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Who mentioned taxes? Not my favorite subject.
If you're working here LEGALLY (work permit, etc.) expect to get hammered big time between gov't tax, education tax, and social security (about 8%).
About $400. was taken out of my $1,200. job related check last month. Not pretty...especially when my $550 rent (for the last 7 yrs) suddenly jumped to $700.
I don't know where you people are living, eating, shopping, getting your hair cut, but I've been spensing 10 days a month in Panama now for several months. I've been looking for Real Estate, houses and apartments and I've found that the prices inside Panama City are substantially higher than everything I've read on this site the last 4 months.
It seems to me there's the usual mix of good, bad, and ridiculous information on this forum -- just like any internet site. To talk about the cost of living in Panama is kind of like asking how much the average person earns (or weighs or eats or anything else): Yes, you can come up with a numerical median or mean, but that has little value until you overlay your own experience and desires.
In other words: It is possible to live here (or lots of places) for well under $1K/month -- thousands (maybe millions) of Panamanians do. But the question is, would you want to?
The costs of electricity and gas are trivial in the overall budget (well, unless you leave your AC on 24x7). Far more important are the costs of housing, healthcare, and what I call entertainment: dining out, dating, travel, shows, books and media, etc.
For me, personally, there is no way in hell I could live in Panama City for $1,000 per month; I couldn't even live in the interior for that, even with my housing fully paid for. But, I like to take a couple big trips every year, I like taking a weekend trip within Panama every month, and I like to go out for dinner often. And I have medical insurance. And a music and movies habit. And I still pay taxes to the US.
Within two hours' drive of Panama City, you can find decent houses for under $50K, and if you go four or more hours, you can find them for $15K -- but that is a house that many people from the US/Canada would not find acceptable. And the town where that house is will have very, very limited choices for restaurants, movies, shopping, healthcare, etc. And almost no one there will speak English.
In the gringified enclaves like Coronado and Boquete, prices reflect both the infrastructure and popularity of the place: It's difficult to find anything for less than $200K (but it is possible).
In Panama City, it depends entirely on neighborhood. E.g., you can find apartments very close to city center for $50K, but you wouldn't want to live there (unless you are very, very adventurous). Generally speaking, an apartment or house in a safe neighborhood that's still reasonably close to centro will cost $1,000 to $1,500 per square meter. When you start adding extras (like new construction, ocean view, prestige address, etc.), it runs $2,000 to $2,500 per square meter.
Well said, prices here are everywhere and it depends on your comfort zone. A person has to experience it for themselves. Don't set your budget by what you read on the internet.
Livimg in Panama?
My experience in November was:
Prices for Food and electricity/water are
NOT higher than 300 Dollar.(Driving and Condo apart)
P.S.
Panamesian Restaurants and also Mc Donalds cheap!
6 Dollar for
- Bacon Burger
Big Max
Frenchfries (big)
Big Coke
all together:
6 Dollar
Cheers
Mike
Buddies, I too love to live in Panama, actually I heard that living expenses in panama is little low when compare to US
So, I came here
Now I feel, that is true
However, here I could read various comments/suggestions of you all under the heading "Living expenses in Panama" -- This is pretty well, Great buddies
Cheers,
Shelby,
reading all these posts has my head hurting! when i move to panama, i'm looking for a place about what i have here in montana. a basic apartment thats clean and everything works. i need a roof over my head, with tv and internet. nothing fancy. from what i've learned, i can live on $1000 a month. thanks for all the info, paul.
As long as you are outside the city, and not on the beach, and don't need health insurance, and don't travel much, and don't have a car, and don't have expensive girlfriends -- then yes, you can do it.
This topic is currently discussed in some level of detail in the yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RETIREnPANAMA/
Look for the topic: True cost of living?
There are several specific examples from various expats on their actual monthly expenses.
Thank you so much for the detailed information. At this point that's what I need to know: numbers.Originally Posted by whypanama
TS
Hello, I also feel sick just to think about taxes but... roughly speaking, if you know, or ANYONE?... How much are the taxes on our SS income?... say for $1300/mth, for only US citizen, no dependents, and other income to speak of?
Do you know?
TIA
TS
That was 2008 maybe but trust me not much food and going out with that budget by noew!
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