Living Offshore

Panamanian Style

Summertime .. and the living is easy! In Panama it is virtually always summertime.

In fact, the official Panamanian "summer season" coincides with the North American winter season.  

As a Canadian, the Panamanian "winter time" suits me just fine with average daytime temperatures in the mid to high 80s and night time lows in the mid to high 70s. 

The average water temperature at Playa Serena beach at Coronado is 80F for the month of January ... the coldest month. 

As I note in my new book "Panama... Your Best Value for Offshore Living" you can enjoy a millionaire lifestyle here on about 25-33% of the average retirement budget in a developed country. Click here to read more about my book.

Everything is Better Than Expected

Almost everything is "better than expected" in Panama. Yes ... there are disappointments and yes ... there is more apparent poverty and poorly maintained infrastructure than one may see "up north" but in general the surprises are typically on the upside. 

When was the last time you could honestly say that?  I have seen desperate slums and very dilapidated sections in virtually every city I have visited in the world from London, to New York, to Paris to Singapore. So Panama has no monopoly on this dimension. 

Incidentally, the road "infrastructure" in and around NYC is nothing to be particularly proud about.

The local foods taste better here than you ever might imagine. It has not shipped thousands of miles before it hits your kitchen table as in most parts of the USA. If you live in Iowa, the great "American food basket", then the average item on your table will have been shipped 1500 miles.

Panamanians are genuinely much friendlier than expected, work gets done faster than you might have thought possible at much lower cost, crime is lower than expected if you avoid the "red zones", there are many fewer accidents on the roads than you might have thought possible given the driving style etc etc.

The legal services for real estate (e.g. www.panama-offshore-services.com ) were much better and less expensive than expected and I have used a lot of real estate lawyers in my life.

My book explores these differences. It compares a Panama lifestyle with living standards in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, Switzerland, the UK, Thailand and Singapore.

These are all places where we have actually lived. 

Owning A Lifestyle Insurance Policy

The main point is that everyone should have a "contingency plan" which is a kind of "lifestyle insurance policy"  for a rainy day.

Identify a fall-back position (e.g. a low cost friendly country) to protect and/or significantly enhance your standard of living. 

For some this could be Panama, for others it could Mexico, Nicaragua, Croatia or perhaps even Central Florida.