On quiet evenings at home, it’s fun to daydream about packing up and moving to some faraway place. Books like Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun or Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence give us details that let us dream and sigh in glowing technicolor. They fill our imaginations with convincing particulars like sunny terraces, pergolas draped with wisteria or grapevines, workmen who don’t show up for weeks on end, and balky plumbing.
Because my imagination was formed by Europe, I assumed I’d try it, too. My husband and I talked it over, scaled back to a year, then to six months, and then prudently decided to try living in Florence for six weeks first. (For more details, see posts in the category of “Retirement Travel.”) We loved it, but we love our friends here, too. So we probably won’t be living more than a couple of months at a time anywhere other than New England. (We’ll be getting out of here in the depths of winter, though: that’s one thing that is becoming clear during this first year of retirement!)
But astonishing numbers of people do move overseas for retirement. Choosing Panama or Portugal is now becoming a more common and mainstream choice. The website International Living, with its associated magazine and conferences, make it seem manageable to sell one’s house, pack up one’s belongings, and move to some friendly, sunny foreign country. In some countries, one can apparently retire more cheaply than in the United States. Winding cobblestone alleyways, anyone?
Sorting through guides to relocating overseas isn’t quite as dreamy as sinking into memoirs about refurbishing old houses in Italy. But even so, I had a blast making my way through these. Try them out!
How to Retire Overseas, by Kathleen Peddicord (who was the publisher and editor of International Living for years). This guide comes from a woman who raised kids overseas and has lived in Ireland, France, and Panama. She includes information for people who aim to be only part-time residents. She has specific suggestions for where to start looking, depending on whether you want beach-living or mountain-living, a place that’s English-speaking or a place where you can blend in to the population (to some extent), countries with easy flights back to the US or Canada, etc.
My Take: I found the voice of this useful guide charming and easy-going. The information is clearly organized and fact-checked by her daughter.
The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home, by Rosanne Knorr (who’s also the author of Gone with the Wine, a memoir of moving to a village in France). Knorr supplies great advice on the practical challenges of moving one’s stuff (including selling whatever is replaceable), settling in (including the haphazard quality of getting to know the local community), and maybe even moving back to the United States or Canada.
My take: Knorr is a lively writer, and the guide is conversational, personal, and often funny. This was a fun read.
Retirement without Borders. By Barry Golson and Thia Golson (a couple who have lived in six countries and have written a memoir about building a house in Panama). This is a big and immensely practical book, with lots of detail. The huge bibliography at the end contains lists and lists of books and websites about specific countries and issues. Luckily, the book is also entertainingly written.
My Take: If you’re only going to buy one, this should be the one. The bibliography alone justifies having it on your shelves.
There are plenty of memoirs out there, too. Many of them are self-published and not very expensive. Not all are well written – check the reviews! – but they give us a little space to daydream about baguettes, piazzas, or sand between our toes.
Any recommendations? Any experiences of looking around?