Yesterday evening the Live and invest Overseas Conference ended after a densely scheduled three-day smorgasbord of information for expats and plan-to-be expats. (I’ve decided that’s a better phrase than “wannabe.”)

Last month I speculated about the 20 countries they’d recommend, and I’m happy to report I pretty much nailed it. There was only one country on the list that really surprised me.

Here, without further ado, are their recommendations for the 20 top countries that North Americans should have on their list of potential places to live or retire abroad affordably.

If You Want to Live in Asia

Overall, Southeast Asia is the least expensive part of the world to live. There are notable exceptions, of course, like Singapore, but this region includes six out of the 20 top picks. Here are the best places to live in Asia, in alphabetical order.

1. China
2. India
3. Laos
4. Malaysia
5. Thailand
6. Vietnam

If You Want to Live in Europe

Although parts of Europe (Paris, London) are quite costly, other areas are surprisingly affordable. Follow these recommendations for the best places to live in Europe.

7. Croatia
8. France, particularly the Languedoc and Aquitaine regions
9. Ireland
10. Italy
11. Spain

If You Want to Live in Latin America

Nine of the top 20 countries are in Latin America. It’s not surprising, as proximity to the US and staying in time zones close to the US’ are important to many expats. Here are the best, most affordable, places to live in Latin America.

12. Argentina
13. Belize
14. Brazil
15. Colombia
16. Ecuador
17. Mexico
18. Nicaragua
19. Panama
20. Uruguay

I mentioned that one country’s inclusion surprised me, and that’s Brazil. While some expat experts have been promoting the country for a long time, Kathleen has held back. Her objections have been well thought out, and involve important issues like ease of moving your money out of the country when/if you decide to leave.

While the presentation on each country emphasized its positive aspects, there was also a discussion of the country’s cons. In short, the conference provided practical, actionable information for deciding on an overseas destination.

If your budget is really tight, remember that living in a major city is always more costly than living away the the metro area. In these countries, you can find areas that will work for you and your budget and give you a North American, middle class standard of living.

All the information from the conference will be available soon. . . watch for details!

Here’s something that promises to get you unstuck and help you find the overseas adventure that’s waiting for you.

Next month, Live & Invest Overseas will blow out all the stops and put on a conference for expats and wannabes that will talk about, not one or two, but 20 countries.

In a conference call recently, the company’s publisher, Kathleen Peddicord, promised the conference in Orlando, FL will be the most ambitious she’s ever been involved in during her 25 years as an adviser to expats.

“Our promise is to introduce you to the top 20 country choices worldwide. We’re focusing on three regions — Europe, Asia and the Americas.

“This won’t be a journlistic, theoretical look, it’ll be very real life with lots of how-tos and practical information.”

Last spring I attended the organization’s Live and Invest in Panama conference. I had promised to give you my honest opinion about whether it was worth the price of admission, and I did just that here.

I told you then that I wouldn’t advise ever attending one of these conferences — unless you’re really serious about moving abroad.

Frankly, I can’t wait to find out what their top 20 country picks are, and why. I have some educated guesses, based on the experts they’ve announced.

Here are the countries I think they’ll focus on, by region:

Asia

• Vietnam
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Laos
• China
• The Philippines

Europe

• France, specifically the Languedoc and Aquitaine regions
• Spain
• Italy
• Ireland
• Croatia

The Americas

• Panama
• Nicaragua
• Ecuador
• Belize
• Colombia
• Mexico
• Uruguay
• Argentina

Of course, that’s only 19 countries. . . we’ll see if I’m right, and what the missing one is. . .

It’s happening in Orlando, FL on October 14-16, 2011 at Universal Studios. I’m arranging my schedule to be there.

They’ll Address Your Stumbling Block — Whatever It Is

Conference experts will address the most common stumbling blocks to an overseas move, and will answer questions like:

• How much money will I need?
• Should I rent or buy a home? How do I do that?
• What kind of visa is best for me, and how do I get it?
• I still need to earn an income, how do I do that?
• What about taxes?
• Healthcare and Insurance

They’ll hold workshops on each region, with breakout sessions for specific countries. . . You’ll meet other expats and people who are thinking about making their own international move. . . You’ll have the opportunity to talk with experts and get answers to your individual, specific questions. . .

In short, you’ll have a chance to get expert views on where you should think about going, and how to get there.

And, if it’s anything like the Panama conference I attended, you’ll have a lot of fun, too!

Click here for more information, then select “Retire Overseas Conference 2011″ from the list at the left.

And if you decide to come to Orlando for the conference, let me know so we can meet up!

What’s your biggest obstacle to moving abroad? Leave a comment. . .

photo by Jeff Keen on flickr

I recently received an email from Matt. Matt’s a medical professional who’s starting to research a move to one of the Central or South American countries. He’s not sure how transferable his professional credentials are and asks:

“Thank you once again. I really want to get this project off the ground, and I’ll take all of the help I can get.

“Which leads me to another question: how can one get started in this without much money?”

When Money is Tight, Get Creative

Matt, you’ve come to right place. We were pretty much wiped out by the financial crisis of 2008-2009, so we’re making our move on a shoestring.

However, you really do need to have a little money or at least usable credit.

Matt didn’t explain what “without much money” means to him. Does he mean he doesn’t have $100,000 to invest in the country, or that he doesn’t have a few hundred dollars for a plane fare?

Either way, the first thing Matt should do is narrow down his list of countries from six to no more than three. Then he needs to figure out how he can visit the countries on his short list.

It doesn’t matter how great a place sounds on paper, until you’ve had your boots on the ground you can’t possibly know whether you’d be happy living there. Once Matt narrows down his country choice, he’ll be in a better position to figure out what he needs to actually move there.

When funds are really tight, you need to get creative. What can Matt do to get himself to one of his country choices?

As a medical professional, it’s quite likely he could take some time away without worrying too much about finding or returning to a job when he gets back.

My recommendation to Matt: explore possible volunteer opportunities. Look for something that will pay expenses of transportation, food and lodging in the country and arrange to stay as long as you can. Rent out your home or apartment while you’re gone.

Ideally, Matt could arrange back-to-back volunteerism so he could try out two or even three of his countries during a six-month period. At the end of the six months, he should have a pretty good idea of where he wants to live.

Then he can return to the US and go back to work for a bit while he maps out his next step.

How to Narrow Down Your Country Choice

There’s an almost limitless number of factors that can influence your country choice. Some of the more obvious include

• climate
• language and culture
• work or business opportunities
• cost of living
• health care
• ease of travel to “home” country

To weigh out what’s really important to you can require some deep soul searching.

And, if you’ll be moving with a spouse, partner or children, the equation becomes even more complex.

It’s certainly possible to step through this exercise on your own, or with free help from websites and online forums.

There are lots of good country-specific forums out there. I’ve been hanging around the Panama Forum quite a bit in recent months, for example, and there are some good country forums on Yahoo as well.

If You Can Afford Some Shortcuts

If you have a bit of discretionary income to invest in the process, though, there are a couple of resources I recommend.

The first is 52 Days to Your New Life Overseas. As its name implies, it’s a 52-day (or longer, depending on how much time you have to put into it) series of thoughtful and thought-provoking materials to get you from wherever you are now to your new country. (You can read a review here. For contrast, here’s a review of a program I found to be nothing but fluff.)

The second is not a program for expats as such, but was designed by a life coach to help you really understand what makes you thrive. Called Live Bold & Bloom, it promises to help you create a life that is fun, adventurous, peaceful, exciting, challenging, engaging and meaningful.

You can read more about Live Bold & Bloom here.

photo by paul-simpson.org on flickr

Africa

Africa Expat Wives, a UK citizen moves to Africa two days after her marriage, and raises a family there.

Middle East

Intercultural Meanderings. Lynne Diligent, a long-time expat and Middle Eastern resident since 1990, writes about interesting questions relating to intercultural business, expat issues and multicultural issues.

Asia

Our Big Expat Adventure, moving the family from Australia to Singapore.

The Dropout Diaries. No, not education related, this is one person’s account of packing it all in and going to China to teach. . . and what happens next.

The Sublime Portal, an online community and reference sites for all things Turkey.

Europe

Kitchen Chinese Adventures in Food, France and Beyond with chef and journalist Ann Mah.

Expat-En-Provence, tales of a young American woman in the south of France.

Central and South America

What’s Up El Salvador, an American woman falls in love with El Salvador and moves there with her husband and young daughter.

Xpat Escape tells about one woman’s move to Panama, with stunningly gorgeous photos.

Ecuador 4 U, a lovely photo blog about life in Ecuador.

Global Nomads

The Displaced Nation, a site devoted to global nomads.

Unwire Me — Work Anytime from Anywhere. All about portable careers.

If you’d like to see more of the sites I follow, check out my bookmarks page on Delicious.com – it’s all there!

Do you have an expat blog or website you’d like to recommend? You can share it on Facebook, or add it to the Comments below.

Latin America

1. Retire Early in Mexico

2. Live, work and retire in Mexico. This video looks specifically at Merida, on the Yucatan Peninsula.
3. Living in Mexico, Moving to Mexico and Retiring in Mexico. An American couple moves to San Miguel de Allende.
4. A Retirement in Panama: Everything Under the Sun. This is a professionally created video by International Living.
5. Ecuador – One Man’s Dream
6. To Live in Cuenca, Ecuador
7. Cuenca Day and Night
8. Costa Rica Expat interviews w/Wayne

Asia

1. The Expat Life: Dumpling 101 An adventure in Chinese cooking. This is a really cute video of a US expat in China trying to make Chinese dumplings, to his daughter’s disapproval.

2. Life in Korea. The first month’s of a young American teacher’s adventures in Korea.
3. Life as an Expat in Thailand: Getting a Job
4. How to Live and Work as a Teacher in Thailand
5. Why Malaysia? A British expat explains his reasons.
6. Expat Women in Hong Kong Society. This video gives a glimpse of the down side of expatriation — what do you know when the society you’re living in doesn’t want to mingle with you?

Personal Blogs

1. Expat Alley. Tom Frost shares his expat knowledge and interviews other expats. Originally from Oregon, USA, Tom has lived in Japan, Mexico, Argentina and is currently establishing a farm in Uruguay.

2. Flavors of Ecuador author Carrie explores Ecuadorian culture and history through one of my favorite media, food. Yummy pictures throughout! (Warning — when I’ve visited, the site has loaded rather slowly, but it’s worth the wait.)
3. From LA to BA. Argentine native grew up in Los Angeles, then moved back to Buenos Aires.
4. Balanced Melting Pot. Haitian national grew up in the US, then went back to Haiti and now lives and raises her family in Caracas, Venezuela.
5. Living in Patagonia. US couple from Lake Tahoe moved to Patagonia, Argentina.
6. 2 Gringos in the Caribbean. Couple moved, with their child and dog, from the northeast US to Turks & Caicos Islands.

   Professional Blogs

7. Yucatan Living. Online magazine for expats in the Yucatan, and for those considering the Yucatan as a destination for retiring, starting a business or owning a second home.

8. Nomadas Globales Argentina. Intercultural training and coaching from Natalia Sarro.
9. Expat Daily News, with editions for Central America and South America.
10. Traveling4Health. Excellent resources for both medical tourists and expats.

Do you have a favorite expat blog (or blogs) that you would like to recommend? Just click the comment button below. We love new blog recommendations!

Mosquito Coast

Mosquito Coast, starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and River Phoenix, based on a book by Paul Theroux, chronicles the adventures of the Fox family. Brilliant inventor/philosopher/father Allie Fox (Harrison Ford) gets disgusted with the United States and moves his family to the jungles of Central America. “Nobody ever thinks of leaving this country” says Allie. “I do, I think about it every day.”

Fed up with cheap Japanese imports and fast food, Fox takes the family to the jungle, where he believes life is purer. “It would take courage to go there,” he tells them. “Not ordinary gumption.” He buys a village on the Mosquito Coast and involves the entire village population in building a jungle utopia, complete with air conditioning.

Allie leaves America because he loves it. “Nobody loves America more than I do. That’s why we left. I couldn’t bear to watch.”

Unfortunately, Allie gets bored once the village is built, crops are growing, and the refrigeration unit is humming along. Trouble ensues, and the Foxes find out firsthand just how impure jungle life can be.

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren — two of my favorite actors — are superb, and River Phoenix is convincing as their pre-adolescent oldest son. This is a good expat movie, and shows us very graphically how we bring our problems with us wherever we go. It also shows us some disturbing views of American culture at its worst, especially the group of worshippers in a small church, mesmerized by the service they are watching in a big-screen TV. I highly recommend it.

Buy from Amazon The Mosquito Coast