Panama In 2023—The Truth About Life On This Isthmus

October 23, 2023

I woke up this morning, brewed a pot of Irish breakfast tea, and, as has been my custom for decades now, sat down at my laptop to write you a letter.  I want to focus your attention this week on Panama. Trouble is... I’ve been telling people about Panama for 25 years. In fact, I…

A Rich Cultural Scene And World Class Health Care

August 30, 2023

Dear LIOS Confidential Reader, The first time I ever recommended Americans think about retiring overseas was back in 1985. When I began making these kinds of suggestions, I was sometimes met with suspicion… sometimes ignored… now and then even attacked as part of the lunatic fringe. The good news is that today the idea of…

A Look At The Different Lifestyles In Belize

December 12, 2022

Reef, Rivers, Ruins, And Rum—Why I Love Belize We believe Belize is one of the best places in the world to live, retire, invest, and chase

Live In Ecuador And Drop 50% Of Your Expenses

December 5, 2022

The Cheapest Place In The World To Retire Well—On Less Than $800 A Month Ecuador is the number-one place in the world for a cheap and luxurious retirement. In fact, no matter where

Move To Panama: Live Better And Save More

October 31, 2022

We Chose Panama When We Could Have Based Ourselves Anywhere—Here’s Why “In 2013 my wife Carolyn and I decided we needed a change. Our lives in Hawaii

Take Your Pick: Custom-Tailor Your New Life Overseas

April 11, 2022

What Makes You Miserable? Start Your Overseas Adventure There This will be a piece of cake, I told myself as we prepared for our move from Baltimore to Waterford what now seems like a lifetime ago… How different can Ireland be from the United States? My husband, my daughter, and I, we’ll slide right into…

Is Retiring In Panama Still A Good Choice? If So, Where?

January 31, 2022

From Laid-Back To Luxury, Panama Offers Every Lifestyle A Retiree Could Wish For… All A Bargain I was the first to suggest Panama as a good choice for any North American looking for a place to retire that was sunny and cheap. I made that recommendation for the first time in 1998. Back then, I…

We’ve Found These Are The Downsides To Living In Portugal

January 3, 2022

Portugal, The Flip Side—Here’s What’s Not To Love I’ve been spending time in Portugal since 2013. I knew after the first visit that this was a special place… a place where I wanted to spend as much time as a busy life like mine could handle. So my husband and I went house-hunting… We searched…

Everything You Need To Know About The Many Faces Of Belize

October 18, 2021

Sizing Up The Four Faces Of Sunny Belize For me and Belize, it was love at first sight. From the first morning I arrived in Belize, nearly 30 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…

Why Overseas Real Estate Is Such A Good Investment In 2021

May 24, 2021

No More Sleepless Nights Of all the investment options out there, why put your money into real estate? And, more to the point, why foreign real estate? My husband Lief Simon—who continues to grow his international real estate portfolio every year—says that diversifying into markets outside the United States helps him sleep better at night.…