The How of the Why and Where

The How of making this move has many components.  How did we decide on Panama, how are we going to live once we are there, how are we going to get there, how are we going to move our stuff and our dogs, how are we going to stay out of legal issues when we don't know the customs or laws?

 We may be adventurous, but we are decidedly somewhat risk averse as well.  What does that mean... exactly?  Research, research, research!  Ya can't plan for every contingency, but one can have a pretty good idea of the both the upsides and the downsides of any decision.  And that is what we did…lotsa research!

Exploring Bocas Del Toro

Our approach involved a great deal of data gathering and wine drinking.  We researched by country and then by the possible province or city we might choose to live in.  Since we can't remember what we even had for breakfast by 5P most days, I created a spreadsheet with column headers that contained the key elements we felt were either 'need to have' or 'nice to have' for our desired living situation.  For example, we determined 'need' as good quality healthcare, low overall cost of daily living (within my social security rate) and outdoor activities.  Under 'nice' was to live on the beach, ability to grow our own vegetables and buy decent wine.  

Who is researching whom?

Within each column header, we ranked our findings.  For healthcare it was by accessibility, affordability, quality...not necessarily in that order.   For shelter we ranked by average monthly rent and current purchase or build costs.  We plotted costs for utilities, food, transportation, clothing, travel and entertainment.  We looked at visa programs and which countries rolled out the red carpet to attract retirees.

 When all of that was gathered and analyzed over several bottles of Opolo, we had our bucket list!

Mexico, Panama and Ecuador where the top three.  You already know the result.  As we had done a significant amount of travel, ruling out many of the other possible locations that looked to be a fit on paper was not difficult.  An important reality we pass along to our readers is DO NOT BELIEVE MUCH OF WHAT YOU READ with any free or paid publications about retiring or living overseas. Much of it is bunk or does not apply to your specific interest or situation. 

 GO THERE with an eye for daily living and not as a tourist.  Instead of spending the entire time on leisure activities, we took time to prowl local stores, visit the major hospital facilities, drive through neighborhoods and search out local eateries.  We attended local festivals, chatted up long time retiree residents, watched local new casts in Spanish (and used Google translate to figure it all out) and noted municipal services or lack there-of.

 We met many that took diverse paths to arrive at Panama.  Some with nothing more than liking the pictures in International Living, selling everything that didn't fit into two suitcases and landing sight unseen.  Others began with a bucket list of possible locations and found them to all be disappointing including Panama. We have heard about expats that lived in Panama for a short while only to leave because Panama wasn’t the “cheaper version of life in America” that they expected.   And things do change.  Recently we understand that a notable quantity of long time expats are leaving Panama for Medellin.  Yup.  Added that to our list just in case.

 

Chatting up expats at the Boquete Farmer's Market

Eventually, I will post the blog from our Mexico travels.   It was a really good expedition and we thought we would be moving there...until we went to Panama!  I will say again...no place is perfect, but Panama is more perfect for us than Mexico.  In hindsight, glad we made this decision, wall or no wall.

No resisting this face! Had me at 'hello'.