Why Belize?

Why Belize?

Good question.

Economics: The cost of living in Belize is much lower than that of the United States. It is claimed that one can live there in quite good style for less than $500 USD per month. When you consider that, in retirement, you will quite likely be living on a fixed income, and that the earlier you retire the lower this income will be, searching for low-cost locales makes sense.

Politics: Belize is an English-speaking Parliamentary democracy with a stable political history.

Climate: Belize has a year-round warm climate, consisting of a wet season and a dry season.

Geography: In a country roughly the size of Massachusetts, the land ranges from the Maya Mountains to the crystal-clear waters of white sand beaches lying within the world's second longest barrier reef.

Ecology: Belize has set aside a larger percentage of its territory as Natural and Wildlife preserves than any other country on Earth.

Population: Belize has a culturally diverse population of less than 300,000.

Immigration: The Government is open to immigration in several forms; homesteading, retirement, and semi-permanent tourist.

Why for this blog do be existing?

This blog is about my proposed retirement in Belize. If this happens at my "normal retirement age" of 67, then it's about twenty-two years away. The astute among you may note that the countdown timer is set to expire sometime before that, when I am about fifty-eight. This is because I foolishly used an online life-expectancy calculator; according to this source, if I don't retire by 58, my executors will be choosing where I take my rest.

Not that this is necessarily pre-ordained; some of my major early mortality risk factors are theoretically subject to modification (BMI, type and use of medication, stress factors, etc.); also, the life-expectancy predictions are based on averages, and, like most people and absolutely all readers of this blog, I am far above average.

The title of the blog comes from the Jerry Jeff Walker song of the same name. On a recent road-trip to visit my old Army buddy Andy, I shared my Belizean escape plan. I also asked him about a song he played for me the last time he visited me: So Damn Bad. He told me it was by JJW and the next day, while burning a cd for me to listen to on my return trip, he serendipitously ran across Gringo in Belize.

The lyrics to this song should scroll upwards in the upper right hand corner of this blog, but it doesn't always seem to work. If it isn't working for you, please post a comment and let me know what OS, browser, version and any extensions or toolbars you are using; that will help track down the source of the problem. Also, if you know which JJW albums contain those songs, please let me know.

Anywho, as JJW mentions in the intro to Gringo in Belize, the title character is a compilation of many different people, and the song is not intended to be mean-spirited. I just hope that, like the life-expectancy calculator, the song's events do not serve as an accurate prediction of the years to come.

Test

First post!