We Love Adventure!
I told you in one of my first blogs that when we retired, we weren’t looking for a place to spend the rest of our lives. We may get to that chapter someday, but not right now. We have been retired for 4 years and 5 months. And during that time, we have lived in 5 countries and visited one more. All of them are in Latin America, mostly because it was closer to Texas. We hoped to have more visitors because it was easier to get here than somewhere across an ocean. But we hope to eventually visit and perhaps live in other countries also.
Here is our list so far:
- Roatan, Honduras — 3 1/2 months
- Boquete, Panama — 17 months
- Peru (visit) — almost 4 weeks
- Cuenca, Ecuador — 3 months
- Boquete, Panama — 2 more weeks
- San Jose, Costa Rica — 1 month
- USA visit — 2 months
- Medellin, Colombia — 2 years
Why Did I Share This List?
I shared this list to show you that as retirees, you don’t have to immediately find one place to live. Almost every country has a tourist visa with a set time you can stay without having to establish residency. Most allow you to stay at least 3 months on your passport alone. There are at least 10 countries in Latin America that are worth at least a short visit. At 3 months each, it will take you 2 1/2 years to visit them all. And to me, that sounds like a great plan.
Last year, I wrote a 4,000+ word blog post about 10 countries to consider in Latin America. If you’re interested, you can read it here.
Here are some of the benefits of a plan like this:
- You don’t have to worry about shipping your household goods.
- You don’t have to sell your home — just rent it out for a while.
- Pack a couple of suitcases and a carry-on.
- You can learn so much more about a place in 3 months than the 10-day vacations you took during your “working chapter”.
- You don’t need to make any financial commitments.
- You don’t need to move your bank accounts.
- Since you aren’t going to purchase a new residence, you don’t need to pull the money out of your current home.
- There are “mail-forwarding” companies that will receive, open, scan, and email all of your mail to you wherever you are (we have used Texas Home Base in Wichita Falls, Texas for over 4 years at a cost of $200 per year — great service, and super convenient).
- It is fun to visit other places and really experience them.
- You will make many new friends with whom you have a lot in common.
- The communication tools available now (Zoom, WhatsApp, Messenger, Skype, etc) make it easy to stay in touch with friends and family, including the new friends you meet.
- It is surprisingly cheap (During our initial trip through South America, we had 7 flight legs in 4 countries and the total flight cost was under $600 for each of us).
- You really can do a trip like this easily for under $3,000 per month for a couple, and probably much less than that if you try.
- Your rental income should at least cover your out of pocket housing costs and may also cover some of your travel costs.
- You can do this during your “active years” before you get too old. Actually, a trip like this will help you stay young!
- There is not a set schedule. If you find someplace you really like, most countries allow you to extend your tourist visa.
- And if you get to a place you really don’t like, you can move on to the next place on your list!
- Except for Brazil, all of Latin America speaks the same language — Spanish. And you will be amazed at how good Google translate is.
So Are You Convinced (Or At Least Intrigued)?
If you are, what is holding you back? Whatever it is, you can at least start your research and planning. Sites like International Living, Investopedia, and Live and Invest Overseas have thousands of stories about every conceivable retirement destination. Here is a link to this year’s best places to retire article by International Living. It should get you started.
Please comment and let me know what you think. And thanks for reading my scribbles.
