Sanctuary Belize Homes for Sale

So, we're putting a temporary hold on our efforts there until and unless things improve. I'll fill you in on that and close with my first product of the week for 2014.

Choosing a Place to Retire

One thing you need to consider is that you'll become less mobile as you age, and you'll need more medical attention. In addition, you'll be on a fixed income and you'll want to stretch your savings as far as possible. From an economic standpoint, Belize is still ideal with low or no taxes on income or property. Violent crime remains low - which is important because you become increasingly vulnerable - and labor is low, so you can hire the help you'll increasingly need. All of these appear to be in place in Belize and haven't changed. However, there are other areas that also need focus.

Ease of doing things - particularly making secure financial transactions - is important, because you'll be increasingly easy to confuse. You'll need to trust the people who are managing the place where you live, and you'll need access to good medical care and cheap drugs as your body slowly breaks down. On this last, Belize is somewhat like Mexico, in that far more things are available over the counter and they are much more reasonably priced then in the U.S.

Where Belize Is Falling Short

We arrived during an unseasonable series of heavy rain storms, and it felt like we were suddenly in a war zone. There were crater-like potholes on most roads, and many were so deeply submerged we could no longer see the road bed. While the current was slow, hitting a deep pothole under the water was like an extreme off-road experience. This was true even on the Hummingbird Highway, the Belize equivalent of an interstate. One of the most lucrative businesses, based on the condition of the stores, seemed to be selling tires, suggesting that replacing them was very common.

Belize Reality

While there aren't many cars - rush hour might be five or six cars behind a slow-moving truck - a lot of folks drive at unsafe speeds, given the road conditions, and a slow-driving elderly person (who am I kidding, I'll never drive slow) could easily become a speed bump. Speaking of speed bumps, on the best road we drove, there were more than 40, many poorly marked, and each large enough to launch you, as a ballistic object, at the moon. If I'm having trouble seeing them now, it will get much worse as I age, and a fast drive to the store could become a terminal event, assuming the roads are passable, which isn't always the case, we found.