Among the top retirement spots in the world this year, you’ll find great variety in the cultural offerings, climates and lifestyles. Each destination is desirable in its own way, but they all offer something increasingly hard to come by at home: A good quality of life for a reasonable price. Among these 22 destinations, you’ll discover places where you can save tens of thousands of dollars...
It's 5.00 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Time to start thinking about winding down the work day and getting ready to crawl home in rush hour traffic, then spending a few hours at home hopefully relaxing before going to bed… and getting ready to do it all over again on Tuesday. Except I don't live that life anymore.
Getting your residence in Ecuador has a number of benefits. Within 90 days of obtaining your visa, for instance, you can ship your household goods duty-free. And if you’re 65 or older, you are entitled to all sorts of special treatment—half-price bus transportation anywhere in the country, half-price tickets to movies, plus sporting and cultural events, discounted airfare, a free land-line telephone, and refund of your 12% IVA (value-added) tax.
Imagine being able live wherever you want...or taking off on months-long vacations whenever the mood hits you. You sure can't do that with a regular 9-to-5 job. But that doesn't mean it's impossible. Copywriting allows you to live exactly this type of lifestyle...because your workplace becomes anywhere with an Internet connection. Plus, you get to answer to the best boss of all—yourself.
Just shy of 10 years ago, my wife Laurie and I fell in love with the Vilcabamba Valley, a lush gem tucked away in the Andes of Southern Ecuador. The near-perfect weather, the healthy lifestyle, the low cost of living, and the natural beauty of the valley all contributed to our decision to settle there. And those things have lived up to our expectations.
Many expats living here are thrilled when they experience significant weight loss and overall improvement in their health. Two friends of mine, David Akins and his wife Karen, relocated to Cuenca, a lovely colonial city sitting at 8,400 feet altitude in Ecuador's southern highlands, a year and a half ago.
My young guide in Quito put it well: "There really is no excuse not to buy your girlfriend roses when they cost so little..." In the Cuenca flower market, for example, roses are $1 a dozen—a fresh bouquet will be made for you, while you wait. In Quito, in the lobby of the J.W. Marriott, an enormous bouquet that must include at least eight dozen perfectly-matched white roses beautifully dominates the lobby.
Every time you turn around, another travel piece appears about Ecuador’s capital city, Quito. Mainstream travel writers, it seems, are just now discovering what we’ve known for years…that the city is a worthy destination that blends new and old in alluring ways. It doesn’t hurt that Quito is one of the world’s most affordable cities, where you can still take a taxi anywhere in town for $1 to $5 and find a menú del día…usually a four-course meal of soup, salad, meat/rice/vegetables, dessert, and beverage…for $1.50 to $2.50.
It was November 1, 2001, and we had jettisoned our previous lives to begin anew in Quito, Ecuador. Just as the thick fog that wrapped its arms around us that night, the future felt fresh and full of possibility. Our Ecuadorian friends greeted us with cheers and hugs and loaded us up for the short ride to the home we'd rented for the coming year.
IL correspondents sometimes share their monthly budgets to help readers get a feel for the ongoing costs of living abroad. Items such as rent, utilities, and food are self-explanatory, but what about that nebulous "entertainment" category? Expenditures can vary wildly from person to person depending on individual interests and taste.