Thinking of Moving to Panama?

If you read the "about me" part of this blog, you already know a bit of our story.  It came about rather quickly, this move to Panama.  We still love Mexico, but were ready to try something new.  My husband suggested Costa Rica, and I responded, "How about Panama, instead?" We put the house up for sale or rent and began purging.  A new adventure, excitement.

Our life has kind of been like this.  From living in busy Orange County in Southern CA, to small town rural KS to tropical Virgin Islands, back to KS, to traveling the US, Canada and Mexico in an RV, to living and working in Mexico.....you get the picture.  We like to move. Well, not me, really...my husband. I guess it's his sense of adventure.

The reason I decided to write this post is because I've run across quite a few people online who fell for the exaggerated  stories they read online, went to seminars about Panama, bought property here, only to find out all of it isn't true.  One guy said he bought a million dollar property, ended up going back to Canada, and is waiting for that property to sell.  There is a lot to offer in Panama....but when you think you've done a lot of research and used that research to plan and budget, only to find out it was a lot sugar coated information, you can really get yourself in a mess. Like the guy above.

So this is our story...hopefully, it will help you.

We started doing research about Panama online, particularly on a very popular and seemingly well versed website about living internationally. Ordered their magazine. Tore out articles. Shared with friends.

You see, they said (less than a year ago) that living in Panama was cheap cheap.  A couple could live here on $800 to $1200 a month.  Easily. Live well! That the cost of living was inexpensive.  That you could easily get a Pensionado status for little work and little money.

It sounded perfect!

And so, when our house rented out very quickly, we were eager to get here and enjoy that low cost living.

Before I go on, let me just say that yes, we love it here.  The weather in El Valle is awesome...pretty much 74ish all year long.  Yes, the rainy season produces a lot of rain, but we've lived in desert for so long, it's a refreshing change.  As are the lush trees and flowers of the tropics. we've met people, have a wonderful church to go to and are enjoying the slower lifestyle. yes, we are happy.

BUT...

If you are planning a move like this, you need to know the truth.

These companies really put a glorified version out there....after all, they are basically selling their magazine and their conferences.  We actually  saw an article in the past month or so in that particular magazine that told about El Valle de Anton, the town we are living in. They have upped the cost of living considerably, but still is on the low side.  However, now that we live here, we know the people they interviewed and the interviews were done almost a year ago.  The info wasn't even up to date. That could be part of the problem. Very slow to go to press.

For example: they talked about how El Valle would be getting a nice new grocery store in the next several months. Truth: That store had already been opened for a few months when the article was published. Old news.

The cost of living is cheaper here than in the US...but probably not all of the US. However, we have lived in Mexico for 14 years, so we are accustomed to their pricing. Their take on Panama led us to believe it was much cheaper than where we were.

You can rent a brand new 2 bedroom apartment for $800 a month, electric, water and internet included.   But they are far and few between. Electric and water don't cost much anyway because the weather is so temperate and most of the time, water is abundant.  There is very little to choose from in this price range...we expected less…because of articles we'd read, things we'd seen...way less. With the lack of additional utilities, it's not bad...just not what we were led to believe.

I know of many places in Panama City that rent for well over $1000 to above $2000 per month.  Yes, there are cheaper places. Much cheaper...both here and there.  But then you get a counter for a kitchen, no cabinets, no hot water, and maybe no appliances at all.  Tin roofs with no insulation so that when it rains ( and rain, it does), it sounds like you're living inside a drum. And in the lower areas, you would still have to pay for A/C....it gets really hot there!

This magazine also talks about how easy it is to get a Pensionado status, offering you all sorts of discounts, and leads you to believe that when you get that, you can import your car duty free.

Not so.

We have worked months and months, with many trips to the city, lots of paperwork, legal fees, etc...working towards that Pensionado....only to find out that the attorneys want about $2000.00 (for 2, $1500.00 for 1 person) to help you with it...besides all the fees. The Duty Free import status on the car is only deferred until you sell such car.  In addition, you have to pay an 18% tax to bring it in, plus another $1000 (varies according to value of car). Our $20,000.00 car would cost us $$4600.00 to bring it in "Duty Free". In addition, our state in the US is a title holding state (which cost us untold hours at every crossing in Central America when we drove it down), so we can't import it anyway and still have to go to the city monthly and to the border of Costa Rica every 90 days to renew the paperwork on it.

So what's the point of getting it?

Another plus about the Pensionado was no duty on $10,000.00 worth of household goods imported.  Well, we have ours ready to go, but honestly, have no place to put most of it, and with the rainy weather, you sure don't want to store things here.  They are better off in storage in Mexico.

We may change our mind later if we get a house here.

In addition, you are told about all these great discounts you can get if you have the Pensionado status.  Actually, you get most of them anyway.  Meals, prescriptions...they just automatically give them to you....most of the time, anyway.

Latin America is Latin America - no matter where you are, they love paperwork.  If it could be done in one simple process, that would take the fun out of it for them.  that comes with the territory, no matter where you land.

Daily cost of living:
While you can find almost anything here, you'll find that the things you are accustomed to at home are much more expensive here. But living on the economy isn't a big bargain. Unless maybe you eat yucca and fruits that don't even taste good. But then, we came from Mexico.

Avocados.     $1.25.   Mexico?  20-30 cents each
Mangos, grow on trees everywhere. $1.25.  Mexico.  Free... When you have friends.
Watermelon. $3.00.  Mexico  $1.00
Cantaloupe. $2.50.  Mexico. 3/$1.00
Pineapple $1.50. Best. Pineapple. In. The. World.  (Also, best price anywhere!!!!)
Strawberries - mostly not available except in Chiriqui where we found them for $1.00 a box. In our         area, $7.00 for a small plastic box.  Mexico?  $2.50 for 3 of those boxes

Beef...expensive, unless you get poor quality.
Pork...expensive, and hard to find decent cuts.
Bacon...$7-$10 per lb
Butter - over $4.00 a pound
Fuel…..Just over $4.00 a gallon - $4.18 right now

We eat a lot of fruit. Carrots, zucchini, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green beans, broccoli and potatoes are about the only easily found vegetables. If you find others, they are much more expensive.  The people here eat a lot of root plants. While in Mexico, we often took trips to the US because we were just 6 hours away from Tucson, so often stocked up on our favorite things at lower prices and brought them back.  However, we did pay duty and we had our travel expenses to add on to the cost of those items. Artichokes, asparagus, etc...etc..

Dentist.  A crown in Mexico was right at $100. or you could go to the expensive dentist and pay $300. Here, a crown is $500.00.  I know that is still very inexpensive compared to the US.

Veterinarian: We paid $20 in Mexico for a visit to the vet. Here it is at least double. Again, probably cheaper than the US.

Cost of building: My husband designed and built homes in Mexico.  It was not without trials, but the cost of building was way less than here....and the jobs got finished.  The guys were also extremely artistic and talented. Beautiful work. The cost of building here is much higher, and it seems you have to wait and wait and wait to get a job done.  If it gets done. Mexico has nothing on Panama when it comes to mañana. At least from what we've seen. The cost of labor is cheap, except they work less than 7 hours a day. Materials are expensive. Land is expensive.

Eating out: unless you go to a Fonda (homemade food...basically, they cook one thing per day and sell it until it's gone), plan on paying higher prices.  Compared to prices of restaurants we ate at frequently in the US, these are the same or higher.

All this is NOT to tell you that Panama isn't a great place to retire...it is.  Once we got over the sticker shock, we fell in love. But it is not the place that they tout in the magazines.  It is not as easy as they tell you. It IS beautiful - we have been to many parts of the country and been enchanted by it, by the people, by the cultures.  The infrastructure, compared to what we saw in the rest of Central America is really good - I suppose because of the American influence when we had the canal.  Panama is a wonderful place to live.

Just want you to go in with eyes wide open.

Oh, and if you don't speak Spanish, or don't want to learn....you'd better stay home.  There is very little English spoken here.