Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you retiring to Latin America out of necessity, rather than by choice? As in Fred's "retirement plan" doesn't give you many options?
It's a bit of both. I've been all over the continental U.S. and southern Canada. And a few Mexican border cities. Back in the mid-90's I ran across a book on living in Mexico and have been exploring that idea since, looking at other countries too, including S.E. Asia. I gave up on American women 10 years ago. Sure, there are great ones out there, but either they're married or divorced with 2 kids. Seems the older I get the fewer options I have romance wise(been engaged twice, didn't work out). But overseas an older American with a monthly pension is considered a catch in a few countries, especially the Philippines. Probably going there to find a wife who'll be willing to move to South America. We'll see how it goes.
There's a fairly new discount airline, Spirit, that flies alloyed Central America and the Caribbean plus Colombia and Peru. Just found a town in Peru, Tarapoto, where a fellow from England is getting by comfortably on less than $300 a month. For about $1000 a month you can live decently in Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city. Great climate and scenery, 3 new malls, multiplexes playing American movies in English with Spznish subtitles. Colombia has greatly improved too, so much so that it's stock market is the world's best performing one in 2010. There are other places to consider, but Spirit Airlines makes it affordable to fly home so if they don't fly to a particular country I'm passing on it.
I realized shortly after rehiring on that what FedEx was offering wouldn't provide much of a retirement in the U.S. but it could provide a good life elsewhere. They screwed that up bigtime terminating the pension. I had figured to be in the Philippines at 52, now have to keep plugging. That's life. FedEx doesn't owe me a living, but to work decades for a company for decades expecting them to come through with what they promised repeatedly, and then have them terminate the pension to maximize profits, well, it's frustrating. I bear major responsibility for quitting in '97, but it seems they never stop reminding me. Sorry for the long post, just one courier's plan to minimize the damage and achieve independence.