Best Places In The World To Retire

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.)

The prices of homes, condos and lots in San Juan del Sur vary according to location and proximity to the beaches. Some lots with great ocean views can be a low as US $50,000 and spectacular homes can be as much as $1,000,000

 

SJDS has just about every kind of property for any budget. There are many developments both north and south of town that offer homes, lots and condos, as well as the Tola area. Buying property in Nicaragua is very easy with simple title. I...

The prices of homes, condos and lots in San Juan del Sur vary according to location and proximity to the beaches. Some lots with great ocean views can be a low as US $50,000 and spectacular homes can be as much as $1,000,000

 

SJDS has just about every kind of property for any budget. There are many developments both north and south of town that offer homes, lots and condos, as well as the Tola area. Buying property in Nicaragua is very easy with simple title. I suggest that all buyers use a reputable and internationally recognized realtor for all transactions.

The amount you will spend on food here in Portugal would depend on for how many people you are buying. The cost for a couple with one son would average about $100 to $300 a week.
 
Sometimes I don’t have lunch at home but we’ll have dinner and sometimes I have a big lunch and I don’t eat dinner, for the cost for us really varies. Going to the supermarket, I spend an average of about €60 (US$ 65 or £43) a week. Then I’ll go to the fruit and...

The amount you will spend on food here in Portugal would depend on for how many people you are buying. The cost for a couple with one son would average about $100 to $300 a week.
 
Sometimes I don’t have lunch at home but we’ll have dinner and sometimes I have a big lunch and I don’t eat dinner, for the cost for us really varies. Going to the supermarket, I spend an average of about €60 (US$ 65 or £43) a week. Then I’ll go to the fruit and vegetable market, the butcher, the fish market and spend another €50 (US $54 or £36). The cost of food in Portugal is about a quarter less than in England. 
 
To cite some examples, a whole chicken is about €5 (US $5.42 or £3.60). A sliced loaf of white bread costs €70 cents (US $76 or £50). I buy whole wheat bread that is uncut from the bakery that costs me about €1.50 (US $1.62 or £1.08).
 
The cost of food in the markets in Portugal really varies. I cannot report the exact costs because I am not a supermarket person. I go to the supermarket once a month to buy cleaning product and canned foods. That’s about it. I don’t buy any food from the supermarket. There is a street market close to where I live here in Portugal and every Saturday and Sunday, I go there to buy my vegetables. I buy eggs from free-range chickens from a lady who sells them. I buy all the meat from the butchers and I buy fish from the fish market. The reason why I don’t buy fresh produce from the supermarket is because they don’t taste the same. Most of them come from Spain so they have travelled for days and have been refrigerated. When I put it on the table, it lacks flavor.
 
It’s like in England. In England, the food is appalling because there is no flavor. When I eat potatoes here in Portugal, they do taste like potatoes. When I go to England, the potatoes don’t taste like anything. Same thing with tomatoes. The tomatoes in Portugal taste and smell like tomatoes but in England don’t taste nor smell like tomatoes. The reason why I like buying from the street market instead of the supermarket is because the food that they sell in the street market comes directly from the producers or farms. That is commonly done in Portugal. The way that I buy is not unusual at all in Portugal. A lot of people buy from the street markets here in Portugal because people like the flavor of food. People who appreciate good flavor in foods go to the street markets. Those people who like processed food or pizzas go to the supermarkets.  

At the main  hospital in Bocas del Toro, there are not many fluent English speakers.  However, I do not speak much Spanish and we recently needed a blood test. It turns out that I knew enough words in Spanish and they knew enough words in English for us to get done what we needed and pay for it! A blood test, full panel, in Bocas del Toro, Panama is $26.

 

AND WOOHOO, we now have the Floating  Doctors. a group of volunteer doctors that just...

At the main  hospital in Bocas del Toro, there are not many fluent English speakers.  However, I do not speak much Spanish and we recently needed a blood test. It turns out that I knew enough words in Spanish and they knew enough words in English for us to get done what we needed and pay for it! A blood test, full panel, in Bocas del Toro, Panama is $26.

 

AND WOOHOO, we now have the Floating  Doctors. a group of volunteer doctors that just bought property and are here to stay. They have been here a few years just renting their clinic space. They have doctors from the US who come and volunteer regularly. They came to treat the indigenous Indians especially in the outer islands but they will treat anyone in their clinics. They are fabulous and speak fluent English.