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I've Lived Abroad for 4 Years. I'd Never Do This Again.

Retire Abroad After 60

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Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or medical advice. Always consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

Five years ago, I packed up my life in the US thinking cheap rent and warm weather were all that mattered. I was wrong. The biggest mistakes you can make when you retire abroad have almost nothing to do with money.

In this video, I share the five things I’d do completely differently if I were starting over today, including the residency process I started in Ecuador that cost me about $1,000 before I realized I didn’t want to live there. Lesson four is the one that matters most: get it wrong, and no amount of money saved will fix it.

In this video:

Why I’d never commit to a country I hadn’t lived in (Portugal, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador)
Why vacationing, living abroad, and retiring abroad are three different things
The healthcare questions to ask before you move, from a former hospital CEO
Why who you’ll spend your life with matters more than what you’ll spend
How a “non-negotiables” list can save you from the wrong country

20 Comments

@RetireAbroadAfter60 Creator 1 day ago (edited) Pinned

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So I’m curious: what’s the ONE thing on your non-negotiable list for retiring abroad? 👇 And if you’ve already moved, which of these five mistakes did you make?

@MyLifeInSpain888 16 hours ago

Hi! Thank you for the video; you raised some very important points. I moved to Spain from New Jersey 16 years ago, not speaking a word of Spanish. It turned out to be the best thing I ever did. I now speak reasonable Spanish and have some great Spanish friends. The secret for me was not getting caught up in an expat bubble but learning to live like a Spaniard.

@grahamreid2132 13 hours ago

It brings me no pleasure to say that I and others are lucky to learn from your lessons/ experiences/ mistakes..Amother great reel.

@TerryManitoba 16 hours ago

Such VITALLY important points to consider 👍 THX
I've pondered most of what you spoke about - BUT it is nice to have it wrapped up in a tidy YT.

@jesseinasia 5 hours ago

Subscribed! You make a lot of sense to me. Cheers!

@Matlacha_Painter 2 hours ago

God bless America!

@TonyClifton-s6i 9 hours ago

I concur with everything you said having made some of the same mistakes. And I agree that most of the better expat countries have seen better days. Everyone is raising their visa and investment thresholds effectively making many of them off limits for a lot of people. Health Insurance access and affordability become paramount as you get older. When I retired in Colombia I pretty much stayed at home most of the time because that’s what I like at this stage of life. I can do that here in the USA with better comfort, quiet, and better security. Food variety is nice. In Medellin there was pretty good variety but it’s pricey and frankly not very good. I can find authentic ethnic food here in Houston and it’s infinitely better than anything I ate in Medellin. Thursday, I drove down to Galveston and enjoyed some good Vietnamese food and took a little stroll along the beach. It took about three hours total and I was back home enjoying the quiet. I’m still considering Panama but it’s looking less appealing with continually rising rents, attorney fees, and security issues. Still waiting to see if rising fuel prices and possible shortages destabilize some of the expat havens. Locals could be restless in that situation. Thanks again for your honest opinions and advice.

@sunsetjunior9313 14 hours ago

well done. absolutely reasonable , experience based wisdom... the "realities" of the idea vs the idealizing of a foreign beach, drink in hand, permanent vacation mentality.

@GreggLeduc-v8g 4 hours ago

The best retirement plan is to have a job you love and work as long as you physically can - like Warren Buffett.

@tommyflorida9204 13 hours ago

I will not move to a country where I don't speak the local language. Being Canadian, I am fluent in English and French. Having a mixed blood ancestry, I can speak Khmer and Thai. So in my case, I will feel comfortable in South East Asia and French speaking countries. I noticed that in Asia, so many westerners can speak or learn the local language to fit in. Language is the only thing that makes you feel part of the community, it will open doors.

@martypoll 8 hours ago

My first criteria is that you have to want to move to your destination country. You have to like the place. You can’t know if you like the place unless you have been there first. You can’t realistically evaluate the place if you are only in vacation mode. Finally, you should probably have had some travel experience throughout your life even if it is just vacation travel. You shouldn’t be retiring, getting your first passport, selling all your stuff, and then committing to the first country you see in YouTube.

I did have 30 years of vacationing in other countries, mostly Europe. I had no thought of moving abroad when I first visited a friend who had retired to Thailand. Once I got here though the country and Bangkok just internally resonated with me. I returned and returned and then decided to make the leap.

Bangkok was a soft landing for me but I did have travel experience and I am adaptable to new situations and very organized and self-reliant. Personality and experience count for a lot. There are people here, not a lot, who speak English. The expat community is large and, if you choose carefully, they are a great bunch of people and very helpful and supportive. Bangkok is both modern and familiar and fascinating and strange and exciting. The healthcare, infrastructure, and food culture are exceptional. The dating is pretty easy but you have to use some common sense.

Thailand is a low cost of living country but that is not why I moved here. I have the finances to live in the US. I just found that I like Thailand and wanted the change at this time of my life, retirement. It is a lot easier to face the challenges of moving abroad if you aren’t worrying about if you have the income and savings. Also, having the money makes meeting the visa financial requirements easy and therefore the visa process easy.

As far as social life is concerned, I still visit the US once a year to meet up with friends and family. Here in Thailand I have found it much easier to make friends than in retirement in the US. There is something about being far from home that brings all of us together. Finally, I found a wonderful Thai woman to be my wife. Having a Thai wife/girlfriend opens up the culture and experience of Thailand in ways that are more difficult or obvious as a single traveler/resident.

I've lived in Thailand, mostly Bangkok, for 9 1/2 years now and couldn't be happier with my decision and my life.

@TheSportsPROgram 16 hours ago

I know someone that is packing up everything and moving to Costa Rica and has only been there for a holiday, with Kids. I told him to go spend more time before making such a big move and he says he's ready for the challenge. I don't think he understands a lot of things about living in latin America full time. And only his wife speaks Spanish.

@williambassin3550 14 hours ago

A very sobering analysis. But some of your points I think are more confusing when one thinks about them. I am thinking here especially about socializing. I don't do much socializing even in my home country. It would seem virtually impossible to tell in advance what countries would be most conducive to a good social life for a person thinking about living abroad. Any person desiring to live abroad would have to go to a country and try living there for awhile, before being able to form an opinion on what country would be best for one's social life. There's no way to know in advance. But I would think that it might be difficult, in most countries, to make good friends there. I don't think it can be figured out in advance. One simply has to try foreign living, in order to see how it affects one's social life. But I would think that in most countries, making good friends would be difficult. More difficult, I'd think, than making friends at home.

@Tom-tk3du 15 hours ago (edited)

I’ve been an expat for much of my adult life. Language is the most important factor, imho. Sharing a common language with the locals enables you to make friends and function effortlessly outside the expat community. I don’t spend any time with the expat community. If you’re committed to the idea of living in a country where your native language is not spoken, then you really need to learn the local language.

@BoxTruckNomads 20 hours ago

Yeah, no amount of reading and watching YouTube videos on country XYZ will replace exploratory trips (boots on the ground)!

@DavidW-f1f 12 hours ago

👌🏽💯👌🏽💯

@Laara2121 12 hours ago

I think it's different for everyone and for you to say "You need to...do this" and "You need to ....do that" is not the/was not the case for me. I'm travellng to find my place, but I'm not going to carry a lot of anxiety about the things you talk about with me.

@AstroDanno 15 hours ago

What changed your mind about Ecuador?

@BoundlessDisciple 8 hours ago

Hey! What city in Korea are you in? I'm currently in Seoul!

@purplehaze3640 6 hours ago

ALMOST LISTEN MY OWN STORY, THE 1st COUNTRY I WENT WAS PORTUGAL FOR THE SAME REASON. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES. THE LAS T THING I WANT TO HEAR NOW IS MOVE TO THIS COUNTRY IT IS CHEAP.