One of the questions that I regularly see in forums among people considering moving to Panama: “How much money do I need to live in Panama?”.
The answer: that depends.
I struggle to come up with a cookie-cutter answer to this question. The answer to it depends on many factors.
For starters, I need to know what type of visa you intend to apply for. This, in part, depends on your nationality as well as what are you prepared to invest in Panama in order to get your residency and visa.
You have a number of visas available to you:
- Friendly nations
- Pensionado – $1,000.00/month income for primary applicant
- Reforestation Visa – $80,000 + at least 10 year investment
- Investor Visa – $160,000 + at least 5 Panamanian employees
- Self-Solvency Visa – $300,000 in a time deposit or home
- Marrakesh work permit
- and many more
These visa options will dictate the type of investment you need to make in Panama (some will not require an investment in Panama).
But this is only part of the equation.
How much money for your lifestyle?
The other part of the equation is quality of lifestyle. What are your expectations about how you will live? The questions that you might need to include when working this out are:
- will you need the air-conditioning running 24-hours a day?
- how often do you plan to eat out?
- where do you intend to live?
- will you need a maid, nanny, carer or gardener?
- how often do you intend to travel?
- what type of internet connection do you expect to have?
- do you have children that will be in school? What type of schooling do you expect them to receive?
- are you going to live in a condo or a house?
- how many family members do you have and what are their different needs?
See – some families in Panama are living on $800.00/month. But can you live how they live? Are you willing to live like that? Probably not!
If you have $3,000.00/month, you can probably live comfortably in most places in Panama – renting – but may not have a flush lifestyle. If you are looking to rent and live on $2,000.00/month – you may be limited about where you can afford to rent and what amenities you can expect to have.
Study carefully your options before you decide.
Ask us about the options for immigration and relocation if you decide that Panama is the place you want to live! We’d love to hear from you!