What’s Important to You?

My dreams of exploring new horizons, immersing in vibrant cultures, and embracing a life of tranquility led me on a path toward an exciting adventure: moving to Panama. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Panama boasts a captivating blend of natural wonders, rich history, and a thriving expat community. In this blog, I will share my journey and the factors leading me to decide to move to this tropical paradise.

When I initially thought of leaving Cottonwood and the United States, I realized I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.  The poor economy, ridiculously high cost of living, low quality of life, and increasingly polarized politics topped the list.  Those were reasons why I wanted to leave, but not why I wanted a new solo-woman adventure!

I knew that making decisions are best made from a positive viewpoint, I turned my focus to the reasons I DID want to move.  

I wanted to live someplace where I could live on my retirement and investment income.  I wanted to live on the beach with a slower-paced, higher quality of life, and without the constant barrage of negative politics and media, shaming, bullying, and basically anything nonproductive.  For me, quality of life doesn’t mean being the most technologically advanced or the most active, and it doesn’t mean having a huge home filled with stuff, it means being able to sit outside on the deck of my beach home listening to the waves crash on the shore, dance in the rain, experience different cultures with a more stable economy and with minimal exposure to American politics.

I researched countries that I thought I would love to live in, Australia, Bali, Spain, and France, but honestly, I didn’t want to be that far away.  I wanted to be able to come home to visit my family anytime I wanted and be able to get back in a hurry, if needed. I was soon overwhelmed by the amount of information I found, I really needed someone to pare it down for me.

I found it in InternationalLiving.com, an online magazine. For weeks, I perused their “Best Places to Retire Index 2023” and read the articles and watched the videos explaining the pros and cons of each place rated by ex-pats who actually live there.   Then I considered what was really important to me and, most importantly, what my non-negotiables were.  I wanted to live on the beach in a year-round warm location with an ex-pat-friendly pickleball community, a low cost of living, easy visa options with an eye towards permanent residency or dual citizenship, and to live on less than $1,200 per month.  And I also wanted to live somewhere I could speak Spanish.  I had a working knowledge of the language and knew I could become fluent in a short time. 

These were my main reasons.  The reasons and priorities are different for everyone, so if you’re considering an international move, decide what’s important to you.

In my next post, I’ll share the most important things to consider before choosing your new home.