To live the big city life for less and enjoy a world-class retirement look no farther than the San Francisco neighborhood of Panama City. I chose to live in San Francisco because of its walkability, its amenities, and just how close it is to the kind of action that makes for a great city life...and from gourmet delis to evenings at the opera, I enjoyed every minute.
This year, Panama holds the number one spot in International Living’s Annual Global Retirement Index. Being a retiree in Panama myself, I agree that it’s a great place to retire. The word for retirees in Spanish is “jubilados.” I’ve always loved that, because to me it sounds like “jubilant” and shouldn’t we all be jubilantly happy in our old age? In Panama, jubilados are treated with respect and receive special benefits due to their elder status.
In 2005, I left my job in the cruise industry and decided to try my luck in Panama. I had a wonderful group of international friends—some from the Americas, and others from as far off as Australia. And I told them all to come visit me in Panama sometime. To my surprise, many of us actually did keep in touch and visit each other. I remember a girl from Venezuela asking me how come there were so many U.S. products on the shelves here.
When my husband, Al, and I left the U.S. nearly 10 years ago I had no idea I would make my home in Panama. We set sail from southwest Florida to navigate the Caribbean Sea and study the Maya culture in person. With our boat secure at a marina in Isla Mujeres, we explored eastern Mexico for six months, then sailed to Belize and on to Guatemala. In the Rio Dulce we found a community of boaters that embraced us, and a marina to call home for the next three years.
I've booked my flight to Las Vegas for the Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas Conference in October. I'm looking forward to chatting with attendees, along with my compañera Jessica Ramesch, about life in Panama.
It was sports that first brought Jim to Panama in 2004. “I lived in Boston and was running a sports-marketing company for American football. I handled recreational events, tournaments, leagues, and celebrity events. “While coaching a start-up flag-football team here, I first met my wife Priscilla. We went back to the U.S. and worked together in sports marketing, but when we decided to start a family in 2009, we returned to Panama and made our new home in Las Tablas. We wanted to be near Priscilla’s family.”
When 52-year-old Michael Druillard first set foot on Panamanian soil, this sunny, Central American country won his heart. It was the perfect country for his needs. Besides the warm climate, it has a stable government, a low cost of living, and varied employment opportunities. Now his life in the warm beach town of Coronado is a world away from shovelling snow in his native Canada.
As International Living's Panama Editor, I travel several times a year to speak at conferences. Often the image people have is of a country with pretty beaches, plenty of palm trees...and not much else. One of the questions I get most is: "Will I be bored there?" If you're expecting to take it easy and have a quiet retirement, you may want to think again. Bluntly speaking, it's nearly impossible to be bored or even inactive here.
"Won't you miss your family and friends if you move overseas?" That's a question we at IL get asked a lot, and the answer is... "Of course you will." It's something my husband Dan and I have experience of. We didn't think about it too much when we moved to Ecuador back in 2001. With the exception of Dan's mother, none of our family—my parents and our siblings—lived in the same city as we did.
What makes for a happy expat? This is something I think about often, because honestly...not everyone is cut out for the expat life. The rewards are tremendous and it's a wonderful, life-changing experience, but there are challenges—and most are easy to get beyond. From my experience (and I've been an expat for 13 years now), those who thrive living overseas are those who are well prepared ahead of time. They've done lots of research and they know what they're getting into. Overall, they have positive, optimistic perspectives about most everything...