I just recently joined up after being a lurker for some time. I figured it is time that I hammer out my family's future and lay it out while getting to know a knowledgeable community.

I am about to be 30 years old, my wife is 31 and we have two boys, 4 and 1.

I am a disabled vet, former Air Force. Married to the only woman that can put up with me for 9 years now. She is still in the Air Force and planning to retire in 10-14 years. At which time, we plan on retiring to Panama. I should clarify, we plan on moving to Panama and renting for a year to see if it really is a right fit for us. If it is, we plan on either buying a house/condo or having one built.

We know that it is a slower pace of living, we won't be able to readily get things we are accustomed to and things will be different...really different. We are perfectly okay with that though.

Leading up to the plunge, we will be taking yearly vacations to different areas of Panama to get a feel for the areas. We have recently been eying the areas somewhat close to David, La Barqueta and Boquete as well.

We'll be retiring in our early to middle 40's. We actually want to enjoy our lives instead of working till we die in some cubicle somewhere. By then we will have 300k+ in liquid savings, a fully loaded IRA for our later years, my disability income and her retirement income. We would be pulling in about 2500-3000 per month to use for whatever we need.

I know this all future planning but the best way to get what you want is to lay the groundwork far ahead of time. We are hoping for a decent size house, nothing extravagant and just live a simple life. Hopefully what we have will be sufficient for the areas we are looking at. A decent school and hospital would be a nice find. Don't need beachfront property but I wouldn't mind it, I know it would make the wife happy. Anywhere from Boquete to La Barqueta seems like it would be ideal.

I don't have to have a large ex-pat community available, a big part of moving to a different county is to immerse yourself, right?

What do you guys think? Am I shooting for the moon when I should be more realistic or can I make this dream come true? Vague question, I know.