Excellent article and captures my thoughts exactly. I work in tax accounting and I frequently see "promos" and marketing material for tax "shelters". 99.9% of them are too good to be true and are illegal. After only a few readings of IL's newsletter, I thought - This reminds me of the language used by scammers to see illegal tax shelters. Needless to say I never signed up for their magazine or paid them anything. The old adage is still true today - If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks for your insights. I enjoy reading your posts.
My husband and I have been talking about moving overseas for 10 years, but we weren't close enough to retirement so didn't do anything about it. But, we really started seriously talking about it when we started seeing the International Living articles in 2020, that would pop up because of our Google searches. It really just got the living abroad juices flowing to read the articles, but we realized that the numbers weren't really accurate because of the exchange rate and locations. We visited Portugal in 2019 and I said, this it where I want to retire. It felt like me. So, when International Living was pushing Portugal, of course it caught my eye. But, now that we decided, they aren't for me anymore, but then again, they are on to the new "BEST" place to retire, Panama(?). They were good to get the ball rolling.. Thank you for your insights! I agree.
You are spot on in your assessment of “International Lying”! That said, we still enjoy reading it for ideas. We would never have visited Medellin had IL not put it on our radar. It also put the idea of Portugal at the forefront. If you take it for the fluff it is and don’t buy the other garbage, it can be entertaining. We call it “Expat-Porn” 😂
I don't disagree with your assessment but I still enjoy the magazine - it's easy for me to skip over the BS stuff like Bitcoin promises and real estate deals too good to be true. Unfortunately, the real estate part seems to be the main focus now but I digress.
I like the magazine because there are articles about places I've never heard of, or things about places I have heard of but didn't know about them. For example, in the recent issue there is an article about Lisbon and it mentions things I have never known about the city despite reading about Lisbon for years and visiting it as well.
I found out in the magazine from a previous edition that there's a place to ski in Portugal. Stuff like that is abundant. Yes, you can find that kind if info online, but sometimes I like physically holding a magazine and reading it. I like being online but too much of that is not healthy. I'm old school, I used to love to read LP's and CD's liner notes when I purchased them and I'm still not a fan of mp3 only purchases.
I love the rankings too they do annually of the top places for retirement. Granted, I think it is influenced by outside sources but it's still interesting to read about all the places. It's weird how one country can drop 5 spots or whatever in one year. So, I take it with a grain of salt but that's doesn't make it less entertaining.
Bottom line, I never would have thought about the idea of moving to Portugal or even visiting it if not for that magazine and for that I will always be thankful. It's a good starting point in my opinion for people considering moving abroad. It's not the Bible for it. For example, they were promoting Malta big and I was interested in learning more and then turned to other sources and found out it wasn't all that for me. I did enjoy learning about the country and do want to visit. I like the idea of taking a ferry from Sicily one day to visit Malta for a few days.
So, besides the benefit of it being a nice escape during a typical day, it does get the wheels turning and that's step 1.
BTW, you might have put International Living in quotations. For a minute there, I thought I was going to find the two of you on my doorstep! Of course, you are always welcome.
Excellent article and captures my thoughts exactly. I work in tax accounting and I frequently see "promos" and marketing material for tax "shelters". 99.9% of them are too good to be true and are illegal. After only a few readings of IL's newsletter, I thought - This reminds me of the language used by scammers to see illegal tax shelters. Needless to say I never signed up for their magazine or paid them anything. The old adage is still true today - If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks for your insights. I enjoy reading your posts.
My husband and I have been talking about moving overseas for 10 years, but we weren't close enough to retirement so didn't do anything about it. But, we really started seriously talking about it when we started seeing the International Living articles in 2020, that would pop up because of our Google searches. It really just got the living abroad juices flowing to read the articles, but we realized that the numbers weren't really accurate because of the exchange rate and locations. We visited Portugal in 2019 and I said, this it where I want to retire. It felt like me. So, when International Living was pushing Portugal, of course it caught my eye. But, now that we decided, they aren't for me anymore, but then again, they are on to the new "BEST" place to retire, Panama(?). They were good to get the ball rolling.. Thank you for your insights! I agree.
Thanks for the warning!!! It sounds just awful. A too familiar awful.
Smoke n mirrors!
You are spot on in your assessment of “International Lying”! That said, we still enjoy reading it for ideas. We would never have visited Medellin had IL not put it on our radar. It also put the idea of Portugal at the forefront. If you take it for the fluff it is and don’t buy the other garbage, it can be entertaining. We call it “Expat-Porn” 😂
I don't disagree with your assessment but I still enjoy the magazine - it's easy for me to skip over the BS stuff like Bitcoin promises and real estate deals too good to be true. Unfortunately, the real estate part seems to be the main focus now but I digress.
I like the magazine because there are articles about places I've never heard of, or things about places I have heard of but didn't know about them. For example, in the recent issue there is an article about Lisbon and it mentions things I have never known about the city despite reading about Lisbon for years and visiting it as well.
I found out in the magazine from a previous edition that there's a place to ski in Portugal. Stuff like that is abundant. Yes, you can find that kind if info online, but sometimes I like physically holding a magazine and reading it. I like being online but too much of that is not healthy. I'm old school, I used to love to read LP's and CD's liner notes when I purchased them and I'm still not a fan of mp3 only purchases.
I love the rankings too they do annually of the top places for retirement. Granted, I think it is influenced by outside sources but it's still interesting to read about all the places. It's weird how one country can drop 5 spots or whatever in one year. So, I take it with a grain of salt but that's doesn't make it less entertaining.
Bottom line, I never would have thought about the idea of moving to Portugal or even visiting it if not for that magazine and for that I will always be thankful. It's a good starting point in my opinion for people considering moving abroad. It's not the Bible for it. For example, they were promoting Malta big and I was interested in learning more and then turned to other sources and found out it wasn't all that for me. I did enjoy learning about the country and do want to visit. I like the idea of taking a ferry from Sicily one day to visit Malta for a few days.
So, besides the benefit of it being a nice escape during a typical day, it does get the wheels turning and that's step 1.
BTW, you might have put International Living in quotations. For a minute there, I thought I was going to find the two of you on my doorstep! Of course, you are always welcome.
You might as well get your info directly from the chambers of commerce. At least you know what the game is. And I believe that info will be free.