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I arrived home 2 days ago from a month's stay in Panama. A friend retired there so I went with him and stayed a month while he applied for permanent resident status. You only need a pension of $500 a month in order to become a permanent resident there. However, one needs an attorney and that runs around a thousand dollars. There were a couple of Canadians going through the same process. The tapwater is safe to drink, unlike other parts of Central America. Therefore one can safely eat the fruit and salads in restaurants. The people are very friendly and helpful and taxis are inexpensive. One can get a decent apartment in the El Congrejo district where we were for $400-$500 a month. It's one of the better districts of the city. I attended Spanish classes for 4 hours a day during the week while there. The school I attended is Spanish-Panama and Anita's Hotel is just above it. There's a website and both are owned by a Canadian and his wife, who is Panamanian.

Hi there... how about Costa Rica? I moved here about 2 years ago and doubt I will live anywhere else. Its beautiful, the people are friendly, its cheap (unless you really want to continue to live an Western life here) and crime is low and mostly petty.

Happy to answer questions if you want to contact.

As a good starting point the book "The World’s Top Retirement Havens –How to Relocate, Retire and Increase your Standards of Living edited by Margaret J. Goldstein" approaches the question of how to retire overseas on a country by country basis. The book examines 15 different countries with each country getting its own chapter.

Each country’s chapter has subsections that include: recommended living areas, renting and buying real estate, cost of living, taxes, making the move, and medical care. This book would be good for the person who is already given serious consideration to moving internationally but is now in the process of narrowing down their options. Each chapter alone is probably not enough to be the “ultimate” resource for any one country but gives enough of an overview that the reader can start narrowing down their choices of possible countries.

The Countries covered in 1999 edition are Argentina, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and Thailand. A more recent edition was not found on amazon.com. If a more recent edition was made perhaps they would include Croatia, Guatemela, Nicargua, Panama, and the Phillipines.

Also I have been Also I have been maintaining a blog at www.globalretirementvillage.com where I am keeping track of my research.

Here is a link to all of the posts I have made about what countries are retirement friendly.....

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