Luxury is not the same as jet set.

Living a jet-set life, you’d expect limos and private planes, an entourage and connections that’d get you jumped to the front of every queue.

Luxury is something else.

For me, for a place to qualify as luxury, it must provide access to four- and five-star restaurants with wine lists to match…

It should have boutiques offering internationally recognized brand-name indulgences…

Live theater plus movie cinemas showing first-run and foreign flicks…

An artist community…

Affordable help around the house and a private driver if you want one…

To-your-door delivery services for groceries, restaurants, and anything else that occurs to you…

Specialty food shops and wine stores offering good vintages from around the world…

English-language bookstores…

Spa and salon services…

You get the idea.

In addition, for me, to be considered luxury, a place must offer more than these commercial trappings. It should be historic… which translates to interesting, especially architecturally.

Places developed carefully over time feature parks and squares and plazas… so you can walk and wander while enjoying the passing show.

Finally, for me, a luxury experience requires elements of charm and romance.

Who wouldn’t want a life that could be described that way?

The question is where can you not only find that lifestyle but also afford it?

Hands down, no contest, in my book, the best place in the world to seek out a lifestyle of this description is Paris, France.

Whatever your idea of the high life, you can find it in the City of Light and one of the great things about Paris is that some of the best it has to offer comes free.

The sweetest pleasures of life are here for the taking…

Picnics in the Luxembourg Gardens, long walks along the Seine, afternoons lost among the cobblestones of the Latin Quarter…

These things cost not a sou.

Most museums, including the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, forgo admission fees one day a month, and the Métro will transport you from restaurant and café to museum and nightclub for less than €2.55 and even the chicest Parisians don’t mind using it for transport around their city.

Paris is a never-ending feast of openings, performances, exhibitions, and celebrations, many available for little cost. You can join conversation groups, book clubs, and cooking classes. You can enjoy prix-fixe meals for €20 or less, and you can spend hours in a café, seeing and being seen, for the price of but a single café au lait.

The more practical necessities of life don’t come free in Paris, but they are more affordable than you might imagine. France boasts some of the world’s best infrastructure, and it’s a bargain.

For the past 19 years, my husband and I have been living part of the year in Panama and part of the year in Paris. Before this we were in Paris full-time.

About a month before we decided to begin dividing our time, Lief presented me with a budget showing that our cost of living in Panama City would be more or less on par with what it had been in Paris. I suggested that my husband the accountant double-check his figures.

Upon closer inspection, we found that Lief was correct. His ciphering predicted that our day-to-day cost of living would be the same in Panama as it had been in France.

Our experience over the past decade has proven Lief right. For us, Paris is no more costly than Panama.

How could that be?

After more than 40 years covering this beat, I’m reluctant to speak of budgets. They’re so variable and so personal and can be controlled and manipulated. Plus, the longer you live in a place the better you get at living in that place efficiently.

But here goes…

A car is an unnecessary liability in Paris. We spent four years in Paris when our children were young happily auto-free and since we’ve been back part-time we’ve not once thought of investing in a car. We don’t need one.

The butcher, the baker, the grocer, and the wine shop are all less than 15 minutes’ walk from our apartment, as are the Tuileries Gardens, the Louvre, the Latin Quarter, six movie theaters, and at least a dozen cafés and restaurants. When we want to venture beyond our quartier, we duck into the nearest Métro station or take out our phone to hail a ride courtesy of Uber or G7.

Other practical things in Paris can be cheap, too, including telephone, cable, and Internet. Our service from Orange includes phone, cable, and Internet and allows unlimited free calls anytime to anywhere in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The cost is €42.99 per month.

You could get by in Panama City without a car. Uber is cheap. But one of the best things about living in Panama City is escaping it for a weekend at the beach or in the mountains, both as little as two hours away.

You can rent a car every time you want to explore the interior, as Panamanians refer to the entire rest of their country outside Panama City, but eventually I’d say you’ll want to invest in a vehicle of your own. That means monthly insurance, gas, and maintenance expenses, plus parking and maybe a driver. I drove myself around this town our first couple of years living here but that was all I could take. Panamanian drivers terrify me.

Our phone, cable, and Internet package in Panama City costs $90 per month, not including international phone calls, which, again, are free with our package in Paris.

In Paris, we pay for heat six months a year. In Panama City, we pay for air conditioning year-round. Electricity is relatively expensive in Panama.

In Paris, Lief and I spend €200 a week on groceries. In Panama City, it’s $250 a week. You could spend half that or less to eat in Panama. I admit we shop indulgently. We frequent the big U.S.-style grocery store Riba Smith rather than the more local and cheaper Super 99. We buy steaks imported from the States, wine from France, and butter from Ireland because those items are available and we’re willing to pay a premium for them… except when we’re not.

My point is that, based on my experience over the past two-and-a-half decades calling it home, living in Paris isn’t as expensive as you might fear.

Oh… and taxes? They might be another reason you’re tempted to take France off your list. Au contraire, dear reader, again, the reality is that your tax burden in France would be no greater than your tax burden in Panama the tax haven.

How can that be you might again be wondering? It’s thanks to the bee’s knees of tax treaties that exists between the United States and France. I’ve got a guy who can explain it to you in detail.

For me, life in Paris is as good as life gets. If money is no object and you appreciate the Continental lifestyle, you should have this city at the top of your list.

If Paris is your dream and your budget is fixed, still, take a close look before you write off the world’s most beautiful, most romantic, most luxurious place to be.

If you can afford Panama, I’d bet you can afford Paris.

Until next time, 

The post The Price Of Paris Versus Panama City appeared first on Live and Invest Overseas.

My favorite thing to do anywhere in the world is to take a walk, but Paris takes taking a walk to a next level. 

When our children were young, we had an office in the 8th arrondissement on rue du Chevalier de Saint-George, near Madeleine. Our apartment is in the 7th arrondissement, behind the Musee d’Orsay… 

The walk from one to the other—my daily commute for years—takes you across the river…

Through the Gardens of the Tuileries…

And down rue de Rivoli…

If I were to rate all the walks in all the world, this one would be #1. No other scene anywhere compares with what we humans have managed to create for ourselves across these several blocks in the heart of Paris.

I reacquainted myself with the journey this weekend for the best possible reason… lunch with my daughter and granddaughter beneath the brilliant Paris sun…

Santé!

Until next time,

The post In Photos: A Perfect Day In Paris appeared first on Live and Invest Overseas.

For me and Belize, it was love at first sight.

From the first morning I arrived in Belize City, nearly 40 years ago, climbed down from the plane onto the runway, threw my backpack over my shoulder, pulled on my sunglasses, and walked across the tarmac in the direction of the country’s one-room international airport, I was smitten.

It was nothing I could put my finger on. Just a feeling. Like falling in love. You know it when it hits.

Belize City could be described as the Calcutta of the Caribbean. That description is not undeserved, but it refers not to Belize but to Belize City and not to the heart and soul of this country but to some parts of the town where, unfortunately, its international airport is located.

Infatuated as I was by the experience of being in Belize, even I, young and naïve as I was, recognized that Belize City wasn’t a place to hang out. This hasn’t changed in the decades since, but it didn’t matter to me then and it isn’t the point now.

What won me over from that first visit was the raw, natural beauty of the place, the simple, sweet charm of life here, and the resilience of the Belizean people. I connected straightaway.

On that first visit, I met a handful of Belize expats with whom I’d developed friendships I treasure. Visit by visit, in the years to follow, they helped me to get to know this country founded by pirates, for pirates, where independence and free thinking are prized above all else.

These are qualities that I, too, value a great deal. Instinctively, putting my feet on the ground in this country for the first time, I knew that Belize and I were made for each other.

Belize is the quirkiest place I know. Belize City’s roadways are built around a system of roundabouts (thanks to her British colonizers), but shops alongside them sell rice, beans, and tortillas ground by hand.

Everyone you meet speaks English (it’s the country’s official language), but this belies the stories of their origins.

The 400,000 people populating Belize today are descendants of migrants from Britain, yes, but also and more so the surrounding Central American countries. You’ve got Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans mixing with current-day generations of the Maya who originally inhabited this land, the pirates who came later, the Mennonite farmers who began arriving on the scene in the 16th century, the British who ruled until 1981, and each other.

Belize is a country of freedom-seekers. The pirates came to ply their pirate trading out of view. The Mennonites came from Germany and the Netherlands so they could be Mennonites without anyone bothering them. The British came so they could bank in private. And the folks from the surrounding countries who’ve sought out Belize in recent decades typically have made their way across this country’s borders in search of safety.

Today, now, a new population of freedom-seekers is finding its way to these shores:

Us.

Belize is a nation of independent thinkers and doers, a country where you make your own way and where, while you’re doing it, no one thwarts your efforts.

Including the Belizean government. This is a poor country. The government doesn’t have enough money to get up to any real trouble. And, if they tried, Belizeans wouldn’t allow it. The focus here is on local-level government—addressing the crime problems in certain neighborhoods of Belize City or trying to dissuade the Guatemalan banditos who occasionally wander into Belize in search of a couple of good horses to steal.

Check Your Worries At The Border

Arriving in Belize, stepping off the plane, and making your way to the one-room arrivals hall of the airport, you have a sense still today, just as I did 40 years ago touching down in Belize for the first time, of leaving the rest of the world behind. Belize and her people operate according to their own rules and mind their own business. The troubles, uncertainties, and worries that seem all-consuming Stateside and elsewhere in the world fade here. You’re faced with a land that remains a frontier, undeveloped and oozing potential.

Belize is one more thing—one of the world’s most user-friendly options for establishing foreign residency. You can just show up.

Where The H#&% Is Belize?

Belize has been attracting expats in the know from the U.K., the United States, and Canada for decades. Still, many would have trouble pinpointing the country on a map and a lot of folks think it’s an island.

It’s not, of course, though it features a handful of Caribbean islands offshore Belize City.

Shops in the airport sell T-shirts that ask, “Where The H#&% Is Belize?” The good news is that the country is close to the United States and accessible.

Belize is easy to get to, and, once you’re here, it’s easy to get around and do whatever you’d like to do. The country is compact and the language is English.

The Many Faces Of Little Belize

Don’t be fooled by its size. You can get from one end of Belize to the other in a half-day by car or a half-hour by plane. The country’s domestic air travel system is its most developed infrastructure.

Despite this, Belize has many faces.

Belize City

First is Belize City—poor, underdeveloped, and, in parts, unsafe. I don’t mind the place. Beneath the gritty surface, I detect a long-faded charm. Or maybe I project one. Either way, I enjoy passing through, but I know that, for many, the best part about traveling to Belize City is leaving Belize City.

Caribbean Coasts

Belize is perhaps best known and best loved for its Caribbean islands, especially Ambergris Caye, the largest and most developed, boasting both long beaches of soft, white sand and an established and growing community of expats and foreign retirees. This is the Caribbean at its best.

Belize’s long mainland coast is marked by two points of particular interest. South of Belize City is Placencia; north is Corozal.

Placencia has grown up in recent years to become the mainland’s best-appointed beach town, catering to tourists and now sporting the trappings that come with them. Corozal boasts easy access to Chetumal, across the bay in Mexico, which can be a big advantage in case of medical emergency. On the other hand, day-to-day, you might feel remote here. Maybe that’s a plus for you… maybe a minus.

The northern coast around Corozal sees about 50 inches of rain a year. The southern coast, Placencia and south, can see three times that much. Maybe that bothers you… maybe it doesn’t.

Cayo

Inland is the Cayo District, a dramatically different region where life revolves around not the sea but the river. For some, river views don’t substitute for ocean vistas; others prefer them.

In other words, each region of Belize has its pluses and its minuses. Island living is always more expensive than life back on the mainland, meaning Ambergris is the most expensive lifestyle choice in the country. Most expensive and also most developed and turn-key.

Cayo offers an opportunity to enjoy a healthy, fulfilling, back-to-basics, and self-sufficient lifestyle, thanks to its abundance of fertile land, water, and sunshine year-round. Cayo is also Belize’s most affordable lifestyle choice.

Infrastructure

The British left great legal, educational, and governmental foundations in Belize but not much in the way of physical infrastructure.

Considerable investment has been made in recent years to improve this country’s roads and bridges. Still, though, to put things into perspective for you, Belize has just a handful of highways.

The most significant artery in the country is the Western Highway, which connects Belize City (the largest city), Belmopan (the capital), and San Ignacio (the largest town in Cayo).

Not only road infrastructure but infrastructure in general is limited in Belize. This is a small country where the infrastructure is most kindly described as “developing.”

No infrastructure, limited services and amenities, and little market demand (meaning limited product supply) could be interpreted as negatives. However, in Belize, particularly in Cayo, these things are a big part of the appeal. Once you get to Cayo, you don’t mind that there’s no infrastructure.

You don’t mind that the culture is more concerned with conservation than consumerism.

You don’t mind… or, if you do, you’re not happy.

If you’re shopping for a lifestyle supported by the diversions and distractions of a big city, Cayo is likely not for you and maybe nowhere else in Belize is either.

I began a love affair with Belize over 30 years ago that has deepened into one of the most important relationships of my life.

I know Belize well, better than anyone else you’re likely to meet. I know the real Belize… and I love her just as she is.

Until next time,

The post Love At First Sight appeared first on Live and Invest Overseas.

I went to work for Agora Publishing as a copy editor fresh out of school aged 21. Then I spent the next 14 years working my way up that ladder from editor to manager and eventually partner.

With Agora I moved from Baltimore to Waterford, where I launched Agora Ireland. Seven years later, I made my second international move, again with Agora’s help, to Paris.

Four years after that, I decided it was time to see what I could get up to on my own.

At first I thought I’d try being retired. Paris seemed a good place for it.

Six months into my departure from Agora, I’d improved my French with the help of an immersion language course, visited dozens of museums, and explored every corner of the city on foot. I was living a dream life with no responsibilities beyond my young son Jackson. But I was restless.

I’ve never been good at doing nothing, and since my accidental early retirement, that’s what my days had been filled with.

One spring afternoon, after I’d whiled away another morning watching the passersby in a café, I walked to the park across from Jackson’s school and sat on a bench. I looked at my watch. Two p.m. Jackson wouldn’t be out until 4 o’clock. Two more hours to kill.

Never in my life had I had so much leisure time. It felt like the greatest imaginable waste. During my working days, I’d been the first one in the office each morning and the last one to leave at night. After my kids, I worked every evening after putting them to bed. Now whole weeks were passing without measurable yield. I was afraid I might start twitching.

Enough. I’d taken the months since leaving Agora as they’d come but no more.

I required work. And, I realized as the thought formed, I didn’t want another job. It was time to build something of my own. I’d found that I loved the Agora business model. It allowed me to create a scalable income as a writer. I’d do that again, this time for myself.

When Jackson and I returned to our apartment later that afternoon, I walked into Lief’s home office. He’d just launched a new undertaking of his own with the purchase of the finca known as Los Islotes. Lief planned to develop this former cattle ranch on Panama’s Veraguas coast into a private, luxury-standard community and was, when I entered his office that day, hanging up from another conference call with his surveyors.

“I’d like to start my own publishing business,” I announced. “Online.”

Lief had known, I suspect, since the day I’d left Agora that I wouldn’t be able to fritter away my life for long.

“Okay,” he said without looking up from the property map on his desk. “Panama will be a good place for that.”

A major life decision made in the course of a two-minute conversation.

Lief and I had organized relocations from the United States to Ireland then from Waterford to Paris. We knew how to do this.

We notified the tenant of a rental apartment we owned in Panama City that we wouldn’t be renewing her lease. That set our clock. We now had three months to engineer our move, which would take place early April. That would give Jackson a window of time to adjust before starting at his new school.

Next we found a property manager who assured us we’d have no trouble renting out our Paris apartment, which neither of us wanted to sell.

All the pieces fell into place. We packed our bags and repositioned from the City of Light to the Hub of the Americas.

Getting from Paris to Panama was easy. Starting two businesses at the same time was not. We had to compete for everything, including space.

Our rental apartment in Panama City had one bedroom. Jackson slept on the couch. Lief was happy as a one-man show for his start-up phase, but I needed staff. I hired our daughter’s boyfriend, Harry, to be my marketing assistant. It was an unexpected option, but no direct-marketing industry exists in Panama. I wasn’t going to find anyone local who understood the business.

We rented Harry a studio apartment a few blocks away. He’d arrive at our place by 8 o’clock each morning and boot up his laptop alongside mine at the single desk. Lief worked from the dining room table. It was tight quarters but we agreed not to take on unnecessary overheads because money was another thing we had only a limited amount of and needed to share.

Harry built me a website and helped me cobble together a mailing list, then I began writing a free daily e-letter showcasing opportunities for Americans interested in retiring overseas.

It was the same plan I’d followed during my career at Agora. It generated income immediately, and I knew it would work long-term because I’d made it work before, though I couldn’t say exactly when revenues would exceed expenses.

Anyone who has started a business from nothing understands. The first years are lean.

With Harry’s help, we made it through our early years. We moved to a bigger apartment and eventually invested in office space.

We grew from a team of three to 30 hard-working folks in our El Cangrejo headquarters today… plus another two-dozen in Paris, London, and beyond… including, again, I am delighted to be able to say, a team on the ground in Ireland.

My first e-dispatch mailed to fewer than 500.

Today our readership exceeds 500,000 daily.

This year Live And Invest Overseas marked 18 years in business.

It hasn’t been an easy or a straight line to get from where we started to where we are today, but it has been an adventure… and a whole lot of fun.

And, as much as I owe to Lief and Harry for giving me my start, I owe more to you, dear reader.

If not for you reading these dispatches each day, what point me writing them.

Your loyalty, support, and custom these many years have been my greatest reward…

Along with your stories.

Tales of your success are what keep me and the entire far-flung Live And Invest Overseas team doing what we do. Please keep them coming.

Until next time,

The post The Perfect Place For The Adventure Of A Lifetime appeared first on Live and Invest Overseas.