Best Places In The World To Retire

The weather in San Miguel de Allende very much reminds me of the weather in San Diego, California.
 
The mornings and evenings might be cool, but daytime is bright and sunny. Not too many cloudy days.  In the rainy season, there are thunderstorms and showers almost daily, but they usually don't last very long.
 
The climate is generally dry here, but the rain brings some humidity that will make the environment seem warmer. Mostly, the temperature stays somewhere...

The weather in San Miguel de Allende very much reminds me of the weather in San Diego, California.
 
The mornings and evenings might be cool, but daytime is bright and sunny. Not too many cloudy days.  In the rainy season, there are thunderstorms and showers almost daily, but they usually don't last very long.
 
The climate is generally dry here, but the rain brings some humidity that will make the environment seem warmer. Mostly, the temperature stays somewhere in the 80's in the daytime. Air-conditioning in the home is not really necessary; a fan will do. January is the coldest month but not a challenge. Warmer clothes and a portable heater are usually good enough, or a cozy fire in the fireplace.   

 

( Balcony in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

Non-residents can obtain financing for the purchase of homes in Belize. The terms and interest rates will vary from one institution to the next ranging from 8% to 15%. Atlantic International Bank offers financing for non-residents where a client is required to open a US dollar account and collateral must be located in Belize or cash secured. They will finance up to 60% and the borrower will have to put 40% down. They have a relatively low interest rate of 9.75% and a loan can be amortized...

Non-residents can obtain financing for the purchase of homes in Belize. The terms and interest rates will vary from one institution to the next ranging from 8% to 15%. Atlantic International Bank offers financing for non-residents where a client is required to open a US dollar account and collateral must be located in Belize or cash secured. They will finance up to 60% and the borrower will have to put 40% down. They have a relatively low interest rate of 9.75% and a loan can be amortized up to 15 years with balloon payments. The interest is usually calculated on the reducing balance and the loan has to be re-paid in US dollars as well.

The best reason to retire abroad is to save money and be able to live within your means. Most of our retirees are maybe not on a livable income if they stayed in the US because of the various problems in the American system and Social Security or it could be the economic collapse affecting people's investments or 401K’s. There are a lot of different factors that can result in people not having as much money as they planned when they were saving for retirement.
 
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The best reason to retire abroad is to save money and be able to live within your means. Most of our retirees are maybe not on a livable income if they stayed in the US because of the various problems in the American system and Social Security or it could be the economic collapse affecting people's investments or 401K’s. There are a lot of different factors that can result in people not having as much money as they planned when they were saving for retirement.
 
You can live on a much lower income while maintaining the same quality of life if you move abroad, especially if you're going to a developing country like those in Latin America. You can maintain your lifestyle with less money. You can still have access to quality healthcare, food and properties and everything you need to live, but just at a lower cost. I would say that's a very simple and basic math, but that's what it is.
 
The second best reason to move abroad would be to have a new adventure.  I was very fortunate to be able to this, but I didn't plan to go abroad at the beginning. I just turned 33 recently, so I have spent almost half of my life abroad now.
 
I didn't ever plan it that way. I was just a normal girl in America with a brother and a sister. My parents are still together. I went to high school, I went to college, and then I went to graduate school. I did everything that I was supposed to do in America. Then I started studying abroad in college. The reason I went abroad was because I got a scholarship through the Rotary Foundation in 2002. I didn't even pick where I went. They sent me to Costa Rica. They said, “You're going to Costa Rica and you're going to learn Spanish." I was terrified. I thought, “How am I going to survive these 3 months?”  Those 3 months have turned in to the rest of my life; just falling in love with travel and living in different countries, learning languages and having adventure that nobody ever told me I could do or should do.
 
Before I moved abroad full time in 2005, I asked everybody for their opinion as to if I should do it. I asked my parents. I asked my friends. I asked my peers. I asked my MBA class. Everybody who was my age told me I was crazy. I should take a job in Lockheed Martin or one of the big corporations that were in Orlando, where I was living at the time. They said moving abroad would ruin my resume. Everybody my age was kind of fear mongering. 
 
On the contrary, all of my parent's friends, my grandparents, and any of the elders in my life told me that they wished that they had done something like moving abroad when they were my age. So I decided to take the advice of everybody who was older than me because they probably know more about what life is about than the 20 something year olds in my classes.  So I went, and thank God I did.
 
I now notice that my clients who are retirees did everything right, according to the rules.  They got a job, they got a house, they had kids, they had a dog, and didn’t have time to do anything outside of that. So they were really just starting their adventures at the time of their retirement, as opposed to me.  I kind of eschewed and skipped the normal life I was supposed to have early. 
 
So the second best reason to live abroad is to get out of your comfort zone and have an adventure, to do something different.  I think a lot of people regretted not doing that sooner. I was able to see both perspectives. Now, all of my friends are still working at Procter & Gamble and all of these big companies, and my life is completely different than theirs.  I'm definitely glad that I took this tac. I get a lot of support from my clients and people who are older, who agree with me. Maybe my friends will change their perspective once they get older. They're still pretty young. They're in their thirties and they haven't gotten the larger perspective.  Maybe they will become my clients, 20-30 years from now, once they go abroad to do something different.

Buses have the whole country of Nicaragua covered.  A bus will go to a town that I cannot imagine how it gets there.  The buses are used for transporting materials from city to city also.  We, for example, ship cheese from Matagalpa, in an iced box, to Leon (a three hour drive).  We pay the driver, he takes the box from my car, puts it on a seat in his bus, and my customer picks up his cheese order in Leon.  In this way we have also shipped cut flowers...

Buses have the whole country of Nicaragua covered.  A bus will go to a town that I cannot imagine how it gets there.  The buses are used for transporting materials from city to city also.  We, for example, ship cheese from Matagalpa, in an iced box, to Leon (a three hour drive).  We pay the driver, he takes the box from my car, puts it on a seat in his bus, and my customer picks up his cheese order in Leon.  In this way we have also shipped cut flowers throughout Nicaragua.  Quite amazing, really.