International Living Community

Hello there. Sorry about the technical difficulties.

Let's start with the golden visa issue. The type of programs you are referring to have mainly abandoned real estate as an option. But there are plenty of other visa types that will work for you as well. There's no need for you to start investing little bits into foreign stock markets to get residency abroad.

Of course, if you have money in an IRA, you can convert some of it to a self directed IRA, and to use that to invest in qualifying assets in whatever country you want to live in. As you note, it's quite difficult to get banking and brokerage facilities in a foreign country unless you have a close connection there, or until you've got a residency visa.

If your goal is to retire overseas, then your best bet is to focus on getting a financially independent person's visa, sometimes called a non-lucrative visa. In all countries, this requires that you demonstrate a regular flow of passive income from pension or investments. As long as you have enough coming in, and you have all the other paperwork in order, that allows you to live in the country indefinitely. And it doesn't require that you open up a bank account ahead of time.

Hi Keith,
I adore my island Cozumel and have been here for seven years now. I love everything about it. the culture, food, people, but especially the ocean. The water is gorgeous.
Bel Woodhouse - Mexico Correspondent.

Hi Sherryl, I'm Bel, the Mexico Correspondent and yes, there are expats living in Mazatlan. Here are a coupld of Facebook groups: Mazatlan Expats and Mazatlan Buy and Sell so you have contacts for those living there right now to answer your questions.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/421874412236301
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498042901476569

It's hard to go wrong RLBarker, there are so many great options that you're better off deciding which country you'd love to spend time in and then zeroing in on towns within that country with good language programs.

That said I think Panama, where I live, is a great option. There's a Spanish school in the capital's colonial sector, Casco Viejo, that gets great reviews and the owner has spoken at IL Event in Panama so we know the school is real (IL's annual Fast Track Panama conference), see https://cascospanish.com/.

Many say the easiest Latin American Spanish accent to learn in is Mexican or Colombian. I find the accent in Panama City to be very straightforward, it's not sing-songy but rather more like newscaster accents.

Outside of Panama City if you get into rural parts you will find that people speak a bit differently (clipping words/omitting the end syllable, for example) but this is true in much of Latin America (easier for learners to understand "posher" accents in cities versus rural parts)

If you love countries like Argentina and Uruguay then that's a quite different type of Spanish so you'd maybe want to go to a school that can teach you Rioplatense Spanish. And if you fancy spending a lot of time in Spain, same thing - it's a quite different version Spanish, probably best to study it in Spain itself.

~IL Panama Editor Jessica Ramesch

Hi, IL Events should be able to help you with that, go to https://internationalliving.com/contact-us/ and send them a note or call the listed number (there's a toll-free and a direct dial).