Best Places In The World To Retire

Yes, you can buy furniture in Chapala and Ajijic. You can find rustic furniture here but if you are not into rustic Mexican or colonial Mexican furniture, there are furniture stores all over the village. If you go west, you will see a big new furniture store. They offer modern furniture, which is what most North Americans are more accustomed to. They have leather covered furniture. They also have metal and glass furniture if you are more into minimalistic or modern designs....

Yes, you can buy furniture in Chapala and Ajijic. You can find rustic furniture here but if you are not into rustic Mexican or colonial Mexican furniture, there are furniture stores all over the village. If you go west, you will see a big new furniture store. They offer modern furniture, which is what most North Americans are more accustomed to. They have leather covered furniture. They also have metal and glass furniture if you are more into minimalistic or modern designs. There is a decoration store in Riberas del Pilar, which is a suburb neighborhood in between Chapala and Ajijic, that has good quality furniture and many people buy from them. 

 

Or you can go to Guadalajara, which is the second largest city in Mexico and is only about an hour away from Ajijic. You can buy the furniture in Guadalajara and have it delivered to you in Chapala or Ajijic. There are garage sales here where you can buy furniture from people who are leaving Ajijic. Many times it is still good furniture.

 

With regard to prices, if you go to the rustic furniture factory, you could probably get a full living room set for only about 6,000 pesos ($330). That would include one love seat, one sofa, one chair, and probably an ottoman or a coffee table. If you go to Liverpool, which is a big, US-style department store in Guadalajara, you can get a full living room for 55,000 pesos ($3,000). Liverpool and Palacio de Hierro are the most high end stores in Guadalajara where you can buy furniture.

 

In comparison with the quality of furniture in the US, that depends on where you buy your furniture. I also had the experience of buying horrible furniture in the US. You sit on the chair and it cracks, especially the ones that ones that you assemble yourself. Prices in Mexico are very reasonable. What you pay is what you get in proportion. There are things that are very cheap but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It’s cheap compared to what? If you pay 2,000 pesos ($110) for a full living room set, it probably won’t last that long. It is pretty much “what you see is what you get.” You will see the quality yourself and there is a whole spectrum of different kinds of furniture that will be within your budget and will fulfill your needs as long as you know what you want. The price would be much less than how much it costs in the US.

 

If you want to buy furniture that was imported from the US, you can expect that it would cost even more than it costs in the US, but we have that. But if you buy something that is from Mexico but with the same quality as the ones you see in the US, they would cost much less. Handmade furniture are generally inexpensive except for the ones that have wood carvings because wood carving here in Mexico is very detailed and it takes a lot of work. If you are willing to pay 25,000 pesos ($1,400) for a headboard that is, for example, Rococo, you can get it and it would be top notch quality. If you buy the same in the US, it would cost about $4,000.

 

(Dining room. Lake Chapala, Mexico

Yes, Portugal does have retirement programs or benefits. If you are a senior in Portugal, typically over 65 years old, you are already entitled to many benefits, such as the exemption on certain medical or hospital costs or a huge reduction on co-payments. You will also get a huge reduction on gas and on public transports. Generally, if you are a senior, you get many discounts and benefits. 

 

The most important program to mention, which is similar to...

Yes, Portugal does have retirement programs or benefits. If you are a senior in Portugal, typically over 65 years old, you are already entitled to many benefits, such as the exemption on certain medical or hospital costs or a huge reduction on co-payments. You will also get a huge reduction on gas and on public transports. Generally, if you are a senior, you get many discounts and benefits. 

 

The most important program to mention, which is similar to the Pensionado Program in Central America, is the Non-Habitual Residency. A Non-Habitual Resident is a status that is granted to new residents in Portugal. It doesn’t only apply to pensioners but it is particularly good for pensioners because it exempts most pensioners or new residents in Portugal from paying income tax on their pension for a period of 10 years. If you bring your international pension into Portugal and get it paid here, then you will be exempt from paying taxes on it here. Being a Non-Habitual Resident also allows you to be exempt from a number of other sources of income such as interest and sometimes dividends, but you would need to take advice from an attorney to do that.  The Non-Habitual Resident is one of the most popular programs today.

 

Generally, if you work for the public sector then you would always pay taxes on your pension but if you have a private pension and that pension gets paid to you on a regular basis, then you are able to be exempt from taxes on your pension using a mechanism such as QROPS (Qualified Recognized Overseas Pension Scheme), which is a method that the HMRC (or her majesty’s government) allows British citizens to use to formally take their pensions and get it paid abroad. So your pension would be paid abroad, in Portugal, and that will be tax free. You will pay no tax in the UK, and you will pay no tax in Portugal.

 

I would recommend that you take advice from a tax adviser because each situation is different. But the Non-Habitual Residency Program applies to any country relative to a double tax treaty that allows the citizen of the country of origin to be taxed in the country of residence. Portugal is one of the countries with the most double tax treaties, with about 160 of them.   In Europe, the double tax treaty applies to pretty much every country except the Netherlands because the Netherlands kept a double tax treaty and the Dutch government is authorized to tax its citizens living abroad.

 

The US qualifies for the Non-Habitual Residency Program but of course the US is a little more complex for the simple reason that Americans are taxed on their worldwide income. The Non-Habitual Residency Program applies to US citizens but it is not so straightforward to lose one’s tax residency in gain it in another country. There may be a slightly more complex situation in that sense in terms of dual nationality, residency, and so on.  US citizens need to take advice from a tax adviser if they want to apply for the Non-Habitual Residency Program.

 

(Festa de Sao Joao,  the feast of Saint John, Porto, Portugal, pictured.)