Best Places In The World To Retire

The artisans here in San Miguel de Allende are amazing. You can take a picture of something you want and give it to somebody, whether it is a metal worker or a furniture maker or a tile maker. You can have something recreated very inexpensively and very quickly if you can’t find what you are looking for.

 

The upholstered furniture in Mexico is not very comfortable. However, I have friends that are in the interior design business that work for...

The artisans here in San Miguel de Allende are amazing. You can take a picture of something you want and give it to somebody, whether it is a metal worker or a furniture maker or a tile maker. You can have something recreated very inexpensively and very quickly if you can’t find what you are looking for.

 

The upholstered furniture in Mexico is not very comfortable. However, I have friends that are in the interior design business that work for individuals and they have tradesmen that manufacture the furniture for them. They get it manufactured to spec. Part of the problem with it is that the pitch, the backs are straight up. You want a slight incline for your chairs and that is something that hasn’t been figured out yet here. But if you could have somebody make it for you that is not a problem and it is very reasonable. 

 

Custom-made furniture here in San Miguel is reasonably priced. They are less expensive compared to custom-made furniture in the US. There are a number of stores where you can buy furniture here, too. Yes, you can buy pre-made furniture in San Miguel. You just have to know where to look and if you can’t find something that you want because you want something specific, you could just have it made. 

 

I had an 8-foot dining room table made that was extra wide like a country French table with a specific base that I was looking for. I also had it white washed so that it looked country French. I paid US $320 for it to be made to my specifications and it took 8 days to make. The same table would have cost me about $1,500 in the US. The artisans here in San Miguel are really great craftsmen. You just have to tell them what you want done.   They can do anything and it is astounding.

 

(Wood bedroom furiture, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

There are so many things to be happily surprised by when retiring abroad. It really is subject to the individual person. 

 

When you consider moving abroad, you're likely going to pick a place that you feel matches your personality. There's an interesting Facebook thing going around where you can answer a few questions and based on the personality questions you answered, the Facebook quiz picks the country that most closely fits your personality...

There are so many things to be happily surprised by when retiring abroad. It really is subject to the individual person. 

 

When you consider moving abroad, you're likely going to pick a place that you feel matches your personality. There's an interesting Facebook thing going around where you can answer a few questions and based on the personality questions you answered, the Facebook quiz picks the country that most closely fits your personality type. 

 

You can choose the country, the city, the kind of town, whether it's "hustle-and-bustle", the beach, or quiet mountain living. When you do the research to move abroad, you're picking a place that you think is going to make you happy. 

 

In my case, I moved to Antigua, Guatemala. It's a nice mix. There's a bunch of expats here and lots of great restaurants. The weather is always between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I've got children with asthma, so the weather and avoidance of cold weather was really an important criterion for me. 

 

You get to choose the kind of speed, climate, activity level, and type of people in the community. This is the number one advantage that I can think of being an expat. 

 

The second happy surprise is that, in most places in the world outside of the US, you're going to have a much more affordable lifestyle. This is a big concern, not only for retirees, but also for younger people who are building businesses and want a longer runway on the money that they have at their disposal to put towards their business while they're saving on living costs. The cost of living differential between the US and wherever you may be living is an important factor. 

 

Third is the change of pace. There may be a language and cultural difference. When you move abroad, you're exposed to things that are different, which are intellectually and emotionally stimulating.  

 

(Expats in Antigua, Guatemala, pictured.)

Here in Bocas Del Toro, if you show respect to the local people, they will show respect back to you. Respect is a big thing here in Bocas. Just by shaking their hands, whether the person is male or female, or kissing somebody that you know on the cheek, is a big custom here in Bocas. Whether it is a local or an expat, you would see them kiss each other on the cheek if they are females and for guys, they shake hands and say hello.

 

If you treat the locals...

Here in Bocas Del Toro, if you show respect to the local people, they will show respect back to you. Respect is a big thing here in Bocas. Just by shaking their hands, whether the person is male or female, or kissing somebody that you know on the cheek, is a big custom here in Bocas. Whether it is a local or an expat, you would see them kiss each other on the cheek if they are females and for guys, they shake hands and say hello.

 

If you treat the locals with respect, you will also be treated with respect. The Panamanians do not have any resentment towards expats, except if you become an “Ugly American.”   An Ugly American is somebody who does not want to get out and investigate the culture and tells people, “This is the way we did it back in the States.”

 

Nobody wants that kind of attitude here in Bocas. Mingling with the local people has great rewards, such as learning a new culture or learning how they live. Panamanians absolutely do not have any resentment at all towards friendly expats, but there is if you have that Ugly American attitude, which does not belong here in Bocas.

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or...

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or four nationalities who were very transient. The Algarve doesn’t have quite the same transient society that I felt in Southern Florida, but certainly from a heterogeneous perspective, there are a variety of nationalities that reside in the Algarve. It’s fairly likely that your neighbors will be Portuguese, English, Dutch, or German because of the number of people from those countries who have settled in the Algarve. 

 

Most of the people who move to the Algarve would tend to be wealthy by Portuguese standards and comfortably middle class or wealthy by international standards. Most people who have made the decision to come here so they do so because they are financially able to afford to do so. This is a pensioner’s paradise.  These are people who have their pensions intact and can afford a good living in the Algarve, where you could easily live on a lot less than you would if you were living in London, New York, Stockholm, Helsinki or Paris. And so, what we find is that people here who come from abroad and in particular the pensioners have a much higher quality of life and spending power, than the average across Portugal and from whence they came.  

 

(Jose Mourinho, Portuguese football manager, pictured.)