Many are reluctant to move abroad because they fear they won’t be able to learn a new language or simply don’t want to. Kathleen and Lief share 6 countries where English is spoken so you can take this point off your list of reasons not to move overseas. Below you can find the countries recommended and the timestamps:
(Kathleen) six best places to go overseas if you don’t want to learn a new language we’re going to tell you in just a minute. hi i’m kathleen peddicord. (lief) i’m lief simon. (kathleen) it’s a new episode of our live and invest overseas podcast. one of the main reasons someone, maybe you, could be reluctant to move
To a new country even if they’re dying to do it if it’s their dream of a lifetime is because they’re worried they’ll have to learn a new language and afraid they just won’t be able to or frankly just don’t want to have to. you don’t necessarily have to we have six places where you could live or retire overseas
Comfortably, happily, build a very rich fulfilling life, and not have to learn a new language. let’s start with three places, three countries where in exactly, and we’re not talking about the uk, australia or new zealand. we’re talking about places where you can get residency, where you can actually move – although
You can move to the u.k it’s a bit complicated – but the first one is belize and belize is one of the former british colonies so english is the official language, a lot of people speak spanish as well because belize is surrounded by spanish speaking countries but everything is done in government and legal wise
In english in belize. (kathleen) right, have thought about you may just be thinking about getting through the day without having to learn a new language but there’s another level to it which is the legal aspect. if you’re going rental but certainly if you’re going to buy, french or portuguese it’s a little
More intimidating. (lief) right, so what does belize have to offer besides speaking english? well it’s a great destination for beaches and weather. it’s a caribbean destination. there are islands off of the coast of belize that would qualify as caribbean islands and the downside is hurricanes so you do have the
Potential for hurricanes. they get them almost every year not in a dramatic way this year but once every couple of years you get a pretty strong storm coming through belize which also hits the yucatan peninsula of mexico which has another destination we’ll talk about in a second. (kathleen) but for me maybe the
Most compelling reason to look at belize can be the people and the society and the culture. it’s and welcoming culture in fact that i know of talk about i would put them on par each with the other but they’re very different places in this part of the world though, in the americas, belizeans aren’t worried about
Who you are, where you came from or anything about you except that you’re doing your best and you’re not causing live exactly i’ll do my thing you, do yours, i’ll mind my business, you mind your business and everybody gets along. (kathleen) all right, the second place which again i think as well as belize
Is very open-minded and open-hearted and welcoming culture is ireland. (lief) right totally different place but before we jump to ireland we didn’t mention so belize for residency is fairly straightforward. there’s the qrp program that has it’s for retirees if you have two thousand dollars a month in pension income or
Social security you can qualify or you can just move to belize and if you’re there for 12 months straight renewing your tourist visa you can then apply for permanent residency. so belize, has a very easy way to live there, is just by showing up and continue to renew your tourist visa. (kathleen) right, which
Is a great thing to point out because you may have heard of the qrp program, the qualified retiree person program – i think is what it’s called – and that’s been very well promoted and it can make a lot of sense for a lot of people but it requires a minimum monthly income of two thousand dollars that might not work for
Everyone. but you do have an option that you may not have as often, it requires no proof of income, estate or anything else you just you show up. (lief) it does require that you to show that you can take care of yourself while you’re there, live in belize. ireland on the other hand, has decided that they
Don’t really want retirees and so they changed their immigration law a few years ago now, – i think it is now pushing more than five years or six years – to create a new what they call stamp zero. so you know different immigration stamps have a number depending on what you’re applying for. stamp zero is for persons
Of means which includes retirees but it requires thousand euros of income per person per year retiree, it doesn’t have to be pension or social security income, it could be dividends or rental that level. but if you do have that level then ireland is a great place to spend time, the irish are friendly
And talkative and from a retirees perspective, ireland couldn’t be a better place right, so we as you may know we lived in were young when lief and i were first married and we found the experience kind of maddening at the time because we were there as kind of and we found the irish approach to business
Frustrating because they don’t prioritize it. they prioritize life and living and crack – as they refer to it – just having a good time and at retirement of course that can be exactly what you’re looking for. (lief) so stopping in the middle of the day in the middle of the road to have a 20-minute conversation is not
Something you’re looking for when when you’re rushing to get but for retirees it’s perfect. (kathleen) all right, number three on our list of countries where in fact the language is english so no language study required would be malta. (lief) right, and malta actually has two official languages english – again
It was a former british colony – and maltese but all legal documents are in english as well as maltese so you can get by in english no problem. the downside for malta is that gaining residency isn’t as easy as in belize, but they have four different programs in malta that you can look at for getting residency. the other
Thing is that some people we know who have been to malta aren’t happy about is in the summer time it can be hot so you know above 95 above 100 degrees during the summer but that’s because of its location, it’s in the middle of the mediterranean as the crossroads between southern europe and north africa. so from
A scene, the region perspective, malta is in a very excellent position. (kathleen) as a base for travel it’s really ideal. (lief) and it has huge history, you know the knights templar and and buildings to look at as well. (kathleen) okay now those three countries speak english, speak something else as well spanish in
Belize, maltese and malta but they all speak english. (lief) right, but the official language is where the language is not officially english, but there are pockets of these countries or of these specific locations we want to highlight, where english would be spoken by most everyone you would interact. (lief)
You could get by without learning the local language if you didn’t want to. (kathleen) okay number one on this list we’ve put playa del carmen, mexico. (lief) right, so there’s lots of places in mexico that are tourist spots, playa del carmen is one of them. playa del carmen has been a tourist spot for so long with the
Local they’re learning english from birth basically, playa del carmen area. this is a beach area so lots of tourist amenities as far as restaurants go and other outdoor activities plus in the located you have a lot of mayan history so you have mayan ruins to visit, fishing off the coast, and any kind of
Water activity that you can think of. (kathleen) right, so it’s an ideal caribbean spot, if your retirement dream is the caribbean and you don’t want to learn another language i would put playa del carmen at the top of the list alongside ambergris caye, belize for example. one point i would make about playa del carmen,
As we which could be a big plus for you or a big minus. so with tourists comes all of the infrastructure, the amenities, the services that tourists want and that can be great. the restaurants, the shopping, the nightlife, and activities you know all kinds of water sports and all of that would be so easy,
Accessible, and affordable in playa del carmen. but at the same time you’re going to have the souvenir shops and the tourist touts and people approaching you to see if you want your picture taken on the feet. (lief) it’s not the real mexico. if you want the mexico culture and to to be living in mexico it’s not playa del
Carmen. playa del carmen is just an extension of florida, from a beach resort kind of perspective. (kathleen) okay, we’re staying in mexico with a second pick for a place where the language isn’t officially english but you wouldn’t need to learn another one, (lief) right, in puerto vallarta, the same thing,
Locals learning english from a young age, lots of tourists, lots of retirees as well in puerto vallarta and lots of options in puerto vallarta. the town is relatively small but the development from resorts but also the gated communities. the gated communities for retirees terribly dissimilar from a weather perspective
To southern california which is why a lot of people like it again on the pacific coast you don’t have the storms as much although puerto vallarta can be hit by pacific typhoons that kick back in and come that way – there was one earlier this year – not a lot of damage but a lot of rain. (kathleen) so, the most
Developed choice on the pacific living you might be looking down that coast mexico, costa rica, panama, nicaragua, those are all options you might be considering for a pacific coast lifestyle with the kind of crashing surf and surf beaches, etc. for the most part your options in say nicaragua for sure but even in
Costa rica and panama are there’s a walmart in puerto vallarta. (lief) shopping in puerto vallarta is not not unlike shopping in the u.s, if that’s what you’re easy residency options and easy access from the u.s as does belize, so lots of flights going in and out of cancun to access playa del carmen
Vallarta airport as well. (kathleen) all right pick number six for where to think about living or retiring overseas if you don’t want to learn a new language is algarve, portugal which you may not be surprised to hear us include. (lief) right, destination for retiring and english being relationship – portugal
Does – with the u.k and a lot of british retirees and expats have moved to the algarve and over in over the years the portuguese in that area in particular have learned english so it’s you’re going to have can get by with english for the most part and don’t have to be become fluent in portuguese to live in
The algarve. (kathleen) and why algarve in general take a step back beyond language and beautiful beaches, long coastline, great weather although there is a winter but it’s very mild and because there is a winter there is seasonality so one thing to consider when shopping the algarve coast, there are many towns in this
Part of portugal and each one has its own charm and flavor and cultural appeals but look at which ones are more affected by seasonality some of them become very quiet in the winter. (lief) right, in some of the smaller towns all the restaurants will close so if you like to go to restaurants you want a town
That is big enough to support restaurants in the winter so that you can partake in that or be willing to drive to the next town over but the seasonality there can be an issue in the winter time. (kathleen) and then again we’ll make the point about residency which is very easy to establish in portugal. you have a number
Of good options depending on your situation. (lief) right, two basic options the golden visa option which is buying property in portugal but if your plan is to live there full-time the easier option is just the self-sufficiency one where you can show enough income to support yourself and you can get residency
In portugal and that threshold is the official threshold is lower. it’s at the discretion of whoever’s reviewing the residency application. (kathleen) and 1200 euros a month is less than the average social security check so it’s an example of a place where with the average social security check right now is about 1500
A month so this is a place where if you’re receiving you know the average amount in social security and that’s all the income you have you could still be looking at algarve, it’s still realistic. alright, of language skills off your list of reasons not to think about living or retiring overseas. thank you
For listening we’ll be again in touch invest overseas podcast, thanks! (lief) bye we hope you enjoyed this episode of our live visit liveandinvestoverseas.com/podcast where you’ll find lots more information and resources to help you live better and retire well overseas.
Transcribed from video
The 6 Best English-Speaking Countries You Can Retire To By Live and Invest Overseas