55 yr old moving south of the border

[markydoc]

Hello everybody, i am planing on moving to mexico within the next 2 years but am curious as to other spanish speaking countries where the dollar and quality of life is high. Has anyone a location in mind?

Gracias

mark

 

[rescueme]

To me "south of the border" is anything below the Mason-Dixon line

I speak a little French (understand much more than I can speak).

Of course, living close to NYC (same state as you) I probably should learn a bit of Spanish

Good luck to you...

 

[CuppaJoe]

And to a Canadian, in Northern California, I'm way "south of the border."

Welcome to the forum, markydoc, could you make it financially if you retired in place?

 

[Onward]

markydoc, here are a couple of threads that may interest you:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/ecuador-impressions-49852.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/retiring-to-central-america-49329.html

 

[Gerbil Wheel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/your-money/19iht-nwmove.html

 

[MichaelB]

Actually, "spanish speaking " and "south of the border" begin where Palm Beach and Broward Counties meet in Southeast Florida. Quality if life is high but I'm not sure about the future of the US$ there.

 

[kcowan]

I think you have to tell us why you are moving. Uruguay has a great climate except for August. It is at the latitude of Capetown and Sidney. Not bilingual though.

 

[kramer]

There is a lot of great Mexico information on Billy and Akaisha Kaderli's web site:

Retire Early Lifestyle

They sell a web book about living in the Lake Chapala area, which is probably the most popular retirement area in Mexico for North American retirees. I can definitely recommend it. It is worth reading now, during your knowledge acquisition process and can help you plan a trip.

Both how well you speak Spanish and how well you plan to speak Spanish within a period of 1 year after moving will help determine your range of suitable locations. Also, whether you are getting some kind of pension that would qualify for a visa. Thanks to cheaper air tickets, Mexico is not even necessarily the "closest" Latin American location to Philadelphia, considering costs and travel time.

I am writing this from Medellin, Colombia which I think should be on the map for many retirees. Perhaps ironically, I would consider it safer than many retirement locations in Mexico and Latin America. But I can't get a visa to stay more than 180 days per year since I don't have a pension, wife, business, or $200K+ property.

Kramer

 

[ncaraway]

Other than Mexico, the places I've come across in my readings are:

* Costa Rica
* Panama
* Nicaragua (visited there in the 80s - I'm sure it's much different now)

As I understand it, each of these has expat communities, though I suspect Nicaragua's is the newest and smallest.

When reading your post I immediately thought of Belize, where English is spoken, but a quick Google search reveals folks dissuading expats from going there.