Estimated cost of retiring early in Panama City

First, I share my estimated cost of retiring early in Panama City for two people.

Then, I will show you a few places you must see while in Panama City, our cheap Panama Canal tour, a few of our favorite restaurants, our best grocery stores and malls, a few nightlife spots, and our favorite weekend trip from Panama City. I will also show you a few apartments in Panama City, what they cost, and where we stayed.

Finally, I will end this video with my early retirement livability factors, such as walkability, food, social considerations, visa information, healthcare, weather, and real estate. But you do not need to take notes. Just click the first link in the notes below this video to get access to all of this content in writing.

Before discussing our cost of living estimate for two people here, I wanted to answer the question, who would love to live in Panama City?

Who would love to live in Panama City?

Last week we showed you videos for Boquete and Bocas Del Toro, Panama. But a few of you thought those two cities were just too small. You would need larger cities with more to do so you wouldn’t get bored.

Well, Panama City might be the right place for you then.

The metropolitan area of Panama City has about 1.5 million people living there. Panama City is the capital city of Panama and sits at the Pacific Coast entry to the Panama Canal. The city is also one of the top 5 banking capitals in Latin America.

Panama City was founded in 1519 by Spanish conquistadors and served as the base for attacking the Inca Empire in Peru. Almost all of the gold looted from the Inca Empire passed through Panama City.

Sir Morgan, a pirate born in England, burned Panama City to the ground in 1671. Panama City was rebuilt starting in 1673 but you can visit the ancient ruins of the original city. Sir Morgan used the wealth he looted to buy three sugar plantations in Jamaica. Morgan was later knighted by King Charles II of England and asked to return to Jamaica to serve as England’s Lieutenant Governor.

About six percent of the world’s trade passes through the Panama Canal as compared to 12% which passes through the Suez Canal. The canal creates about 2 billion in revenue for Panama per year which nets about 800 million dollars per year for the treasury.

Because of Panama’s global significance in world trade and commerce, it is one of the most beautiful and modern cities in Latin America, if not the world. When you see the skyline, it may remind you of Hong Kong. There are 130 high rises presently with 110 more under construction. Panama uses the US dollar as their national currency which many retirees prefer.

So, who would love to live in Panama City? I would say anyone that would like to live in a fast-growing modern metropolitan city with all that implies, such as large gorgeous highrise apartment buildings with all of the amenities, a modern public transportation system, many large fully stocked successful shopping malls, a large international airport with direct flights all over the world, a large and diverse selection of restaurants with all the foods from around the world, an excellent modern healthcare system, a large and diverse pool of single adults of all ages for those looking for love in their life, and large clean supermarkets stocked with many choices of foods both local and imported from around the world.

Cost of Living in Panama City

Here is my estimated cost of living for two people in Panama City. Now I will give you an estimated cost of retiring early in Panama City?

Rents: Panama City is one of the most expensive areas in Panama. To live in a large beautiful 2 bedroom apartment in a highrise closer to the ocean with views, you would easily have to pay $1200 per month or more. If you are willing to live a little further out or in a little rougher neighborhood, you might be able to find something for as little as half that price, or $600 per month. We found a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a gated community with a guard at the gate, eleven minutes from the Pacific Ocean for $800 per month including utilities. The apartment had a washer and dryer, swimming pool, parking space, balcony, AC, and was in a guarded community. You can send a message to the landlord to see if it is available while you are in town. WhatsApp Number is: (Luis) +507 6618-7555. So I will use $800 per month for rent which includes utilities in this estimated cost of living. We loved the neighborhood and it felt safe walking everywhere and it was within walking distance to two malls we loved, Plaza Centennial Mall, AltaPlaza Mall, so we didn’t need a car.

Groceries: Based upon our time there and the money we spent on groceries, we estimate about $360 USD per month in groceries for two people. Here are the two markets where we bought groceries. Riba Smith, Supermercados Rey. They were the more expensive ex-pats grocery stores. But Qiang didn’t care because she was buying Asian foods from smaller Asian Grocery stores, located in this smaller shopping mall, also walkable from our house.

Restaurants: If we went out to eat twice per week, once for date night and once for a lunch somewhere, we would spend about $50 per week or $200 per month in restaurants for the two of us.

Cell Phone Data: Mostly we use the Internet at home, which was included in rent. But we also need Internet access from time to time when we are out of the house, for Google Maps and other searches. The cost to recharge is about $20 USD per month. My android phone will act as a hotspot so we can both be on the internet at the same time when we are out of the house.

Laundry and Water: For laundry, we had a washer and dryer in our apartment and the utilities were included in the rent. The landlord said the water was clean, so we decided to just use the Culligan water filter on the tap water for about $4 per month.

Internet: Internet for your home is about $50 USD for a 10MBs service, but it was included in our rent.

Uber/Taxi: We just walked when we needed groceries and other daily things to the nearby malls listed above under groceries. We also rode buses and took Uber taxis from time to time. So we would not need a car if we moved to Panama City. They have a modern public transportation system that is well documented and accessible via Google Maps for pick-up times and places. You just put where you want to go in Google Maps and then click the Bus icon and Google tells you where to walk to catch the bus. I estimated we would average about $70 per month for all forms of transportation if we lived here.

Alcohol: Local beers called Panama and Balboa were about $5.70 USD for a six-pack of bottles. In bars and restaurants, those prices are easily double or triple. So for two people, we estimate about $90 per month.

Panama City	Expense (USD)
Rent	800
Groceries	360
Utilities	included
Restaurants	200
Cell	20
Laundry	included
Water	4
Internet	included
Uber/Taxi	70
Recurring Total	$1454
Alcohol	90
Optional Total	$1544

The above cost of living is for 2 people but is just an estimate on the low end. For a full understanding of what it would cost you to live here, visit Numbeo Panama City and add anything you spend money on in your home country that is not mentioned in the table. Our costs of living are generally much lower than a new traveler’s because we are great bargain hunters but there are a few people that live much cheaper than we do.

Never move anywhere until you have visited first personally to verify the living costs for your lifestyle and needs. I am not guaranteeing these prices. These are just my notes and estimates from the time of my visit and this post. Your costs will likely be drastically different depending on your lifestyle and the time since this post.

Most ex-pats report spending more money per month than the low-end estimate we are reporting here. You will hear more typical living costs in the range of $1800 to $3200 per month. But people spending that much also have higher incomes or pensions. They often report spending more on eating out and drinking more alcohol in local bars and restaurants. Many also have cars and more expensive apartments.

If you are going to try to retire cheap offshore, make sure to have emergency funds available should you have some unexpected large expenses. To learn more about that, read my report called, the Two Biggest Risks of Retiring Early for Cheap Offshore.

Okay, now I will share a few things you must see while in Panama City.

Casa Viejo (Old Town) Tour (Do It Yourself Tour)

You really should see the oldest part of Panama City called Casa Viejo. This is where you will experience some of the earliest constructed buildings in the original heart of the city. Casa Viejo is a living museum of the different kinds of architecture from around the world that the early foreign immigrants brought to Panama. The architectural styles speak to the diversity of the international people that immigrated to Panama in the early days. Just click the below Google Map and start walking.

El Palacio de las Garzas: The governmental office and residence of the President of Panama. You may not be able to get a direct view of the Palace but just the buildings around it are a delight to see.

Salón Bolivar: Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Panama. The Salón Bolívar is the site of a historic vision where Simon Bolivar (the father of independence for most of Latin America) attempted to establish the world’s first multinational and continental congress in 1826.

National Theater: The National Theatre was designed by Italian architect Genaro Ruggieri and was opened on October 1, 1908.

Plaza de Francia: The French Embassy at Plaza de Francia in Casco Viejo, Panama City

Metropolitan Cathedral: La Catedral Metropolitana is the main Catholic church in Panama City.

La Merced Church: This small Casa Viejo church built around 1680 with a baroque facade is one of the city’s oldest structures.

Our Panama Canal (Do It Yourself Tour)

You can take the Panama Canal Tour for $10 USD if you are a foreigner. Just get your reservations on the official Panama Canal webpage. You need to arrive about 15 minutes before your tour starts so you can pay for your reservation and clear security. You can take the C810 bus for about $2 USD per person from the Gran Terminal Nacional De Transporte to the Esclusas Miraflores. It takes about 30 minutes and leaves about every 30 minutes so get there at least an hour before your tour reservation time. If you are running late, just order an Uber taxi for $6 to $10 USD each way.

Favorite Long Weekend Tour from Panama City

Our favorite long weekend tour from Panama City is the San Blas islands. I will put a link below to the blog and videos about the San Blas Islands and how to take the tour if you are interested.

Panama City’s Nightlife

Our favorite area to just hang out in the late afternoons into evenings is the following stretch bars, bubs, and coffee shops on Via Argentina. Just start at La Rana Dorada (on the map below) any time during their Happy Hour which runs from 12 to 6 pm on weekdays with 2 for 1 draft craft beers.

After a few beers, just walk the path shown on the map and listen for music you would like to hear, and do a little bar hopping. The area felt safe to us. We also had several meals in the area and we will list the restaurants we liked under the restaurants below.

We were just taking the bus over there from our apartment for around $1 per person, but if you stay later feel free to take an Uber taxi home which will run around $5 or 6 USD depending on where you live.

Panama City’s Best Restaurants

Here are our favorite restaurants in Panama City. In the video, they are in random order, but here we list our favorites on top.

Sohot: We had a hot pot here that was super delicious. Hot pot is Chinese food that is very celebratory in nature. Often eat when families get together. In the video above, this is the place where Qiang is cooking in the middle of the table we are eating at. It was about $25 USD including tip for the two of us. Very delicious.

Loving Hut: This was a vegetarian buffet. The food was delicious and fairly priced.

Raj Indian: This was a delicious Indian food restaurant if you get hungry after our nightlife tour.

Super G Deli: This gourmet deli has amazing sandwiches if you get hungry while touring around Casa Viejo.

Nomada Eatery: We enjoyed the happy hour here and had a really nice bowl of soup while we were in Casa Viejo, the old town area of Panama City.

La Rana Dorada: This is another location of the same craft beer chain. This one is behind Centennial Mall, closer to our apartment. We has a nice pizza here.

Sushi Nacion: This restaurant had both vegetarian and nonvegetarian dishes and we both enjoyed our meals.

Panama City Apartment Tour

We are going to show you a few apartments we looked at and tell you what they cost and then we will cover our livability factors and overall retirement desirability score for Panama City.

Where we stayed: 2 Bedroom Apartment Rent: $800 USD Month including utilities and Internet for long-stay 1 month or more. The apartment had a washer and dryer, swimming pool, parking space, balcony, AC, and was in a guarded community.

Landlord’s WhatsApp Number is: (Luis) +507 6618-7555.

Panama City, Livability Factors and Overall Retirement Desirability Score

Here are some of the factors I think about when I consider a place for retirement potential. After I discuss each factor I will assign an overall retirement desirability score to Panama City

Walkability: Medium Desirability. If I were to retire early in the area of the apartment where we stayed in Panama City, I would be able to walk to get my groceries and most other common things I would need. Additionally, for places further away, I would use public transportation and Uber taxi. So, I would not need a car. Panama also has an excellent private busing system to get you all over the country without having a car. We would use the buses to get to Bocas Del Toro, Pedasi, Boquete, and other favorite places around Panama. We could even ride buses up into Costa Rica.

It is worth mentioning, if you are willing to pay more in rent, you could get into a really fun and funky even more walkable neighborhood like Via Argentina where we did our nightlife tour starting at around $1000 rent per month plus utilities. Via Argentina would have a ‘high’ walkability ranking.

Internet: High. The Att Speed Test on our apartment wifi was 40Mbps download speeds and 10 Mbps upload speeds. So the Internet speeds are great fine for our purposes. If you need a certain Internet speed for your business, I suggest reading my process for finding the perfect apartment which fulfills all of your needs. Just make sure to speed test the Internet before you sign on the dotted line when you are renting an apartment long-term.

Food: Medium. Panama City metro has 1.5 million people with about 30,000 ex-pats from around the world. Plus, there is a large local community of well-paid professionals and wealthy Panamanians interested in trying most of the foods of the world. So, as you would expect, there are many international food choices. With the largest per capita incomes in the country chasing all of these food choices, it was not surprising to see international foods in restaurants starting around $7 USD with the sky being the limit. But there were also some food carts and local restaurants in the range of about $5 to $6 USD per meal if you put your feet on the ground and look for mom-and-pop restaurants in local neighborhoods. The food in the grocery stores is expensive, but that is because there are many imported foods. If you learn how to prepare local foods at home using mostly local brands instead of imported brands, it will be easier for you to stay on budget. So the desirability of food choices is high, but the price desirability is medium, or even low in Panama City.

Weather: Medium. Panama City weather has very little variance temperature-wise. It ranges from warm to hot all year. The average nighttime lows only vary slightly from 75.9 F (24.3 C) in September to 78.1 F (25.6 C) in May. The average daytime highs only vary slightly from 84.9 F (29.4 C) in October to 90 F (32.2.6 C) in March. So there is very little temperature difference based upon seasons. Seven or more inches of rain fall in every month of the year except December through April.

Things to Do: Hiking, biking, fishing, golfing, cooking, partying, yoga, restaurants, live music, running, fine dining, coffee tasting, wine tasting, gyms, martial arts, exploring rooftop bars, local restaurants (sodas), fresh fruits and vegetable markets, and neighborhoods such as Casa Viejo. Trips to beaches and islands, Panama Canal, Bocas Del Toro, Boquete, Pedasi, Coronado, San Blas Islands, and nearby Costa Rica.

Healthcare: High. It was time for our annual medical check-ups and SE Asia was still closed. We found a gynecologist for Qiang that cost $200 for everything including blood work and a sonogram. My doctor conducted a physical examination for $60 and all of my blood work cost $98. In International rankings, Panama is in the upper 25% in some rankings and upper 50% in other rankings. The doctors both spoke perfect English and spent as much time answering questions until we ran out of questions. We did not feel rushed and we both left feeling confident that they knew what they were doing. Many of the best hospitals in Panama are in Panama City.

Social Considerations: Medium. If you decide to retire in Panama City, you will want to learn some Spanish. You will find many people in day-to-day life that speak some English, but not as high a percentage of the population as you will find in other areas of Panama that cater to ex-pats and tourists. If you are single you will find love easier in Panama City than in other parts of the country just because of the larger population. But that pool of people available to you will be larger if you learn some Spanish.

Expats: High. There are 30000 ex-pats living in the Panama City metro area which has about 1.5 million people total. There is an active Facebook page for ex-pats in Panama with 10,000 members and 32 posts on average per day. This group seems to have both ex-pats and locals, but it is in English, so there is a good chance that people will see your questions and help provide a soft landing in Panama. I suggest people go to these kinds of resources to find answers to questions that only an ex-pat would know. But make sure to make friends with both locals and ex-pats for a richer experience living here. I explain why in my report, The Top 10 Mistakes International Retirees Make.

Real Estate: Medium. At the time I wrote this report, I was curious how much the condo we stayed in would cost to buy. So, on Google Translate, I translated “Condos for sale in Torres De Milan Panama City” into Spanish (Condominios en venta en Torres De Milan Ciudad de Panamá) and the following listing popped up:

It may be gone by the time you read this but it will give you an idea of the low-end today. But I never recommend buying until you have lived somewhere for at least 2 to 3 years. In fact, I have a report explaining Why Retired Expats Should not Buy Real Estate Overseas. Make sure to read that before deciding to buy real estate overseas.

Visa: High. Citizens of many countries are given a 90-day visa-free tourist stamp upon arrival in Panama. Citizens of the USA and Canada are still getting 180 days. Source. If you fall in love with Panama and decide to retire here, you can apply for a retirement visa. The retiree residence status requires that an applicant demonstrates an income or pension of only $1,000.00 USD per month and $250.00 USD for each dependent. You can certainly travel to Panama on a tourist visa and later change your status in Panama. We have provided a link to all of the other requirements such as a health certificate and police report. Source.

Safety: High. Panama is generally one of the safer countries to live or travel in Central and South America. But do read the US State Department’s travel advisory just to hear the worst-case scenario. But I judge safety at the neighborhood level rather than the country level. So make sure to read my report on how to travel the world safely, including in your home country. I provide all of my tips and tricks that have kept me safe for 14+ years traveling the world.

Panama City Retirement Desirability Score: Medium. If you can stand warmer weather year-round and like to have all the amenities and choices that a relatively wealthy and largely modern city provides, then Panama City would be a good choice. In that case, Panama City may be high desirability for you. But if you are more of a nature lover or you prefer smaller towns, then Panama City will be medium or even low desirability.

Thanks for reviewing our report, an estimated cost of retiring early in Panama City?

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