I came here to mention this. I am thinking of taking a long trip there to see if it would be someplace I could retire to, though to tell the truth it would be a battle with my wife. She (coming from Chicago) favors colder weather, while as a desert rat I would be well into the Atacama desert. So she would go to Chile, just not the part I want to go to. Sigh.
After that, my choice would be Croatia. I know they are welcoming workers now with residency visas, but not sure about retirees. I have relatives in Croatia, though I don’t know what that means retirement wise. I have relatives in Kentucky, but I sure as hell am not retiring there.
Back-to-back mentions of Cuenca got me interested. I do like the idea of no more seasons at the equator— Winter Spring Summer Fall…and Winter AGAIN? Make up your mind, planet! It’s just exhausting. Give me the same weather and same length of day year-round.
But, high temps that struggle to get into the 70s F? I’d like something just a wee bit more tropical. Also, I’d like to be near bodies of water, and at that elevation I imagine it would take a lot of downhill driving to get there.
ETA: after googling, it appears there are two seasons at the equator as the Sun passes directly over the equator during the Spring and Fall Equinoxes-- a dry season and a wet season. But the length of day is always the same.
I suspect Malta - or any place in Europe - may not quality for the OP, as it’s certainly not tropical. The Med is obviously lovely for six months of the year, but winters are still winter.
Actually that is the thing with Malta and even Sicily to some degree. No winters, at least not winters like I from New Jersey would consider winters.
Malta never freezes, its February lows are 48°f and highs are 88°f in July & August.
So it is possible.
Sicily is fairly inexpensive and the climate is similar to Malta but the English speaking is fairly minimal.
Crete gets cold though. Not sure why Malta & Sicily are so temperate and Crete isn’t.
I guess we have different ideas about what’s tropical! I wouldn’t holiday in Sicily in winter - it would be pleasant enough, but I’d still need a coat, and all the beaches and resort towns will be pretty much closed. 48F is what we get in southern England at this time of year.
Yeah, permanent summer-like temps would be ideal, but I could work with that temperature range.
I believe my father-in-law was born in Sicily or thereabouts, so my wife would have family in the area. So that’s something.
ETA: and as for languages, I learned some French in college so I think a Romance language like Spanish or Italian wouldn’t be too difficult to learn over time. Batter than learning say, the Thai language.
I couldn’t take the heat year round and really can’t take the humidity. I love New Orleans, but a week at a time is all I can handle. So Malta is really good for me, but not for everyone. If the temperature is pretty much never below 50°f during the day, I’m pretty happy. Almost never 90° is great.
Since this thread, my Google Feed started pumping me articles about places to retire out of the country and Panama & Portugal keep coming up. Panama is friendly to America and its currency is USD. Fair amount of English speakers too. It’s daytime temp is pretty much 80 & 90s every day and lows are mid 70s. So not for me, but maybe for you?
This should be the first issue to consider. Not climate, not cost-of-living, not language.
What good does it do you to find the perfect country , if they don’t grant you the privilege of living there as a permanent resident or citizen.?
You’re gonna need a visa and a green card , whichever country you move to. And some countries have very high fences.
(Also, no matter what country you live in if you’re an American citizen, the IRS will follow you forever. IRS regulations are so complex that some banks in other countries will not accept American citizens as customers https://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-expats-idUSKBN0EM16V20140611
According to this website, you can gain residency rights to Malta by either the Malta global residency program or the Malta Citizenship by Investment Program. The second one sounds a little rich for my blood, so hopefully the first one wouldn’t have too many hoops to jump through.
I was scrolling though photos of Malta on Google Maps, and it’s freakin’ beautiful, especially the seaside. As mentioned, I think my wife would like it because she has family in the area. We have somewhat different ideas of where we would want to live-- she likes mountains and mountain views, and is not crazy about water activities, though she does love kayaking, and that’s our favorite outdoor activity together in the summer.
Me, I’m not crazy about high elevations, and I want warm weather and water. My idea of heaven would be to retire to the Florida Keys, if I could afford it, go ut in a boat and fish all day, and bring my catch in to a place like Lazy Days in Marathon Key to cook it for dinner. But Florida is the last state my wife would want to move to. If we were to choose a state to move to, it would be Colorado for her. In terms of retiring to a different county, I’m not saying Malta would be a perfect fit for both of us, but it does seem to have a lot we’d both like.
One consideration when thinking about retiring overseas; what are you going to do about medical care? Will Medicare reimburse you for treatment outside the US? I doubt it. Perhaps not an issue if you’re relatively healthy. Perhaps you could plan trips back to the US for major care?
Portugal has some incentives to promote expat retirees, I think, or at least, it’s easier to get into than some other places. Lovely place, low cost of living, nice climate (not tropical though), lots of nice beaches and golf courses if that’s your thing, lovely food and wine, lots of English spoken. Very popular with Brits for all of the above.
Not necessarily - remember, even in a country with single-payer healthcare, as a retiree you haven’t spent your life paying into the system, so may be excluded, or have to pay a premium to access it. Very much depends on the country, their system, and your situation.
This website states that in Malta you would need to pay for private healthcare.
Right, presumably you can access the health care system in the country, but you’re probably going to have to pay for it. (On the other hand, healthcare in America is so screwed up and expensive that it might still be worthwhile.)
The medical stuff is interesting. I thought the same as solost. I thought if you could achieve permanent residency, you were covered by their healthcare.
That is a really important consideration I seem to be misunderstanding.
As much as I look at this stuff, the reality is we’ll probably retire to someplace reasonably close to our future grandkids and not a place like Malta or Portugal. Or maybe snowbirding it.