavy loads.