Best Places In The World To Retire

In San Miguel de Allende where I live now, the Internet is fine though it is probably a little bit slower than Internet in the US.

 

It also depend on the Internet service provider that you get. My Internet service is through TelMex (Telefonos de Mexico) and my plan is called Infinitum, which is a package that gives me unlimited internet with speeds up to 10 MBPS, unlimited phone calls, cellphone calls and satellite TV. I pay 700 pesos (about US $35) per...

In San Miguel de Allende where I live now, the Internet is fine though it is probably a little bit slower than Internet in the US.

 

It also depend on the Internet service provider that you get. My Internet service is through TelMex (Telefonos de Mexico) and my plan is called Infinitum, which is a package that gives me unlimited internet with speeds up to 10 MBPS, unlimited phone calls, cellphone calls and satellite TV. I pay 700 pesos (about US $35) per month. I occasionally experience some slowness on the Internet speeds but it’s not bad at all.

 

(Home office and artist studio, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

There are several specialty furniture stores in the Algarve. There are also furniture stores in the big malls but what you could also do in Algarve is order furniture from the northern part of Portugal, which is one of the best-known areas for the manufacture of furniture using local woods.

 

There is place in the north of Portugal called Paços de Ferreira, which is essentially the furniture capital of Portugal. Often, people who want furniture made...

There are several specialty furniture stores in the Algarve. There are also furniture stores in the big malls but what you could also do in Algarve is order furniture from the northern part of Portugal, which is one of the best-known areas for the manufacture of furniture using local woods.

 

There is place in the north of Portugal called Paços de Ferreira, which is essentially the furniture capital of Portugal. Often, people who want furniture made from certain types of woods would have pieces made to order from Paços de Ferreira and have them shipped down to the Algarve.

 

We have a good amount of quality furniture in Portugal. The quality is very good and the pricing is incredibly great compared to international standards. If I were in Latin America and getting some local hardwood made by a local person, I am pretty certain that I could get it cheaper there but if you were moving to a country and wanted local handmade furniture out of cherry or oak, you would find the price and quality very good here in Portugal.

 

If you want ready-made furniture from popular brands, we do have IKEA, which is being built near Loulé, so for all those who want a modern, Northern European look, they can go to IKEA. At the moment, the closest IKEA would be in Spain, in Seville or in Lisbon, which is the capital of Portugal. Aside from furniture, you would also find stores that sell rugs, carpets, and accessory stores. There is one accessory store that we like going to because it is high end but not excessively expensive. It’s called A Loja Gato Preto, which literally translates to “the shop of the black cat”. They have some very nice home décor pieces.

 

(Hampshire dressing table available at the Furniture Store, an English company with an outlet in the Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)

The US government feels that there are people who have left the country who have not paid the lawful taxes owed to them. That obviously does not affect me or my husband, because we do not owe taxes to the US government, but I am sure that there are people over the years who have left the US owing everything from child support to taxes. The US government wants their taxes. So in order to oversee that, you need to file a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) form and if...

The US government feels that there are people who have left the country who have not paid the lawful taxes owed to them. That obviously does not affect me or my husband, because we do not owe taxes to the US government, but I am sure that there are people over the years who have left the US owing everything from child support to taxes. The US government wants their taxes. So in order to oversee that, you need to file a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) form and if you do not do it, the bank does it for you. So if you have a bank here in Panama, the bank will fill out the FATCA form and has to turn it into the US government.

 

That has taken place as of July 15^th but it  is still not effective to this point yet. It became a law in March 2010, but has not been put in place yet. We spoke with our banker two or three weeks ago and they told us that they have filled out the form, so now the bank will know if you own a house and if there is any mortgage on it, so the US government can go after assets in another country in the event that money is owed in the United States.

 

Because of the problem with that, the expats who feel that they do not want to disclose this information to the US government can go to places other than Panama and open up accounts that do not comply with FATCA. But at this point, in Panama, they have not filled out the paperwork on our bank accounts  For people who have offshore assets, any of the countries that comply with FATCA will have to comply with United States law.

The electricity in Cayo is reliable. We do have blackouts but it only happens if there is a huge thunderstorm or if the electric company is fixing something. They would normally put out a warning if the power will be switched off for a certain period. 

 

There are a few brownouts where the power goes out without you knowing but that doesn’t happen a lot. Some people here in Cayo do have generators but not many. If someone has a generator...

The electricity in Cayo is reliable. We do have blackouts but it only happens if there is a huge thunderstorm or if the electric company is fixing something. They would normally put out a warning if the power will be switched off for a certain period. 

 

There are a few brownouts where the power goes out without you knowing but that doesn’t happen a lot. Some people here in Cayo do have generators but not many. If someone has a generator it’s because they are probably higher end or have other things to protect. I don't have a generator and none of my friends have generators. We did have some blackouts in the past, but it doesn’t happen a lot anymore.

 

(Street in Santa Elena, Cayo District, Belize, pictured