If you want to retire, Panama wants you!

Greetings, Panama an excellent choice for retirement, but here are some very direct incentives. As a pensionado [retiree] in Panama, you receive: 50% discount at most recreational, movie, and sporting events; 30% discount off public transportation (including buses and ships); 25% discount off Copa airline flights; 50% discount off hotel stays on weekdays (30% on weekends); 25% discount at selected restaurants; 15% discount at fast food restaurants; 10% discount off prescription drugs; 20% discount on doctor's visits; 15% discount on dental work; 25% discount on your electric bill (if less than $50); 25% discount on your telephone and water bills. In addition, you can bring in all your household goods free of taxes and import a new car every two years for private use.

All that is required to qualify as a pensionado is that you must be in good health, AIDS-free, have an up-to-date passport from your country of citizenship and a verifiable monthly pension income of at least $1000 per month for an individual, $1250 for a couple, plus $250 for each additional dependent, if any. Foreigners who become pensionados can buy and own Panama property and enjoy exactly the same rights and protections as Panamanians, not always the case in many nations and an important point people often forget to consider. As for income taxes, you will be pleased to know that in Panama you pay no taxes on income earned outside of Panama.

Panama is not paradise, no nation is. Panama is still a relatively young nation and has its growing pains, but it's made a great deal of progress already and it's headed in the right direction. For the rest of us who are not Panamanians, it is a nation where we can live comfortably for much less money and far less stress than we have come to expect in our own societies. Best of all, we are "good" immigrants. We save money living in Panama, but we also bring with us the money that creates jobs and opens possibilities for Panamanians they would not have otherwise. They know that and so we are genuinely welcome.