🔒 Portugal tops list of best places to retire for English speakers

LONDON — Many of our readers sat upright when we published an article in which financial planner, Alec Riddle told us that people who retire earlier, can expect to live longer. Just spending more time in your own garden and local haunts with more frequent travel may be a good retirement prospect for some; for the more adventurous a retirement overseas may be more alluring. But it is not always easy to choose a destination. Sitting in a café in Paris, munching a croissant and looking at the stylish Parisians, may sound like a good idea, until you try chatting with the locals and you discover that they frown upon or are plain ‘bleddie ongeskik’ to anyone not speaking their language. Or maybe they just don’t like the English. You get more done trying Afrikaans or Zulu first. And even if you do have a smatter of French, they tend to answer you in English. So, all those lessons count for nothing. But don’t despair you do not only have to consider the obvious destinations like the United Kingdom and the places where you know people. Kathleen Peddicord, founder of Live and Invest Overseas has whittled the list down for English speaking retirees. She shares some of her 2019 top 21 destinations including 10 new entries with Bloomberg Business Week’s Carol Massar. Here is a spoiler alert, Portugal tops the list, but it is worthwhile looking at the other places. – Linda van Tilburg

We will get the things that we think are most important to would-be retirees, and that would be, I guess to start, the cost of living, of course budget is key, and then healthcare – critical at this stage of life. Then we also look at entertainment, recreation and culture because what are you going to do with yourself, how are you going to fill your days? When we’re talking about retiring overseas, as I am, as a living overseas investor does; one thing we look at is the amount of English spoken in the location because that’s very important. How easy will it be for you to make friends, make connections, and to get the support and the help that you need to put your life together.
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Then following on, that is expat community – to what extent is there an established community of fellow, foreign retirees? There are a number of places around the world with big and growing communities of foreign retirees and expats. Then some places in the world that are very appealing in many ways but where you would be living a very local life, which is a different kind of life, for some. That’s exciting and a big adventure and for others that’s very intimidating. So, that’s an important consideration.

Then we look at infrastructure. When retiring one important factor of course, is staying connected to family and friends back home, your children and your grandchildren. So, how easy and how costly is it to travel back and forth? We look at environmental factors, specifically pollution and garbage, which frankly is not a pleasant topic but in the developing world, in the reality of life often,  so, we try to rate that and factor that in. Crime, of course safety, stability, very important. Affordability of real estate – not a top priority, not a top factor but important because a lot of retirees want to own their own place so, what will that cost you?

Following on from that, real estate, ownership restrictions – are there any? In much of the world, at this point, there aren’t, so you’re going to be able to buy with freehold title and no restrictions. But in some places, there are restriction and you want to know about them. Then we look at taxes – if you’re moving as a retiree, we consider it usually a tax neutral event. You’ll pay no less in taxes wherever you go, but you’ll likely pay no more – depending on where your income is coming from. Then finally, we look at residency, which is a consideration only if you want to move full-time and live in another country indefinitely. Then you need to establish the legal right to do that.

Read also: Portugal’s Golden Visa goes green: New visa category added

Right, give me a couple of countries or places that really stand out, and don’t get to the top honours yet, we’ll save that for last?

Paris and Occitanie, which is in the South of France, we call it the ‘other south of France’ it’s not Provence, it’s not what everyone knows but it is also the South of France, but it’s much more affordable because it’s just that no-one is paying attention to it, it’s kind of ignored. But it is the best of French country living and Paris is hard to beat. That’s where I am right now and that’s where my husband and I intend to retire when… we joke and say, ‘when we’re too old to get on a plane again this is where we’re going to settle down.’ It is everything that the romantic retiree imagines that it would be. It can be more affordable than you would expect or than you might think. Also, it has lots of top-tier practical advantages like excellent infrastructure, the world’s best healthcare, for example. So, Paris can be hard to beat. But not everyone wants Europe or France specifically.

Or in a big city for that matter.

So, there are other destinations in the Americas, for example, would be Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which is a great old world, colonial city. So, it’s a very historic city but it’s in the Caribbean so, you’ve got beaches, white-sand beaches nearby but a very interesting cosmopolitan experience in Santo Domingo. Cayo, Belize, is one of my favourite choices, which is a place most people haven’t thought about. A lot of Americans, at this point, have heard of Belize in the context of Survivor and Temptation Island, which filmed seasons there. In that context they think of Ambergris Caye, which is Belize in the Caribbean and that’s great but Belize also has an inland, which is made up of mountains and Mayan ruins, and rivers and rainforests.

There’s so much there.

A very great, kind of detached from the 21^st Century, back to basic lifestyle.

Kathleen, we’ve just got 30-seconds left so, give us the top honours that just scores high in everything.

The top honours go to Portugal. In fact, Portugal came out in place #1 – the Algarve and #3 – Cascais, which is a city just outside Lisbon. One thing I would highlight for our picks this year is that there are a number of European destinations among the top-10, and that’s because Europe is a great bargain right now, the dollar is strong and a lot of Europe is undervalued so, there’s a big opportunity. If you’ve dreamt of Europe for retirement but thought you couldn’t afford it; France, Italy, and Portugal I would put at #1.