I won’t lie. Math was never my forté. I have no love for numbers. I’ve more amor for words.
But I know the value of good sums. I’ve scouted the wide world for International Living. My desk is piled with battered notebooks containing lots of numbers. I’ve stalked the aisles of neighborhood stores from Panama to Paris taking stock of prices. I know how much the average monthly electricity bill is in Medellín, Colombia. I can tell you the price of a dental filling in Thailand.
And each year I’m one of a large team dedicated to crunching these and many other numbers to arrive at the results of International Living’s Annual Global Retirement Index.
The Retirement Index is the distillation of every measurable and pertinent fact our scouts, experts, and expat contacts can lay their hands on. Each year it grows in scope. It’s refined, tweaked, developed.
It builds on all that went before—decades of “from the ground” intelligence. When you consult the 2016 Index you’re leveraging all of the experience and knowledge of our current batch of expat contributors on top of that of every expat who has ever contributed to International Living since it was first published 35 years ago.
That’s why I’d urge you to return to this issue throughout the next 12 months. Consult this latest Retirement Index. Use it to run the rule over destinations as you add them to your shortlist.
The Index isn’t simply a mammoth number-crunching exercise. At its heart is the judgment of the many seasoned expats, folks like you, who have made the move.
I trust them. Not only for the numbers they provide, but for the quality of their experiences and judgment.
And you really need only two tools to find your perfect retirement haven. Our Annual Global Retirement Index, and as IL Editor Dan Prescher says, your gut instinct…
All around the world, people like to welcome the New Year in style. Take the city of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. Every January sees the return of the Junkanoo Parade—one of the oldest street festivals in the Caribbean. With drums and horns blasting through the air, the party atmosphere is palpable.
Bats portend doom. So the folklore goes. In New Mexico a bat in the house means a death will occur within eight days. In the Midwest it’s within a few months. And if you live in Washington State, the good news is you have a whole year.
Somoto Canyon is one of the oldest rock formations in Central America, and Northern Nicaragua’s most-impressive natural attraction. But it went undiscovered until 2004, when a team of Czech and Nicaraguan scientists stumbled upon this colossal natural wonder.
France has no shortage of elegant beach towns, but none transports you to a more graceful time and place than the island of Île de Ré. Floating in an ocean of clear blue-green water on France’s southwestern coast, this little-known island is a world of scrubby pine trees and golden shores.
The mood on copper has tarnished lately. The industrial metal was down 17% in late 2015. It hit a six-year low in August.But the situation for copper is not as dire as it seems. In fact, we could be in for an upside surprise this year.
ying at the heart of sunny Andalucía, Seville is one of southern Spain’s most beautiful cities. Waves of conquerors, from the Romans to the Moors, have left their stamp on its spectacular architecture. Thousands of tapas bars line the streets, and the warm Spanish sun nurtures parks full of palm trees.
There’s something special about Cotacachi, Ecuador. It has a magnetic quality that draws people in and makes them want to call this town home. Maybe it’s the magic feeling of having two sacred mountains stand guard over this little valley town. Perhaps it’s the crisp, clean air and the perfect blue of the equatorial sky. It could be the friendly and welcoming atmosphere that envelops this area. Or maybe it’s the whole package.
“We have everything we want here,” Chris Gallimore says of his and his wife Katherine’s new life in Panama. “A nice home in the country, perfect climate, plenty of friends, and a social life. Before we moved to Panama, work just got in the way of our hobbies. Now we do what we want.”
“We love the fact that our retirement income goes so much further here,” says Leanne Crawley of her and her husband’s retirement in the mountain city of Cuenca, Ecuador. “Our quality of life is so much better than it was in the States, when we were both working too hard. We’re thankful for the friendships we’ve made with people from all over the world. Living in Cuenca, we experience a sense of peace and joy that we’ve never known. We are truly blessed.”
Feeling burned out by their busy careers, Clive and Janet Brewster made the big decision to leave the working world behind in October 2014. That’s when they embarked on a new life on the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye. Today you’ll find them living a life of leisure and luxury on this laidback Caribbean island.