Best Places In The World To Retire

Probably 40% of the population of San Miguel de Allende are expats. When we first got here, we had the window of our car rolled down and we noticed that people were talking in English. We went down a little further and there were some more people speaking in English.

 

95% of the people who come to my restaurant here in San Miguel are either Americans or Canadians who live here. There are also Europeans, Chinese, and a whole bunch of other nationalities.

Probably 40% of the population of San Miguel de Allende are expats. When we first got here, we had the window of our car rolled down and we noticed that people were talking in English. We went down a little further and there were some more people speaking in English.

 

95% of the people who come to my restaurant here in San Miguel are either Americans or Canadians who live here. There are also Europeans, Chinese, and a whole bunch of other nationalities.

 

I was building the restaurant and some guy walked in and said, “I can’t wait for you to open it because I’ll be one of your clients. Now I am retired.” 

 

I asked him what he used to do.  “I was the one who set up the bands for the Rolling Stones.”

 

You will never know who comes here. Johnny Depp pops in here. He has houses here, too. There is even a well known US government official who lives here.  There was a woman at my restaurant recently who used to sing on Broadway for 25 years.

 

San Miguel is an interesting place to be. If you’re visiting, you’ll never know what is behind a door, and if you own a business, you’ll never know who’s going to come in your door.

 

We were sitting on the terrace recently having coffee and somebody said, “Hey look at this guy. He was in the band Santana.” Also just recently, the producer of Santana came to my restaurant to check it out. There is a lot of big names that come to San Miguel.

 

(Johnny Depp [on the far left] in the movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico shot in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

In order to work legally in Nicaragua, you have to be a legal resident.  Within reason, I am not aware of any restrictions on what jobs you can have based on you being a foreigner.

In order to work legally in Nicaragua, you have to be a legal resident.  Within reason, I am not aware of any restrictions on what jobs you can have based on you being a foreigner.

The Algarve has hardly any blackouts or brownouts. We have a very, very reliable power source.   In a typical year, we will have zero blackouts or brownouts. 

 

(Night lights at the pool and restaurant at Algarve Senior Living, Portugal, pictured.)

The Algarve has hardly any blackouts or brownouts. We have a very, very reliable power source.   In a typical year, we will have zero blackouts or brownouts. 

 

(Night lights at the pool and restaurant at Algarve Senior Living, Portugal, pictured.)

Belize has its corruption just like any other country but the law of Belize is based on English law. If you decide to purchase land it is fee simple just like in the states and you still need to use a surveyor and a lawyer. 

 

The old joke about investing here is, “If you want to be a millionaire in Belize, you better bring $2 million because you are going to lose half of it.” While that is true it is only because people are not realistic...

Belize has its corruption just like any other country but the law of Belize is based on English law. If you decide to purchase land it is fee simple just like in the states and you still need to use a surveyor and a lawyer. 

 

The old joke about investing here is, “If you want to be a millionaire in Belize, you better bring $2 million because you are going to lose half of it.” While that is true it is only because people are not realistic about their goals for making money in Belize.

 

You can make money in Belize, but it takes the same business skills as it does in any other country and maybe a little more. This is not the gold rush and more than likely you are not going to strike it rich but you can make a nice living if you find the right niche and meet the needs of the people.

 

(The Belizean scales of justice based on British Commmon law with the pans as hammocks as depicted by Jet Metier for the Best Places in the World to Retire upcoming ebook on Belize, pictured.)

One of the things to be concerned about when retiring overseas is when you have a lot of immediate and extended family who are still in the United States and if you spend a lot of time with your family, moving abroad will make the family interaction a lot more difficult. 

 

There is a lot more technology nowadays such as Skype or getting on a plane, depending on where you are, is always a possibility. However, the actual physical meetings with family...

One of the things to be concerned about when retiring overseas is when you have a lot of immediate and extended family who are still in the United States and if you spend a lot of time with your family, moving abroad will make the family interaction a lot more difficult. 

 

There is a lot more technology nowadays such as Skype or getting on a plane, depending on where you are, is always a possibility. However, the actual physical meetings with family members are a lot more difficult when you live abroad. They can come visit you or you can go visit them, but the frequency with which you can interact with family members does take a hit when you move abroad. 

 

The second thing to be concerned about when moving abroad is that without a lot of planning, the initial transition itself could be quite difficult. If you're not an open-minded person, moving abroad could be quite difficult because of language barriers. Also, the different types and levels of infrastructure could vary among countries. You may not have the comfort level you may have had in the US wherever you're going. You have to build a new community of friends who you're going to interact with locally, which you're going to have to build from scratch.

 

The third concern has to deal with all the start-up necessities of not only moving homes, but moving to an entire different country where you have different systematic issues that you must deal with.