Retirement Havens

Places where you can live

better...safer...freer...for less!!!

Retire like a millionaire...on $16,800 a year.

Imagine waking up every morning to the sounds of a warm ocean lapping on a white sand beach. You roll out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and wander out to your front porch. The morning sun glints off the waves, and seabirds call to one another as they fly overhead, white wings on a brilliant blue sky.

You sit back in your chair, your feet propped up, and watch a solitary sailboat move left to right on the distant horizon. Behind you the French doors open, and your cook walks out to deliver your breakfast; warm muffins and sweet slices of fresh papaya, orange, mango, and pineapple.

For a moment, you think you might be dreaming. But this paradise is real and very affordable.

In fact, this seaside haven is just one of nine retreats scattered around the globe where you can live better, safer, and freer than you can back home for a fraction what you’d expect to pay.

You see, these days, thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable are buried every month, connecting far-flung corners of the globe to New York, Toronto, London, and beyond. Cellular-phone towers are popping up in the hinterland. All of a sudden, it’s surprisingly easy to stay connected even from your own jungle hideaway, your private beachfront cabana, your centuries-old European farmhouse. Opportunity abounds.

Nine Destinations You'll Want to Live in

But the trouble is: The more opportunities there are, the harder it is to separate the good deals from the bad, the smart moves from the risky ones, the paradises from the disappointments.

Rock-bottom prices alone do not make an ideal retirement destination. There are plenty of places the world over where you can buy cheap land and a 5 cent cup of coffee but you wouldn’t want to live in many of them.

Not so the nine destinations I’m thinking of. In these places Caribbean, European, and American retreats you can live well, very well. And you don’t have to be a millionaire to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

• In Ecuador, for example, you can buy a two bedroom condominium in the center of Quito’s business district, close to good shopping, gourmet restaurants, and luxury hotels for less than $50,000.

• Near Arles, France (this is the colorful south, the land of Van Gogh), you can buy a 3 bedroom village house for $50,000 and enjoy the rich culture, wonderful cuisine, and beautiful landscapes Provence is famous for.

• In Panama, retirees receive extensive special benefits everything from hotel discounts of up to 50% to 10% off medical services. And you needn’t even be retired. If you’re between the ages of 18 and 78 you can qualify and you only need live in the country four months a year. Even without such discounts, the cost of living is a fraction what you pay back home, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the range of goods you can find at stores like Costco. You might as well be shopping in the States.

• In Merida, Mexico, a stunning colonial city on the Yucatan Peninsula, you can own a twobedroom, two-bath home right in the heart of downtown for less than $80,000. One such property we know of hides a lovely interior courtyard planted with avocados, limes, bananas, aloe, and jade…

Plus, Mexico is one of the most affordable places in the world to live well. For household help twice a week, someone who will clean and cook for six hours each day, you’ll pay about $15. It costs less than 50 cents a pound for fresh fruit like mangos, pineapples, and oranges and less than $1 for a whole chicken.

• In Spain, we’ve uncovered several secluded beachfront areas where you can still escape the crowds and enjoy sunny days along a quiet coast…even in the south. Places where you can rent a cottage for less than $400 a month. A charming village house on the Costa Brava can be yours for $91,000 or less. Or how about a new apartment for $55,000?

The list goes on. But what it comes down to is this: value.

Not All Destinations Are Created Equal

As you’ve no doubt discovered for yourself over the years, there’s not always a relation between how much money you spend and what you get. Ever invest in a $180 pair of walking shoes only to discover that the $40 pair in your closet is more comfortable? Ever tried that new, expensive restaurant only to find that the service was bad, your fish was cold, and you’d have been better off dining at the bar on the corner?

Well, it’s the same thing with overseas destinations. They are not all created equal. But unless you’ve got unlimited time and money to spend traipsing around to every country that strikes your fancy you’ll find it impossible to identify the best values.

So we’ve done some of the work for you.

Your Own Best Haven

Well, frankly, we know the world’s top havens better than anyone else you could name. We know their respective advantage .and their respective weaknesses.

We don’t say this to boast. We say this to get your attention.

Because if you’re in the market for a new place to live, travel, invest, or retire, we can help you shop. We can help you compare the pluses and the minuses… organize your own priorities and determine your own best haven.

Reinvent Yourself

If you’re looking for a place to reinvent yourself a place to own a retreat you can enjoy a month or two a year, a place where you can watch your investments grow tax-free or tax-deferred, or a place outside the United States where you can put down new roots and open a business…

If you’re interested in doing any of those things, you’ll find that the countries we profile offer the best opportunities.

• The best places to buy real estate in each haven covered and the secrets to spotting and getting a good deal.

• A stretch of warm, European coastline met by rolling hills that rise to mountains where you can own a new apartment with a glorious ocean view for $100,000. Homes here on the outskirts of any one of the small towns can be yours for $60,000.

• What, exactly, you will pay in fees when you buy real estate. Don’t worry in most of the countries we profile it isn’t much. But nobody likes a surprise, and so we make sure you know exactly what to expect.

• A sunny, tropical island where the most expensive beach front property will run you about $3,000 per waterfront foot. (Much of it, however, sells for $1,000 to $1,500 per waterfront foot.) By comparison, a waterfront foot on Seven Mile Beach in the Cayman Islands costs more than $40,000.

• If you find St. Thomas little more than a haven for duty-free shopping and don’t like battling college students for beach space in the Bahamas, try these untouched islands we’ll tell you about where you can buy half-acre lots with water views for as little as $30,000. For $115,000, you can own an architect-designed home constructed of local hardwoods and set in a beachfront community where you’ll have use of a pool and boardwalks though a nature preserve.                                                                    
• The poor man’s Algarve, pleasant European waterfront towns few foreigners know about where golfing communities and new developments are springing up and property is cheap. You can own a studio for $29,000 or a two bedroom apartment for less than $50,000.

The Practical Know-How You Need To Start a New Life Overseas

• Complete details about residency and citizenship. Learn which visa is best for you and how you get it…plus, the inside scoop on the benefits of the various kinds of residency programs you can choose from.

• How much it costs (really) to live in each of the world’s nine top havens. For every country covered, we’ve included sample monthly budgets and market-basket surveys that include everything from the price of a dentist visit to the cost of a live-in maid.

• Discover what benefits each country offers to foreign retirees and compare the various foreign resident and retiree programs apples to apples  so you can come closer to deciding which country is most advantageous for you.

• Learn about a city just a few hours’ flight from Miami where you can buy just about everything you’re used to having back home,  at a fraction the price. From Blockbuster Video stores to French restaurants, computer parts to brand-name clothing, you’ll find it in this country. What’s more,  you can pay for it all in U.S. dollars.

• Find out about an ideal haven for outdoors-types and boaters a small collection of Caribbean islands (outside the hurricane zone) where you can rent a house in-town for just $200 a month and buy a 1/3-acre beachfront lot for $50,000. Thick with jungle and wildlife, these islands are home to many endangered and exotic species of plants and animals. The Smithsonian has an outpost here.

• Enjoy first-world shopping at developing-world prices in a place where, for example, you can buy a men’s suit jacket, a tie, a pair of trousers, and a shirt for only $220 (including tailoring and same-day delivery to your door).

You Get More For Less

• Discover a place where the cost to build is less than $30 a square foot—for homes with slick and inviting design details like recessed lights in the walls, rounded breezeways, natural stone showers and fireplaces, exposed wooden beams for warmth and strength, and cozy step-down areas where the family can all meet around a warm fire.

• Find out where you can expect to pay less than $20 a day to have your house cleaned where a live-in maid that cooks as well as cleans will run you a little over $100 a week, where lunch at a local restaurant is typically $2 to $5 .and if you eat out at a fancier restaurant, you’ll spend $10 to $25 per person, including wine and dessert, where you can see the early show at the movies for $2 and the later shows of a new release for $5.

• Imagine your dream home and a comfortable lifestyle in a picture-perfect city with 80,000 residents and not one traffic signal. In this colonial treasure, there are neither concrete high-rises nor ugly modern billboards. It’s like stepping back in time.

• You can live in a European city with all the charm and appeal of Paris or Rome only the place is half as big and a fraction the price. All the trendy European and American designers have shops here. It’s safe, easy to navigate, and boasts some of the Continent’s most distinctive architecture.

• Put down roots in a nation blessed with dramatic and varied beauty, where the people have a deep sense of history (combined with a healthy investment in advanced technology and artistic creativity), an intuitive sense of community, family, and generosity—and an unstoppable good humor. You can, in fact, spend very little time in the country each year and still enjoy all the benefits of resident status.

International Real Estate is set to be the biggest and best investment market of the next several years. Tomorrow, it will make a great deal of difference where we live. But certainly not in the same sense as we now perceive it. Tomorrow we will live where the best real estate exists, where the least crime and repression exists, where population pressures have not decimated the environment and where business is encouraged and not hindered by legislation. We will live there regardless of that place's global location or it's former political posture. If we can now buy a ranch in Argentina (or Uruguay, or New Zealand, or name your spot,)  for ten cents on the dollar of what a similar property inside the United States would cost us, and if we can carry on commerce from anywhere we are, how long do you imagine it's going to take your neighbor to realize the very same thing? As one writer put it, "...those folks who buy that ranch in Argentina today are going to have grandchildren who will think they were a genius."

Sincerely,

Jose Rodriguez