We Left NZ to Retire — Here's How We Did It and Why

After retiring and dropping about $100k in income to live on the NZ pension, we watched our savings reduce every single month. I figured that by the time we were 80, we would be out of coin. So we decided to actually do what we had talked about for years — leave, to go somewhere warm with a cheaper cost of living. The plusses were easy to list: leave behind the cold weather, the high cost of living, the racial tension that has crept into daily life in New Zealand, and the exorbitant land taxes still rising because of council members who would rather build monuments than fix failing infrastructure. Enough negativity. After looking at Thailand, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, we settled on Panama. The main reason was the low cost of property, low property tax, zero taxation on foreign-earned income, and the country's GDP — which is enormous. Most people assume the canal is the main earner. It is not. Agricultural exports drive it, much like New Zealand. Panama is not a petty taxation country. Our pension is not taxed here. If you earn income onshore, there is no legal requirement to pay tax until you earn over USD $30,000. And the Pensionado visa is the best — and incidentally the cheapest overall — we found anywhere. So we sold our property, cashed up everything else on Trade Me, gave a heap of stuff away, and put our poodle kennel of eight dogs into boarding pending their trip to Panama. We packed five suitcases — one and a half of which was dog stuff — and booked a flight via Houston to Panama City. We completed all the visa paperwork before leaving New Zealand and applied for Pension Portability before we flew. We have travelled all over the world on holiday, so culture shock was not really a factor on arrival. Lucky for us we also had friends already here — a huge thank you to Coral and John for everything they shared with us. It genuinely made the first months so much easier. Spanish is a work in progress. Knowing your greetings and which bathroom to use goes a long way. Getting comfortable with the public bus and metro systems made life a breeze. Kiwis are not big bus users because buses at home are expensive. Here it is a different story entirely. We can travel to Panama City for USD $2.50 each — equivalent to travelling from Palmerston North to Wellington, about two hours. The Metro underground train goes anywhere in Panama City for around 25 cents. The bus stops at Allbrook, about 20 metres from the massive Allbrook Mall, and the Metro leaves from the same spot. It is that easy. I refuse to drive in Panama City — the traffic is ten times worse than Auckland and it would cost far more to park and drive than to take the bus and train. The buses run every 15 minutes along the Pan American Highway. No booking. No app. Just wait at one of the many stops, jump on, and pay cash as you exit. As Jo Seagar would say: easy peasy lemon squeezy.