I'm sitting outside trying to catch a breeze in the sultry evening heat of David, Panama. The second (or maybe third, depending on who you ask) largest city in Panama, David is the shopping town of Chiriqui Province on the western end of the country. My husband and I traveled here from Panama City after the close of the Live & Invest in Panama conference. I'll be filling you in on our travels throughout the country, but first I want to share a bit more about the conference. Last Friday I …
Panama Expat Conference: Hot Air or Helpful?
I'm writing this from my hotel room in the Four Points Hotel in Panama City, Panama where I'm attending the Live & Invest in Panama conference. A couple of months ago I asked whether expat conferences are valuable tools or expensive hype, and by the time we finish our meetings tomorrow night I'll be able to answer that question for you. In the meantime, here are a few highlights of the "Living in Panama" portion of the conference so far. Living in Panama One minute we were milling around the …
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On My Way to Panama
By the time you read this, I'll be tossing the last few items into my suitcase and heading for the airport. Today I fly to Panama to attend the Live & Invest in Panama conference, followed by a week exploring the country. This is the culmination of a decision made in January, just a couple of months ago. But in another respect, it's the culmination of nearly five years of research and planning. That's about when I started reading some of the expat websites and thinking about retiring …
Cheap Cities for Expats — But Would You Really Want to Live There?
Last week we published the top cities in the world for high cost of expat living. Now it's time to flip it around and show you the lowest-cost cities. I explained the methodology here. While most of the high cost-of-living cities are in the Pacific Rim and Europe, most of the lowest cost cities are in Africa. So, without further ado, here are the least expensive cities for expats in the world. Sanaa, Yemen NukuAlofa, Tonga Tripoli, Libya Thimpu, Bhutan Colombo, Sri Lanka Phnom Penh, …
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Highest Cost of Living Cities for Expats
It's that time of year again -- time to list the "best of" 2010. From XPatulator, here are the 10 most expensive cities in the world to live in. "Expensive" was determined by looking at the cost of a basket of items in each location. How They Rank Xpatulator ranks the cost of living based on prices for the same goods and services in each city. They use New York City as their baseline, with a cost of living rank of 100. They choose their 13 basket groups of goods and services based on what's …
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Uh-Oh. Thanks, Facebook for Outing Me to my Mother-in-Law
Last week I decided to post some items we're selling on Facebook Marketplace. Little did I know that the "sharing" choices are different for Marketplace ads than for regular status updates, and that difference caused an uproar in the family. My in-laws have steadfastly refused to discuss our plans to become expats. It's the unspoken elephant in the room. We've found this refusal enormously frustrating, and I know she's frustrated, too. Anyway. . . back to the story. . . We've been trying to …
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