Retirement In Back-To-Basics Belize
Belize is the
quirkiest country I know. Geographically, Belize is in Central America, yet its
strongest ties are to the English-speaking Caribbean. Belize is Caribbean,
Central American... and, thanks to its history as a former colony, British.
Belize City's roadways are built around a system of roundabouts, but shops
alongside them sell rice, beans and tortillas still ground by hand.
Everyone you meet
speaks English (it's the country's official language), but this belies the
stories of their origins. The 350,000 people populating Belize today are descendants
of migrants from Britain, yes, but also, more so, the surrounding Central
American countries. You've got Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans
mixed with current-day generations of the Maya who originally inhabited this
land, the pirates who came later, the Mennonite farmers who began arriving on
the scene in the 16th century, the British who ruled until 1981, and each
other.
It's a country of
freedom-seekers. The pirates came to ply their pirate trading out of view. The
Mennonites came from Germany and the Netherlands so they could be Mennonites
without anyone bothering them. The British came to do their banking in private.
And the folks from the surrounding countries have made their way across
Belize's borders over the decades in search of safety.
Today a new
population of freedom-seekers is finding its way to these shores -- foreign retirees and others in search of a place to start over.
Belize is a nation
of independent thinkers and doers, a country where you make your own way and
where, while you're doing it, no one, including the Belize government, is
making any attempt to thwart your efforts. This is a poor country. The
government doesn't have enough money to get up to any real trouble. And, if
they tried, the Belizeans wouldn't allow it. The focus here is on very
local-level government -- addressing the crime problems in certain southern
sections of Belize City, for example, or trying to dissuade the Guatemalan
banditos who occasionally wander over into Belize in search of a couple of good
horses to steal.
Arriving in Belize,
stepping off the plane, and walking across the tarmac to the one-room arrivals
hall of the airport, you have a sense of leaving the rest of the world behind.
Belize and her people operate according to their own rules and mind their own
business. The troubles, uncertainties and worries that seem so all-consuming
Stateside and elsewhere in the world right now fade away here. You're faced
with a land that remains a frontier, undeveloped and therefore oozing
potential.
Here in Belize,
especially in its interior Cayo District, it doesn't take long for any other
reality you've brought with you to fade. In this frontier land of rivers and
rain forest, your mind and your body are occupied with challenge and discovery
from sunup until you fall exhausted into your bed each evening.
While much of the
developed world calculates the time value of money, small Caribbean nations
like Belize focus on the time value of family and friends. It takes time to
cook a meal and enjoy it with loved ones; it takes time to practice music and
share it at a gathering; and it takes time to nurture a crop and reap its
bounty.
Belize is a sunny
country that's easily accessible from the United States and where the folks all
speak English. It's also one of the easiest places in the world to establish
foreign residency, as well as a banking and a tax haven. You could live and run
a business here completely tax-free. I like Belize as an offshore haven, too --
a place to incorporate or to form a trust.
On the other hand,
this is a small country where the infrastructure is most kindly described as
"developing." The cost of living can be affordable, even low, but not
if you want to live a more "developed world" lifestyle that would
mean buying lots of things not available or produced locally. Anything imported
is going to come at a very inflated price.
At home in Belize's
Cayo District, the view outside your bedroom window and from your front porch
would be of fields and pastures, trees and jungle, rivers and livestock. You'd
see Mennonites driving horse-drawn carts and children walking home from school.
Everyone going about his or her business, not much bothered by sequesters,
fiscal cliffs or the mounting deficit. Here, in this land of escape, where life
is simple, those things don't seem to matter or even to register.
No infrastructure,
limited services and amenities, and little market demand could be interpreted
as minuses... or as pluses, depending on your perspective. In Belize, these
things are a big part of the appeal. Once you get to Cayo, you don't mind that
there's no infrastructure. You don't mind that the culture is more concerned
with conservation than consumerism.
That is, you don't
mind... or, if you do, you're not happy. If you're interested in a lifestyle
supported by the diversions and distractions of a big city, Belize is
definitely not for you. If you're delighted by the diversions and distractions
of a wide-open land where life revolves around the land and where independence
and self-sufficiency are prized above all else, then, indeed, this quirky
little country could be exactly the paradise you seek.
Written by Kathleen Peddicord
International Services Ltd can help you greatly with your needs in Retiring and Investing in Belize.
For more information see our services below:
· International Business Companies (IBCs)
· U.S. Dollar Accounts
· Asset Protection
· Bahamas, Panama, Seychelles & other Foreign IBCs
· Trust and Trustee Services
· Belize and Panama Private Foundations
· Local Company (Chapter 250)
· Belize Dollar Accounts
· Mail Forwarding and Virtual Office Services
· Work Permit and Residency Services
· Nationality and Passport Services
· Qualified Retired Persons Program (QRP)
· Licensed Escrow Services
· Purchase Agreements
· Owner Financing Agreements
· Land Title Investigation
· Transfer of Title
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