Who? Why? How?

We’re here to look at who decides to live overseas, why they do, and how they accomplish it. There are probably as many reasons to live outside of your native country as there are people who do so. In my case, my husband and I realized several years ago that, if we stay here, we will never be able to afford to retire. Add to this my lifelong desire to spend significant time in another country, and we began looking at the possibilities of retiring overseas. But that’s not the only reason, not by a long shot! More

Living in the Land of Love

Terraced rice paddy fields Bali, Indonesia

Guest Post by Mike Henry

Photo by Rudy Herman on flickr

As I write this, the movie Eat, Pray, Love is hitting the cinemas in the United States. I am sure most people are already familiar with the story.

The book’s author, Elizabeth Gilbert, is frustrated with her life in the United States and decides

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A Video Look at Some Expat Destinations

For a change of pace today, I thought I’d share with you some YouTube videos about expats and their new homes. A quick YouTube search of “expat” turns up over 4,000 videos. As you’d expect, some are good, some are terrible and most are in between. Some are slick, commercially produced efforts, most

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Panama, Sweet Panama

If you plan to start a business overseas — and most of you indicated you’ll have to generate some income to finance your overseas lifestyle — Panama is the country to look at. According to Kathleen Peddicord, publisher of the Overseas Retirement Letter, the country’s friendliness to business is why she and her

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The Flip Side of Expat Guilt

Eiffel Tower, Paris at dusk

Photo by Catherine Perkins

Guest Post by Barbara Diggs

Lucky is the expat that has no lingering guilt associated with his or her decision to live abroad. But, I think, rare is that expat also.

Maybe you feel a bit guilty about how living abroad will affect your children, or you worry about the feelings

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Is France Affordable?

Arlempdes_France

Recently, the Live and Invest Overseas e-letter has been talking about France in the run-up to their upcoming conference about living and investing there. France is not one of the countries we’ve been considering as a retirement destination because of the expense. But with headlines like, “Your Second Home In France (Could Cost

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10 More Expat Blogs to Follow

Last month I listed 9 Expat Blogs that I personally follow. Got such a great response I thought I’d add a few more. This list is focused on Central and South America, and I’ll add more recommendations later for other regions.

Personal Blogs

Expat Alley. Tom Frost shares his expat knowledge and interviews other expats.

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9 Expat Blogs to Follow

It’s been a while since I’ve done any kind of list, so I thought I’d give you a look today at some of the expat blogs I follow, and that you might find helpful, too.

Empty Nest Expat. Currently living in Prague, the blogger describes herself as “an American expatriate bursting with enthusiasm to

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Yucatan, Mexico Prepared to Give US Retirees What They Want

chichen_itza

Writing for International Living today, Dan Prescher described a meeting he recently attended with “government officials, local entrepreneurs and international consultants” in Merida, Mexico a few days ago. I thought this was interesting enough that I postponed the post I was planning for today to bring you Dan’s report:

El Castillo, Chichen Itza,

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It's Not the Easter Bunny, It's the Easter Bell!

gifts from the French Easter bell

Gifts from the Easter Bell

My youngest daughter is halfway through a 2-1/2 month sojourn in France. This Easter, she was fortunate to spend the weekend with a French family in the village of Soissons.

The village is northeast of Paris, about halfway to the Belgian border. The Cathedral Saint-Gervais & Saint-Protais dates from

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Cost of Renting in Panama

Panama City, Panama

Panama is one of the countries my husband and I are considering, so I was very interested to see a recent post in Live and Invest Overseas detailing costs of renting in three Panama locations.

Panama City, specifically the El Cangrejo neighborhood. It’s necessary to be neighborhood-specific because, as in any other big city,

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