At a time when many people are about to retire and considering the idea of living abroad, it is good for such people to sit themselves down and firmly order themselves to "proceed with caution!" All may not turn out the way you dream it to. Unless you have a solid track-record at picking winning investments in real-estate, I would not purchase anything without doing extensive homework on the investment and the country you want to move to. If you are married to a local who is content to remain in his/her native country, this may be a good reason to put down deep roots there; but there are many pitfalls to running binding roots in a foreign land. One of the ways to start out in your pondering of the subject is to thnik of all the possible negatives of such a move. You can even ask your friends if they can think of anything you are missing in your thoughts. Food for thought? I had a friend who relocated to the Philippines with his wife; they purchased a condo in Cebu. After two years of living there, he died and the wife was faced with a life alone in a foreign land. She decided to return to the US, but had a hard time selling her condo. It took her three years before she could sell it, and she had to deal with many hassles of doing international business. When the transaction was all finished, she ended it by losing a lot of money on the deal. Leaving a spouse with such hassles is one consideration to deal with. Personally, there are situations where I think purchasing would be a good idea, but there are many where it is not.
One insight I stumbled into(I am quite "dense" at times) was that there are many situations where living in very nice places in the US itself is a better choice than living overseas. For example, a European might make better use of his Euros if he was living in a nice condo in Florida rather than in Manta or Salinas, Ecuador. You would get more for your money: better eating, better music, better beaches, cultural sophistication(movies, concerts,etc) and over-all better security, if you decide to leave for a while(no squatters!). The more you contemplate staying in the "First World", the more you can see it might make better sense.
One insight I stumbled into(I am quite "dense" at times) was that there are many situations where living in very nice places in the US itself is a better choice than living overseas. For example, a European might make better use of his Euros if he was living in a nice condo in Florida rather than in Manta or Salinas, Ecuador. You would get more for your money: better eating, better music, better beaches, cultural sophistication(movies, concerts,etc) and over-all better security, if you decide to leave for a while(no squatters!). The more you contemplate staying in the "First World", the more you can see it might make better sense.
