Best Places In The World To Retire

The Market in Santa Elena / Cayo and Belmopan are two of the largest markets we have in Belize, with a wide range of products to offer to customers at a very affordable price. They even have vendors selling clothes, animals and food. In Santa Elena / Cayo the Market is right up as you enter the town on a small wooden bridge on the left hand side. In Belmopan the market is right next to the bus terminal on the left hand side as well.
 
 The busiest day for the market is...

The Market in Santa Elena / Cayo and Belmopan are two of the largest markets we have in Belize, with a wide range of products to offer to customers at a very affordable price. They even have vendors selling clothes, animals and food. In Santa Elena / Cayo the Market is right up as you enter the town on a small wooden bridge on the left hand side. In Belmopan the market is right next to the bus terminal on the left hand side as well.
 
 The busiest day for the market is Thursday and Friday. On those days it is always clustered and pretty hard to get around.
 
It is best to buy at a market to me because you get a larger quantity of produce. When it comes to vegetables and fruits for the dollar and also for other products you can get them at a better price.
 
The working hours for the market when it should be up and fully functional are around eight o’clock AM to five thirty PM. It is a really nice experience to visit the markets here in Belize.
 
(Squash, tomatoes and peppers at a farmer's market, Cayo District, Belize, pictured.)

The dress code in San Juan Del Sur is extremely casual. It is sunny all year. We have rainy season but even when it rains, it is still hot. The coldest that it ever got here was 18 degrees Celsius or around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is always hot so you will not see anybody wearing a suit here in San Juan Del Sur. I like to wear pants at night when I go out to dinners but during the day, I always wear shorts and sandals and that is pretty much what everyone else wears, even...

The dress code in San Juan Del Sur is extremely casual. It is sunny all year. We have rainy season but even when it rains, it is still hot. The coldest that it ever got here was 18 degrees Celsius or around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is always hot so you will not see anybody wearing a suit here in San Juan Del Sur. I like to wear pants at night when I go out to dinners but during the day, I always wear shorts and sandals and that is pretty much what everyone else wears, even the Nicaraguans. If they are working in construction, then they wear pants. Even women are casual; they wear shorts, miniskirts, and sandals.

I even conduct business wearing shorts and sandals and my clients wear shorts and sandals during our meetings. There is no dress code even in the banks or government offices. I only wear pants, a short-sleeved polo shirt, and closed shoes if I will go to a formal meeting. Women dress up a bit as well during formal meetings. They wear dress pants, blouses, or dresses.

There is no place that will not accommodate you if you are not dressed to a certain standard. There may be some that will not let you in if you are wet and full of sand from the ocean but even some restaurants do, especially the restaurants that are near the beach.

We do not experience hurricanes here in Boquete. Never in the history of Panama has there been a hurricane or a tsunami. Theoretically, we do have a dormant volcano just right up the road. The last time it went off was 550 years ago. If they can trace back the pattern in time, that volcano goes off every about 500 years so it is probably due. The government has all kinds of seismic equipment to monitor the volcano’s activity so I am pretty sure that we will have ample warning in...

We do not experience hurricanes here in Boquete. Never in the history of Panama has there been a hurricane or a tsunami. Theoretically, we do have a dormant volcano just right up the road. The last time it went off was 550 years ago. If they can trace back the pattern in time, that volcano goes off every about 500 years so it is probably due. The government has all kinds of seismic equipment to monitor the volcano’s activity so I am pretty sure that we will have ample warning in case that volcano erupts.
 
There has not been a flood in Boquete in the last three years but in the three years before that, there had been at least one big flood every year. The region has put in a lot of money to build up the sides of the riverbanks and individual property owners have put in a lot of flood control like run-off ditches on their own properties. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we would not have another big flood. It was kind of funny because when he had the first big flood, the residents here said, “Oh, this is the hundred year flood. It only comes every one hundred years.” Well, around the same month of the following year, we had another one! And when we had the third flood, they just quit justifying that it only comes every hundred years. Thankfully, we haven’t experienced another one in the last three years. The flood control equipment in the river has not even been tested yet because the water has not risen up to the height that they built it up to.
 
We have a big river that runs in the middle of Boquete called the Caldera River. Aside from that, we have tons of little rivers, too. We are in a bowl. Hills and mountains surround Boquete and it rains a lot so the water comes down into these drainage ditches and they can flood. Many people live high up the hill but people who live at the bottom of the hill might get flooded in their houses. People are aware of the places that can be flooded and are careful in buying houses in these areas or they set up run-offs in their properties. I have three run-offs on my driveway that lead back into the quebradas (drainage ditch) on the other side of my house.
 
We do experience earthquakes although, in the history of Panama, I do not think anybody has died in an earthquake. A lot houses have cracks on them. Most earthquakes originate off the coast of Costa Rica on the Pacific Ocean. We have not had any major earthquakes where buildings came down. There were some earthquakes where you will just wake up at night and you will hear the dishes rattling but they do not fall of the shelf so it is not a big deal.
 
We also have brush fires here in Panama but they are set off purposely. The Panamanian farmers burn their fields. They often times burn them in the dry season. Sometimes the fire gets away from them and it roars up the canyon and the bomberos (firemen) have to come and shoot water on the fire. Some fires start in the canyon because people farm everywhere. People who live in the canyons may be concerned about these fires but definitely, their houses are not going to burn because they were built from cement and the roof is usually tile and metal. Most of the buildings here in Panama are made of cement, except for the old buildings, so there is not much fire hazard. Most people do not build out of wood because of the termites.
 

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion has been increased to $102,100 for 2017, so a married couple filing jointly can deduct up to $204,200. 

 

The excluded amount cannot exceed your earned income for that year, so if you earn $50,000, that is the maximum you are able to deduct. Also, the amount is not "portable" between husband and wife, even filing jointly. So if one spouse makes $500,000 and the other one makes $50,000, they will...

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion has been increased to $102,100 for 2017, so a married couple filing jointly can deduct up to $204,200. 

 

The excluded amount cannot exceed your earned income for that year, so if you earn $50,000, that is the maximum you are able to deduct. Also, the amount is not "portable" between husband and wife, even filing jointly. So if one spouse makes $500,000 and the other one makes $50,000, they will only be able to deduct $152,100 in 2017 (full exclusion for the highest earner, capped exclusion of $50,000 for the lower earner).