Back To North America......For A While!

September 1, 2014.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the crew of this aircraft would like to welcome you today to our COPA Airlines flight to Las Vegas Nevada. We will be pushing back momentarily. We request everyone please fasten their seat belts, ensure their seats are in the upright position and all tables are securely fastened.  Please sit back, relax and enjoy the safety video. Attendants - prepare for takeoff..... That's how the next phase of our retirement adventure kicked in.

As we lifted off from the runway at Tocumen International Airport, Panama and we became airborne gaining height as the aircraft banked heavily turning towards our destination, I cast my mind back to the array of experiences we had enjoyed over the past 16 months. 

I recalled many of the people we had met during our journeys around the various countries we had visited in South and Central America. Most were either from Canada and the United States - all with one common goal - to explore opportunities in other countries. Some of these exploratory journeys taking us occasionally out of our comfort zones. 

Quite a few had come to investigate possibilities such as working or building a business in another country. Others like us were looking critically into the advantages (and disadvantages) of relocating to these countries to retire. We were certainly not on our own in this regard. 

It has surprised us as to how many people are doing this nowadays. Literally tens of thousands do it every year and the numbers are increasing steadily in both Canada and the United States as many (especially in the US) are finding it harder to live on their retirement incomes or on the money they have saved up over their working lives. 

Some don't have retirement pensions and have to get by on their Social Security payments alone - a pretty scary thought from our point of view but with prices rising so fast and the US national debt now over 17 Trillion Dollars, many younger  Americans are wondering if they will ever see their Social Security come to fruition. It's a real worry for them. We can only be thankful we aren't in the same boat.     

  

The Arenal Volcano, Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

On a more positive note, I also thought about all of the gorgeous natural beauty we had both enjoyed in the countries we had visited, and of the diversity of the nature we had seen over the course of the past year and a quarter. 

Our brief trip to Ecuador in South America, and more recently to Costa Rica and Panama in Central America had introduced us to environments we had only experienced by watching The Discovery Channel on television. Now it was real. We were in our own movie so to speak.  

Three of these wonderful birds would come to our yard every day
twice a day in Panama

We have been incredibly lucky to have experienced first hand the sheer beauty and diversity of the gorgeous birds, fish and wildlife we had encountered on the way. We could not have wished for a better show. We were both grateful for the fact that we had the health to undertake this journey. If nothing else - we are richer for the experiences we have had.   

The Malinchi Tree seen in both Costa Rica and Panama

The diverse types of flora were amazing and seemingly unlimited. We could now identify a Teak Tree, a Malinchi Tree (pronounced Malinchee), Banana Palms, Plantain Palms (and know the difference between the two), Coconut Palms, Bamboo, Avacado trees, Pineapple bushes, Rice Paddies, Mango Trees, the treasured Noni Tree and its strange looking fruit. All a wonderful learning adventure. 

We had delighted in the joys of seeing a troop of roughly ten Capuchin Monkeys at close range - just 12 feet away from our breakfast table.  All of them sitting in the trees watching us as we ate breakfast at our hotel in Costa Rica. We watched as they tried to taunt the Golden Retriever sat with his owner below at a table adjacent to us.  

We had seen Cranes, Sea Snakes, Turtles, Humpback Whales, Dolphins, Black Buzzards, Ospreys, Iguanas and Parakeets of varying colours, Toucans, Sloths, Humming Birds, Ring-tailed Racoons and so much more - all living in their natural environment. It could not have been any more perfect.    

The first of our haul of Mahi-Mahi

Donna and Kathy displaying their first catch of the day

Brad with his Red Snapper - Delicious

Ken with his Yellow Finned Tuna

More Mahi-Mahi and another Yellow Fin Tuna taken when Jerry and Liane Visited us in Panama.

We had revelled in the experience of the deep sea fishing trips both in Panama and in Costa Rica and in the number and diversity of the fish we had caught and eaten, like the numerous Mahi-Mahi, Yellow Finned Tuna, the enormous Red Snapper that Brad Ellis caught while visiting us in Costa Rica with his wife Kathy.  

We were amazed at the 150 - 200 lb. Nurse Shark brought in by Brother-in-Law, Ib Moller before we cut the line and let it go (as it was a protected species). And of course there's always the one that got away story. The one that almost crippled me trying to wind it in before the hook became detached from the line - That hurt the ego a bit but boy, it was great fun. 

And then there was the the different lifestyles of the local people we had met. Some wealthy, some not so wealthy and some incredibly poor - living a day to day existence on their meagre pay-cheques but happy non-the-less with their lives. 

Many work as gardeners or handymen and labourers, spending a whole day at residences to be paid $20 per day, some of the ladies who clean homes work for as little as $5 an hour but they are happy to be living in their part of the world doing what they do.

These Fishermen are often in their boats and off out to sea by 4:00am

Many people have roadside tiendas where they sell their veggies

Most have never seen or never will experience real snow or Ice or minus temperatures and are very content with their way of life. 

As we headed back to Las Vegas I could not get the thought out of my head that a reality check must surely be in the works in the not-to-distant future. 

We were levelling out at 37,000 feet while the familiar dinging sound indicated that it was now OK to recline our seats and relax for the six hour flight north to Las Vegas. We were homeward bound and heading back to the future. 

Neither Donna or myself has missed work for one second of our retirement, but during that time we have become aware of a few things we had missed while we were busy earning a living.  

Trimming Expenses - On A Fixed Income

Something we have learned over the past year and a quarter is how to save money more easily now we are travelling and living off a fixed income. 

The reason we can do this is that we now have the time to sit and think about saving money instead of just spend spend spend as we had been doing during our working lives when we had the funds to do so.  

One thing we found useful was to sit down and take a really hard look at our "needs and wants" or put another way "must haves and would likes" - two totally different requirements we all to often mix together.   

    

Travelling means spending money on airline tickets. If we purchase everything on our credit card and then pay it off immediately, you amass lots more "Air Miles" each month. Of course you must discipline yourself to pay off everything right away but the air miles soon mount up and the result can be an occasional free flight back home or to another destination. Something not to be sneered at in this day and age especially when the price of airline tickets and the associated taxes are factored in. 

UNLOCK YOUR PHONE

Another good move was to have our iPhones unlocked so instead of paying our cell phone provider high fees for their monthly plans, we can either purchase or be given a SIM card.  In some cases in other countries SIM cards are given out free by the cell phone providers instead of charging their customers. This makes sense. Why would you charge for a SIM Card when if they give them away, they gain a customer and the companies get paid when you make calls. Obviously cell phone providers in the US and Canada have not seen the advantage of doing this yet, but I am sure it WILL eventually happen in their bid to gain more customers. 

After we put in the new SIM card we go on a pay per use deal which is what we did in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama. That move alone saved quite a lot in the cost of calls and roaming charges. 

The Dreaded Bundled TV Package

Then we looked at the $150 monthly fee for the bundled TV programming we pay for at our home in Nevada.  We used to pay for all these bundled channels many of which we never ever viewed or wanted. 

The bundled deal also included a land line and telephone number which we did need and did not want to lose. How could we solve this problem?  

In this day and age one does not need a land line especially if you have a computer. The alternate way is to phone through the internet on a soft phone or on your home phone plugged into your laptop. It's easy to do and very inexpensive. 

In order to save even more money we went to Best Buy, purchased a MagicJack for $49, ported our home number to the magicJack for $10 and cancelled the phone through our supplier - a savings of around $35 - $40 per month. Now, all our calls to North America are free and our international calls are 2 Cents a minute. You can't beat those rates.

One other advantage is that our friends and family in Canada can call our Alberta MagicJack number and it reaches us anywhere we are in the world. But for them it is like calling us as if we were still living around the corner in Calgary. We purchased two magicJacks, one with our Canadian number and the other for our US telephone number so we could also stay in touch with our friends in the USA.

While we were in Panama, we met a Canadian who lives there. He sells a neat computer and very compact system which provides us with live English TV, Live News, Sports, thousands of movies, TV series and as much music as you can handle. 

The system cost us $695 but now, all those items above are totally free (and with no Ads) and better still, it rids us of the need to have a $150 monthly charge for a bundled TV Package only part of which we were using. Better still, it works anywhere in the world as long as you have a wifi connection with reasonable broadband. 

We now had no further use for the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) which we had been renting from the cable company - Another $25 a month saved. Another item we could give back to the cable company was their modem. We went to Walmart, purchased our own modem, took the MAC ID number to our cable provider so they could register it in their system, plugged it in back home and have no issues with receiving our internet feed at all. As a result another rental charge we pay for each month has been eliminated. The savings on the cable bundle - approximately $1,800 a year and we get to watch what we want, not what the company wants to bundle together.

There are lots of other items that we have learned how to save with but one thing became crystal clear to us - over the years we have been bombarded with advertising. Every time we read a newspaper, open up a magazine, turn on the radio or TV the advertising has been relentless and we, like millions of others fell for all the promo stuff, hook, line and sinker. 

To be fair, we also participated in the advertising to earn a living so it's not all bad, but as retirees, we have learned to look at life differently and not to impulse buy.   

Preparing to go South

In our last blog, we said we had made a decision to move to Panama. We are working on that right now. We did receive a message from one of our contacts in Panama that the new government is reviewing it's immigration policy for those moving to Panama. 

From our point of view, we hope it does not affect the Pensionado Visa requirements but we cannot change what decisions come out of the Legislative process in Panama so there's no point in worrying about it at this stage. 

If it is meant to be it will happen if not, then there's always plan B (maybe a look at Belize or Mexico might be on the cards) but we doubt we will need to do this. Only time will give us the answer to these questions.      

Now our home in Mesquite is sold, we have time to think about the prospect of another adventure so we are now turning our heads towards a specific property in Panama. Until a suitable one becomes available at the right price and the right model, we will have to rent for a while which is not a bad thing.

Renting will give us the opportunity to ensure this IS the right move.  Not everyone can move to another country and like it.  Some get homesick, others just cannot fit in or have a problem learning another language. They move, buy a home, furnish it and then realize that the lifestyle is not what they had imagined it would be.

These people are usually the ones who end up losing a lot of money, as having to re-sell home and furniture then move back home can be costly and is often referred to as "the $50,000 vacation trip".

So it is a good thing to rent for a while to ensure that it's the right move.  You cannot find out if you don't live in a country.  You can read all the magazine articles you like, but there's only one way to find out and that's to move there.

One really good piece of advice I gained off one American fellow who lives in Costa Rica is that "when you initially move to another country, don't do anything that cannot be undone in under a half hour".  Good advice for those who do have doubts or who are moving on impulse having never been to the country before.  

Once in Panama, we will wait until our Pensionado Visas come through. We must be present in Panama to apply for the Visas and it is important for people who are reading this blog and intending to move to Panama to know that if they want to leave during the pensionado application process, they had better pay for a Multiple Exit Visa for each person, because if you leave Panama having started the process and before the Pensionado has been granted it's an automatic $1000 fine upon your return. A second offence would be $2000, so it is not worth it.  

 

After we are settled in Panama and furnished our new place with top-of-the-line furnishings, we will be looking for a long term renter prepared to pay a reasonable price for what will be a fabulous vacation apartment, short of nothing and offering unmatched comfort levels.   

We intend to wait until we can rent it out for a year as we have eyes on something else which we will blog about later on once we have the planning stages firmly mapped out. It will be fun. The journey will be in a far away place and will last approximately one year.  We are looking forward to that adventure.  .   

That having been said, on Sept 20th, we closed down the Mesquite home and headed back to Canada and Calgary and that's where the reality check came in.....

As we drove in through the neighbourhood we would be staying in, we noticed thousands of tree branches lying on the boulevards, some of them 8 and 10 inches across.  These branches had been snapped off the trees like tinder after the first snow storm of fall in September.

The Mayor of Calgary told the public that the first priority was to get power back to the thousands who had lost power during the storm but he also told the media and the public, that it may take up to a year to clear up the mess left by the heavy snowfall. Yes, the reality check had arrived.

Another wake-up call was the prices we are having to pay.  At breakfast at Denny's in Calgary for example, we paid $23 for one and a half Eggs Benedict and one coffee.  Back in Mesquite, we could go to the Eureka Hotel and Casino and have a nice leisurely breakfast for $5.95 each.  Well, not in Calgary.  See below.

And people wonder why we are moving on.

So, with our reality check firmly registered, we will spend one month here and then return to Mesquite, Nevada around Oct 25th to enjoy the last months in our home before it changes hands in February and we move on to pastures new.

On the way down, we hope we can call into Yellowstone national Park in Wyoming and take in the beauty of the hot pools, animals and geysers there now the crowds have left.

Hopefully we can touch base with a bunch of our friends before we leave and on that point, we will close this blog and bid you goodbye until our next blog which should be out in a couple of months.  In it, we hope to include the plans for our next adventure, a very different one which will not take place in "The America's". We are sure it will be a lot of fun and a whole set of new experiences.

Until next time, be healthy and stay safe wherever you are in the world.

Best wishes
Ken and Donna Carter.