As we sipped wine at the corner café with friends, my husband turned to me with a big smile on his face and exclaimed, “We really live in Europe. Can you believe it?” Just then the waitress came over with the check, which our friend took. “I’ve got this one,” he said. Two wines, one Read more...: From Tropical Panama to Our New Life in Historic Portugal
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For serial housesitters Denny and Eden Rudin, gone is their hectic, working-world life in the U.S., with car and mortgage payments and high medical costs. “With housesitting, we find it’s actually cheaper than our life was back in Arizona. Plus we get to see new places,” they say.
"As the sun peeked over the horizon, I heard the bells of the cathedral ring out, welcoming in the day,” says Pat Buff of the moment she fell in love with Granada, Nicaragua. “I went out onto the hotel balcony to enjoy my cup of coffee and watched as the city came to life. It was in that magical moment that I realized this is where I wanted to live.”
As my husband Clyde approached the taxi, the driver looked surprised to hear a gringo speaking Spanish. After all, this was the tourist town of Banos, Ecuador, which attracts visitors from all over the world. The streets are lined with little shops that display signs in English offering tours of the quaint little village.
Since my husband Clyde and I retired to Panama four years ago, a typical day is anything but that. We awaken each day to the sound of birds singing, roosters crowing, and geckos’ chirping as our peaceful little neighborhood comes to life…wondering what the new day will bring
When my husband Clyde was working as a firefighter and paramedic in Corpus Christi, Texas he had top-notch health insurance. While he was still working, the city paid a portion of our premium but after he decided to call it quits we’d be responsible for the full amount. With a monthly premium of over $1,200 how could we afford to retire, let alone retire early?
To me, there's something almost magical about the beach. From the peaceful sounds of the surf breaking against the shore to the squawking of the gulls high above, it conjures up visions of simpler times when the only worry in the world was whether or not the water would wash away our sand castle.
As I sit here sweating in the middle of January it's hard to imagine that it's cold somewhere. Our friends back in the U.S. are still working, yet I'm only 53 years old and happily retired now for two years. The past two and a half years have gone by quickly as we've settled into our new life in Panama.