Enjoy a Movable Retirement in Asia

Traditional Thai dancer

It’s affordable, safe, exciting, exotic, and has terrific health care. Last week I shared with you the top 20 picks for overseas retirement on a budget, according to Live and Invest Overseas. Six of the countries are located in southeast Asia, which is the cheapest region of the world right now. These countries are: China [...]

Retire to Latin America if You’re Poor, Europe if You’re Not

Paris and the Eiffel Tower

I don’t generally follow investment websites or blogs, but The Oblivious Investor caught my eye recently. Why? Because author Rick Todd rated some expat retirement destinations based on how much income you have to retire on. His top five picks for retirees with a limited (primarily Social Security) income: Costa Rica Malaysia Uruguay Panama Nicaragua [...]

Living in the Land of Love

Terraced rice paddy fields Bali, Indonesia

Guest Post by Mike Henry 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 to take a year off traveling, [...]

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 are not. [...]

Teach English in Asia to Finance Your Life Overseas

Penang Malaysia

So, you’ve decided you want to live in Asia, to travel to exotic locations, eat incredibly spicy food, and generally enjoy life in a culture that’s completely different from what you’ve grown up with. But you have to be able to afford it. Previously, we’ve discussed teaching English as a second language as a way [...]

Which Countries Have the Best Health Care?

heart_monitor

In the Expat Web group on LinkedIn, a member asked recently, “As an Expat, which countries do you think have the best and worst healthcare systems?” Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Malta and France all received positive comments. One poster said Japan’s was “the worst I ever experienced.” The US was mentioned favorably, but “only if [...]

End-of-Year Lists

eiffel tower new year

International Living’s annual Quality of Life Index. Every year, IL produces a Quality of Life index, which usually differs quite a bit from their recommendations on best places to retire. France has topped the list for several years running. France (was #1 last year as well) Australia (moved up from #5 in 2009) Switzerland (down [...]

Bahrain: World’s Friendliest Country?

bahrain_arches

According to Forbes.com, Bahrain scored the top spot in HSBC’s recent survey of 3,100 expats. They admit this might be a fluke — only 31 responses came in from Bahrain, compared to 450 from the UK, for example. But it’s an interesting list, nonetheless. Canada moved down from its No. 1 spot last year to [...]

Top 10 Retirement Havens

Vietnam

Live and Invest Overseas publisher Kathleen Peddicord has named the Top 10 Retirement Havens for 2010, and the list includes some surprises. Panama occupies the top spot, and Peddicord comments that “this country manages to become more appealing all the time.” Her Top 10 picks include: Panama France “World’s best quality of life, world’s best [...]

A Town Like Alice: Expat Book Review

A Town Like Alice

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is multi-layered expat novel, which was made into a TV mini-series in 1981. It has been one of my favorites for a long time, not only because of the expat themes, but because it also features a strong female protagonist who overcomes some truly daunting obstacles. Author Nevil [...]