Dear Reader,
Having lived in Maine for 27 years, Nancy and her husband Mike went in search of their perfect retirement destination.
They planned a two-week trip to a city they heard about through a friend.
"It was two weeks that changed our lives," says Nancy.
That was four years ago. Today the couple are enjoying life in a cosmopolitan city that offers them a much lower cost of living than the U.S., friendly locals, and top-notch, affordable healthcare.
Read their story below...
Nazareen Heazle
Managing Editor, IL Postcards
P.S. If you're looking for a near-perfect retirement destination, you'll find it in this beautiful, cosmopolitan retirement hotspot offering big-city amenities at an unbelievably low price. You need to know about this retirement haven now, before the rest of the world catches on and prices start to rise. Get all the details in this new, in-depth report on the next big retirement hotspot...but it's only available until midnight tonight.
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Big City Living For 60% Less Than Our Costs Back Home
By Nancy Kiernan
After years of promising ourselves that "someday"..."in the future"..."later" we would have a different lifestyle, my husband, Mike, and I finally boarded a plane to go in search of our piece of paradise. On the advice of an acquaintance we met while checking out Ecuador, we decided to "swing by" one of the cities in a neighboring country for a couple of weeks.
Within the first three days in this "City of Flowers" we were hooked. The weather perfectly suited our needs. Temperatures are in the upper 70s F to lower 80s F during the day and the mid-60s F in the evening. And being 5,000 feet above sea level in the mountains allows for non-humid, bug-free weather. My apartment doesn't have screens on the windows nor a thermostat, so no air conditioning or heat. Hot? Open a window. Cold? Close the window.
We knew two weeks just wasn't going to be long enough for us, so we decided to stay for two months. Towards the end of our stay, we both came to the conclusion that we had found our new home. We went back to the U.S., sold the remainder of our belongings, kissed the family goodbye, and embraced our new lifestyle.
One of the most surprising and striking things about this city is its abundance of green space. Although there are over 3 million people living here, it really is more like many small neighborhoods running side by side. There are hundreds of small and large parks throughout the city. One of my favorite places to visit is the Botanical Gardens. It is free to the public and you can spend hours walking through the grounds, having a picnic lunch, feeding the ducks in the pond, or relaxing in the shade of one of the Guayacan trees.
My husband and I enjoy the quality and variety of food we get here. From farmers' markets, where you can get a week's worth of fresh, organic produce for about $10, to street cafes where a tinto (black coffee) is about 50 cents, to the wide selection of ethnic restaurants, your taste buds will never get bored.
It has been nearly four years since we moved here and neither one of us regrets the decision. Our living costs are about 60% less than what we were spending back in the northeast U.S.
The city also boasts having top-notch healthcare and as a former executive in the industry, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the quality, access, and price are first-rate. We pay $70 per month for our insurance premium. Co-pays for lab tests, prescription medications, and specialty procedures are about $3.
While all of these aspects are great, what makes this city so amazing for us, are the people. They're some of the most kind, accepting, considerate people you will ever meet. Neither my husband nor I spoke Spanish when we arrived, but we were welcomed into the community, invited into their homes for coffee or a meal, shown around the city and received offers to accompany us to help with banking, legal, and medical appointments.
My days are spent walking about the city, enjoying the perfect weather, attending concerts, visiting museums, and chatting with friends, both locals and expats. My Spanish is now quite good, thanks to classes at a local university. From time-to-time, I teach English to private students, but mostly I am completely content to be immersed in the culture and lifestyle of this great city.
Editor's note: Nancy's new hometown is a culturally rich locale that offers a near-perfect climate and amazing vistas all round. And it's amazingly affordable...you can live comfortably here on as little as $1,000 a month or buy a three-bedroom penthouse with jaw-dropping views for less than $130,000. It's also a place where you could turn an initial investment into $50,000, even $100,000. We reveal all the details of this up-and-coming retirement hotspot, in a specially commissioned research report. But you only have until midnight tonight to get your hands on it.
