For almost 17 years Paris has been my home, and for all that time I’ve worked from my portable U.S. office… living the dream I had for so many years to be rooted in the City of Light.

Paris is the destination of choice for most visitors to France looking for culture, good food and that special joie de vie (“joy of life”). But while there are good reasons it’s the most- visited city in the world, don’t be blinded by the City of Light.

“But what will I live on?” It’s a common refrain among folks who dream of life overseas but don’t have a ready source of income to fund it. (After all, even in the most affordable destinations, you can’t live for free.)

I’m sitting in a rooftop restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, sipping on a margarita from a frosted, salt-rimmed goblet. Below me stretches out a cityscape of tiled rooftops, gaily-colored colonial buildings and cobbled streets. Shadows are lengthening, and as night falls and the air cools, locals, expats, and tourists will throng the town’s main square.

There’s a special art to drinking beer in Brazil. One of my favorite haunts is Bar Filial in the Vila Madalena neighborhood of São Paulo. Sit at a table there, and it will be mere seconds before a waiter in a starched white jacket and a black bowtie glides up to you with a tray of recently-pulled draft beers.

Owning physical gold and silver in the form of coins and bullion will help to conserve your purchasing power as paper money loses its value. But where do you store it?

Imagine yourself awakening to a symphony of tropical birds and brilliant sunshine. You walk into the open-air, center courtyard of your colonial home and pour yourself a rich cup of locally grown coffee. The courtyard’s lush, tropical vegetation is the home’s centerpiece oasis… and almost hides the blue, shimmering pool, right in your “living room.”

Whether it’s the action-filled fun of ATV excursions to remote beaches or horse-back riding to towering waterfalls, Terry Bandi enjoys running his business on the Samaná Peninsula in the Dominican Republic. His enthusiasm for life here is contagious as he explains local customs and points out things of interest all around.

This unspoilt stretch of beautiful coastline is Ecuador’s finest and until recently, it was difficult to get to. But last year the new coastal road from Quito to Pedernales was finished. (Pedernales is just thirty minutes from this community.) This cuts the drive time from Quito to Pedernales in half, to three-and-a-half hours.

First it was the acrobat tied up in a tree. Then the three-headed woman with a snake slithering from her posterior. Now there’s a naked warrior with a belly big enough for Sumo wrestling… No, not a Tuscan freak show—it’s Piazza Matteoti in the northern Tuscan town of Pietrasanta. And these are only three of the town’s many bronze and marble sculptures.