Choosing a place to live and the art of compromise

Note that I use the word we a lot in this discussion, but to be honest I am the primary motivator for this move. Most of the time where I say we made a list or researched something I mean I did the initial work and reviewed the results with Elayne, and then adapted the results from her feedback and together we reviewed the new outcome (and repeated the process as necessary).

Another caveat is that this particular entry makes the process look a lot more organized than it was. We actually started with France (based upon a whim and the fact that I had worked in Paris for a French company back in the early 90s) and then jumped to Portugal based upon input from friends, and only then began a more methodical approach to finding a new place to live.

We're moving (probably) to Portugal, but how did we go from living in Prineville to deciding to live in Portugal?

Making a List (or Two) and Checking them Twice (or a Dozen Times)

We started by making lists, which is fortunately one of my favorite pastimes. This is where the first compromises were made. No place is going to have everything we want and we had to assess what was really important for our long term well being versus some ideal fantasy that no real world location could match.

First was the list of must have attributes.

• Socially Progressive

People are accepting of other people, fact-based critical thinking is the norm, the well being of society is more important than personal entitlement. Obviously there is a wide range of possibilities here that could work for us and as long as a place met a minimal standard we would consider it. Most importantly this must be hold true at the local (city) level, although a place would be more desirable if it were applicable across the entire state or region, or even better the entire country.

• Safe

Low per capita crime rates (especially violent crime) and safety when traveling alone (especially if female). Not surprisingly this and the previous item usually go hand in hand.

• Quality Healthcare

Highly rated doctors, staff and hospitals with low wait times for appointments or procedures.

• Proximity to a Major Airport (or other transportation hub)

Less than an hour away from an airport that will take us to desirable travel destinations.

• Temperate Climate

In central Oregon I am cold six months out of the year -- we can surely do better -- and at the other extreme Elayne is uncomfortable with high heat. Somewhat cold or somewhat hot for a couple of months out of the year is fine.

• Relatively Easy and Affordable Residency

The ability to legally live somewhere without having to commit large sums of money for lengthy periods of time.

• Horseback Riding
  
  We need a place to board our horses and ride them.
  

Next was the list of nice to have attributes.

• Affordable Healthcare (and Insurance)

Healthcare costs should not impose a risk of bankruptcy or homelessness and health insurance should not cost nearly as much as housing. This would be up on the must-have list but I did not want to automatically exclude all of the US.

• City Life

We don't need to be in the city center, but shops, services, entertainment and restaurants should all be walking distance or a relatively short ride on public transit.

• Easy Access to Sailing and Scuba

A short flight or train ride should be all it takes to enjoy my favorite two activities -- or a short drive, or even better a walk. And to be clear scuba for me means warm water diving.

•  Reasonably Close to Travel Destinations

We do not want to be isolated from other places we would like to visit.

Once we had our lists it was time to hit the Internet and research the possibilities.

We began by looking at our dream destinations which were New Zealand (Elayne) and Australia (Leonard). New Zealand was the clear winner for ticking most of the boxes. Unfortunately for residency as retirees both countries require substantial investments over long periods of time (millions of US dollars invested and untouchable for five to ten years). Well shoot.

And so we then looked at places featured on "best places to retire" sites (both international and domestic).

International

For international locations the lists always included Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Portugal, New Zealand, Canada, and Ecuador. It soon became obvious that for some places these sites had utterly failed to factor in reality when creating their list of "perfect places."

New Zealand (as previously mentioned) has no visa that works for retirees without millions to spare. Canada is the same way.

All of the Latin American countries have serious issues with escalating crime -- especially against foreign nationals. Yes, in the tourist areas you can be reasonably safe as long as you keep alert and don't go out at night alone in all but the most touristy of areas. But we are looking for a place to live long term outside of the tourist areas, and the crime statistics for these parts of those countries are not good and are getting worse.

Malta made it on some of the lists and it has easy and affordable residency. But Malta is hot ("Africa hot") and humid for most of the year, is isolated in the middle of the Mediterranean, and it is tiny and thus not ideal for horseback riding.

Another country that made most of the lists is Ireland. Residency in Ireland is easy, but requires 50K euros income per person per year. For a couple that's 100K euros per year. If your income drops below this they will give you 30 days to leave. This does not sound ideal and it is not clear what they mean by "income" and so it needs more research, but this is discouraging enough that we are skipping it for now.

Barbados. Affordable. Safe. Easy residency. Great sailing. Amazing scuba. Small. Isolated. Like Ireland it warrants another look if we need alternatives, but it is not ideal.

And then there is Portugal, which has everything on both lists (scuba is a bit of a stretch). Its primary negatives are that Portuguese is not an easy language to learn and that the Portuguese people have been specializing in bureaucracy for decades and they have perfected it (think bad day at the DMV but for everything all of the time). And so Portugal is back at the top of the list -- in fact it remains the only country on the list.

Domestic

We also looked at possible cities in the US to retire despite the cost of healthcare and I consulted numerous "best places" lists and took many on-line quizzes to find a match.

Various cities in the southwest met our needs, but with global warming water is becoming critically scarce here  which will also cause problems with the area's hydroelectric power. We reluctantly removed the entire region from consideration. This combined with our climate and progressive social environment requirements severely limited the results. The following places were what I thought were the highlights.

• Hawaii

The entire state ticks a lot of our boxes, but it is expensive and simply not practical for horses.

• Bellingham, Washington

We've been to Bellingham before (I was there just a few years ago) and it is a lovely coastal town, but it is a bit cooler and wetter than I would like, and it is a relatively far from a major airport. Sailing is big there, horse care and riding are good, but scuba is a long way away. It is not ideal, but probably doable. It doesn't excite me.

• New England

Politically speaking there are quite a few states and cities here that are a good fit for us. But the winters are really cold and snowy. And while horses and sailing are good scuba means a longish flight south.

• Tampa Bay, Florida
  

Seriously? Apparently it is a liberal leaning city with a vibrant center. Summers might be too hot and humid for Elayne, but horses, sailing and scuba are all here or very close by. We liked Key West, which seemed like an anomaly at the southern tip of the state (it remained a part of the US during the Civil War), but hmm...

Conclusion

Portugal is the winner and soul survivor of our list-based search for a new place to live. We've been there before for three weeks on a sampler trip when we briefly checked out different parts of the country. We decided we liked the area around Porto in the north the best and so this October we are returning and focusing on Porto and Braga (and the surrounding areas) to see if we still like it and think we can be happy living there.

What if after our October trip we decide that Portugal is not right for us after all? (And if so, how could the lists be so wrong? I mean, really, we have the lists!)

We will go back to our list of possible places again for another review.

Ireland might be doable, depending upon what the income requirement really means. We plan to live on around 80K (dollars) per year, which is obviously less than 100K (euros). But does that mean we just need to show we could make 100K per year for X number of years or does it mean they want to see 100K per year deposited in a (Irish?) bank account? And if the latter, could we take 20K of that and simply put it back into our retirement funds (and thus making it an untouched ~20K that we simply recycle each year to meet the income requirement)? This requires more research and probably reaching out to an Irish visa specialist for answers. Other than this the primary down side of Ireland is the colder and wetter than hoped for climate. Horses and sailing are easy, but scuba is a flight south.

And what about the US? The main problem (and it is a big one) is healthcare and health insurance costs. Bellingham could work, but... well, there is the cold and wet. And Tampa Bay -- well, I have questions and concerns (but I can't help dreaming about sailboats, scuba, and warm water).

Now let's talk about selling everything, buying a 38 foot sailboat and cruising around the world...