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Retiring in Cayman

Gordon Barlow
#1
It's not cheap, and our government doesn't welcome foreign permanent retirees. In fact it puts obstacles in their way, mainly financial ones. They are required to buy a residence for $750,000 and have certain annual income of $150,000. Ridiculous! However, foreigners (whether retired or not) can buy houses or apartments here for a lot less than $750K, and live in them for months at a time. They just can't become formally domiciled here, or become citizens.

I'm retired, and we live modestly on what my wife earns. (I used to work here, so don't fall under the standard rules for retirees.) We don't operate on a proper financial budget in our house, but I would say our annual expenditure is in the region of US$50,000, not counting vacations. There is no Income Tax or Property Tax. But there is import duty on everything, so prices are quite a bit higher than in the US or Canada.

A few essays on this subject can be found on my personal blog (see profile) in February ("Retirement worries") and March ("Investing for retirement" and "Gold, and other currencies"). They were written for residents of Cayman, but their content is relevant to all retirees anywhere, really.
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H
#2
Thanks for this sharing Gordon Barlow!;)

Hope that other members will share their opinions too.

Harmonie.

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Gordon Barlow
#3
I have just now (22nd April) changed my original post to be more informative than it was.
erdockw
#4
Mr. Barlow,
I just found this blog and your info today.  Perfect.  Well I have to retire someday and want to be someplace warm, shocking In know.  I am HEAVILY looking outside of the US.  I have visited Grand Cayman several times and of course love it as a visitor.  You list some interesting reasons not to retire there.  I am considering buying a home/condo (benefit of one versus the other??) in Cayman now, I have 20 years of US BS to go before I can retire.......so do you think Belize or Panama are better options (finance/tax is my big focus, safety and health care number 2, access back to US (my kids) number 3.  They are all pretty to look at and warm so that is a wash......

curious to hear an 'insiders' thoughts

warmest regards,

KK
Gordon Barlow
#5
KK.  www.internationalman.com will be very useful for you. Its purpose is exactly what the title says, and many of its subscribers are in the same boat as you are.

If you're not intending to retire and emigrate for another 20 years, I think you would be unwise to buy any property, anywhere, this far ahead of time. The world will be an entirely different place in 20 years, and nobody - nobody - has much of an idea what it will be like. What I WOULD recommend is that you aim to leave the US a whole lot earlier than 20 years from now. I personally strongly suspect that the US is on the same track as Germany was in the early 1930s. The nation is entering a dangerous phase. (I say that with great sadness, as a lifelong admirer of the US.)

That said, if you really, really want to own property outside the US, your best bet might be to try a place that genuinely welcomes foreign investors. Ecuador and Chile come highly recommended; my own personal choice (beyond Cayman) would probably be either Guatemala or Mexico, besides those other two.
erdockw
#6
Gordon,

Thank you so much.....well I will retire in 20 years but will hopefully not have to wait that long to move!  My youngest child will complete school in 6 year....so I am lovingly stuck till then.  Ah the things we do for our children.  I am petrified of Mexico!  I used to travel there but it seems / sounds dangerous??? 

I am in complete agreement with you regarding the US, and as an American I am sadder than you I'm certain, and so frightened for my childrens' futures.....

I am a physician so when the last kiddo is in college I plan to be living abroad and will fly home once a month to work in a block set of days (very do-able in my specialty)......

Ecuador and Chile....hhhhmmmmmm.....I will begin my investigatiion of those areas....I have never traveled to either.....have you??


KK
Gordon Barlow
#7
KK. No, I haven't been to either Ecuador or Chile. But I read lots of good reports on them. My wife was in Ecuador for a couple of weeks ten years ago, visiting our hippy son and his little family, and she loved it. Where she was (Vilcabamba, in the south) is no longer off the beaten track, but there are plenty of other places. Cuenca is very much a "gringo colony" these days; I don't know if that appeals to you.

Mexico is a huge, huge, country, and there are plenty of good spots. I empathise with your fear: I myself have never felt comfortable in the southern US after what they did to Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper! We all have our prejudices, right? In Guadalajara there was a park with 20 headless bodies in it a few months ago; yet my wife is flying there shortly to check out the vicinity of Lake Chapala as a possible bolt-hole. Our son used to live in Mexico City years ago, too, and that has some lovely parts, except for the air-pollution.

But I wouldn't retire to anywhere that I hadn't vacationed in first.

(Our exchange of messages should probably be on one of the general Forum-threads; Administrators, what do you think?)
erdockw
#8
Oh....I will most definitely travel to the location of choice several times.....LOL!

I just can't get past the Mexican danger thing, I'm a chicken really!  And my travel is usually high end resorts (not boosting at all) so my exposure to a country is very skewed for certain...shameless American that I am!!  I did do my residency in Detroit and let me tell ya that should count as a scary foreign country!!  LOL!!

I'm not much of a blogger, I'm not certain what u mean by general forum threads?  Please advise, lol.

KK
WAYNESEYMOUR
#9
As a retired caymanian I would advise anyone looking to go to the cayman Islands as a retiree DON'T!!!. its very expensive, and the government is in shambles with its overspending and it's tit for tat attitude towards the other governing party. while its a very beautiful place it has is down side financially. and drains ones savings and makes it near to impossible to become a local without first you sell your soul financially to get in. Me for one, I'm trying to find somewhere else to live out my days as the islands is no where near the way it was years before, and this due to the extremely high cost of living which is spiraling out of control.go to cayman news service for a peek at the unstable state that is besieged that poor sweet country I once thought was the best place in the world to live. I just need to get out as SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Gordon Barlow
#10
This week has brought yet another reason for not retiring to Cayman, I'm afraid. One of our Cabinet Ministers had a stand-up row with his female Permanent Secretary (called Chief Officer, these days), in front of twenty or thirty of her fellow Civil Servants. She is a Canadian immigrant of many years' residence, with two bloodline-Caymanian children by her bloodline-Caymanian ex-husband. The Minister, who belongs to the notoriously anti-expat ruling political party, lost control of himself and called her a f***ing [piece of] driftwood, with excessively generous use of the f* word during his tirade. His boss, our "esteemed" Premier, defended his crony, who remains in the Cabinet. Naturally, the abuse has re-opened the always-festering natives-versus-immigrants division in our little society. I don't know where we go from here, but it's not going to be anywhere peaceful.

The drift to the exits continues. This is not a comfortable for any foreign-born resident.
NomadLawyer
#11
Thanks for the update, Gordon. Have your own plans for the future changed in light of these developments?
Gordon Barlow
#12
No, Nomad. It's always been like this; and I've been through the fire, remember! We'll go when we're ready to go. The high cost of living is what will drive us out.

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