Best Places In The World To Retire

The cost to build a simple home of 1,000-1,500 square feet with 1-2 stories in Los Cabos is $100 per square foot. This does not include costs to level the lot and other expenses. This is the usual rate for normal sized houses in Los Cabos. If you have a lot of marble, granite, expensive bathroom fixtures and high end kitchen items, then that would be double the cost.
 
As opposed to the costs of building a simple home in Los Cabos, construction in British Columbia would cost...

The cost to build a simple home of 1,000-1,500 square feet with 1-2 stories in Los Cabos is $100 per square foot. This does not include costs to level the lot and other expenses. This is the usual rate for normal sized houses in Los Cabos. If you have a lot of marble, granite, expensive bathroom fixtures and high end kitchen items, then that would be double the cost.
 
As opposed to the costs of building a simple home in Los Cabos, construction in British Columbia would cost around $120 per square foot. The difference is we don’t need huge heating appliances in Mexico as we do in Canada. In conclusion, the cost to build a house in Los Cabos and La Paz is about 20% less than what it would cost in British Columbia. 

 

 

 

(Tiled bathroom, East Cape, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)

For domestic flights out of the Cayo District, we have Maya Flights airstrip, located a couple of miles from the town of San Ignacio towards the border. There are daily flights. I'm not sure what time they are but there are daily flights to Belize City and to other parts of Belize.
 
There is another domestic airport in Belmopan City, the capital city of Belize, which is only 30 minutes from San Ignacio. That's for domestic flights as well.
 
The only international...

For domestic flights out of the Cayo District, we have Maya Flights airstrip, located a couple of miles from the town of San Ignacio towards the border. There are daily flights. I'm not sure what time they are but there are daily flights to Belize City and to other parts of Belize.
 
There is another domestic airport in Belmopan City, the capital city of Belize, which is only 30 minutes from San Ignacio. That's for domestic flights as well.
 
The only international airport is an hour and 30 minutes from San Ignacio, and is located in Belize City.

 

(Logo for Maya Island Air, which serves eleven destinations in Belize, pictured.)

(Casco Viejo and Casco Antiguo are different names for the same place.)
 
Casco Antiguo started in 1672, if memory serves me correctly.  We still have two buildings dating back to the middle of the 1700s.  The reason there aren’t more is that there were a couple of major fires in Casco Antigo, and, originally, most of the buildings were wooden.
 
Later, you see buildings influenced by the French, with different types of materials, what we call...

(Casco Viejo and Casco Antiguo are different names for the same place.)
 
Casco Antiguo started in 1672, if memory serves me correctly.  We still have two buildings dating back to the middle of the 1700s.  The reason there aren’t more is that there were a couple of major fires in Casco Antigo, and, originally, most of the buildings were wooden.
 
Later, you see buildings influenced by the French, with different types of materials, what we call “caletanto”, which is rock and bricks, so that kind of put a new perspective.  The French added the grilled balconies, the roofs.  Then we had sort of a neo-classic era, with the marble, art deco type buildings, a nice variety.
 
Casco Viejo was a thriving place up until about the 1930s.  Then, many of the economically affluent people who lived in Casco Viejo started to move out towards what could be called the suburbs.  As a result, many of the buildings were put up for rent.  When the dictatorship came to Panama, in order to help the poor, they froze rents in the early 1970s, which caused the owners to give up on the buildings and not take care of them, so the squatters moved in.
 
Then, in 1996, Panama passed a law to give property tax and other incentives to investors to restore the buildings in Casco Viejo.  This started the turnaround, but it’s been a slow process.  Not everybody had the vision or the patience to undertake such a task, but as people saw more of the buildings being restored and looking beautiful, that has helped the process, but it’s been a slow process.
 
In Casco today, you see a mix of extremely beautiful, restored, very nice places, with other places that have yet to be restored.  Roughly 20% of Casco Antiguo has been renovated.

The cost of restaurants in Nicaragua vary a lot depending on what kind of food you are eating, where it's located, and other things. 

 

We have every kind of restaurant, for example, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, Italian, German, Spanish, Cuban, Vegan, and Mediterranean.  We also have restaurants that serve steaks, seafood, and fast food.  And last but definitely not least, we have Nicaraguan food, which I can personally say is amaaazing! (I...

The cost of restaurants in Nicaragua vary a lot depending on what kind of food you are eating, where it's located, and other things. 

 

We have every kind of restaurant, for example, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, Italian, German, Spanish, Cuban, Vegan, and Mediterranean.  We also have restaurants that serve steaks, seafood, and fast food.  And last but definitely not least, we have Nicaraguan food, which I can personally say is amaaazing! (I am not biased).

 

The price range of restaurants in Nicaragua are as follows:

Don't let the prices fool you though, because some of the lesser priced places may be really affordable but can be some of the best food you'll ever taste, and some of food in the very fancy places you may not like. The good thing is we have a lot of variety. 

Living entirely abroad is something I never heard anybody say that they regret. It's just a life changing experience, and a completely different perspective of the world than vacationing in different countries.
 
US citizen going abroad tend to realize how much better life can be, compared to what we're used to and what the norm is for American life. We are taught that America is the greatest country in the world. It is not necessarily true that America has the greatest in...

Living entirely abroad is something I never heard anybody say that they regret. It's just a life changing experience, and a completely different perspective of the world than vacationing in different countries.
 
US citizen going abroad tend to realize how much better life can be, compared to what we're used to and what the norm is for American life. We are taught that America is the greatest country in the world. It is not necessarily true that America has the greatest in everything, as you would believe by looking at the numbers and the data. This becomes apparent when you're actually living in a different country. You start to realize that there's a more optimal work - life balance. Things overseas many times don't go at the fast pace that they do in America. Living abroad is a good opportunity to slow down and enjoy life without being in a rat race and around that type of energy.
 
It doesn't matter where you go. If you go to Switzerland or Nicaragua or Mexico, or any other country, you'll find differences with America. A lot of these differences are positive.  Not all of them, but overall I think it's definitely a positive change and the good thing about going abroad is that you can always come back if you want. You can go for a few years or a few months. You can go back and forth from the US. You don't have to stay in any one place forever.
 

I used to work in real estate, but I have moved to just rentals, and most of the relocation I do are semi-temporary. They can be anywhere from a few months to a few years. I honestly think that is the best way to go these days.

 

(Pictured: Kristin Wilson and local Nicaraguan kids.)