You aren’t going to retire to Panama or France, not to Belize or Croatia, nor to Uruguay, Malaysia, Ireland, Nicaragua, or the Philippines…

Ah, but a new life in a small beach town on Panama’s Pacific coast…a fresh start with a renovation project in a centuries-old city in the heart of France…in an apartment in Montevideo’s old town…on a horse farm in Belize’s beautiful mountainous interior…or perhaps in a custom-built home overlooking the lake just outside Granada, Nicaragua, a Spanish colonial jewel of a city…

These are starting-over overseas ideas worth close consideration right now.

We call it “thin slicing.” Big picture, yes, what we’re hoping to do each day in these dispatches is to help you consider your options among the 200-odd countries in the world today for a new and better life. We realize, though, that, in truth, suggesting you think about a new life in a new country does you little good. The cost of living and certainly of real estate can vary wildly from one region to another within any given country…as can your lifestyle. Your choices for medical care, where you shop for groceries, how you furnish your home, what you do on a Friday night, even how you pay your monthly utility bills in Panama City, for example, are nothing like those things elsewhere in this country…just as your life in Manhattan would bear little resemblance to a life in a small town in the U.S. Midwest.

Readers contacting our offices these past couple of weeks to register for our upcoming Live & Invest in Belize Conference have reminded me of this thin-slicing agenda. Unfamiliar with particular regions of this country, readers are asking for help making in-country travel plans to complement their conference experiences.

“Should I fly over to Ambergris Caye after the conference? Or drive out to the Cayo?”

“Should I look at the mainland coast north of Belize City…or south?”

Belize is a tiny country, but the lifestyle (and, importantly, the cost of living) options it offers vary markedly region to region.

This week we’ll make a focused effort to help you thin-slice your options in a few of our favorite overseas havens…starting, tomorrow, with Belize…

Kathleen Peddicord www.liveandinvestoverseas.com