US Teacher Retires Early in Guatemala, Says Cheaper Healthcare Is Worth It

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Ron Podmore, 58, a retired teacher who decided to live out his retirement in Guatemala. He still owns property in Washington and spends about half the year there as he begins the Guatemala residency process. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I retired two years ago, in June 2023.

I was a high school teacher, and I decided to take early retirement after 32 years of teaching. But because of the fact that I was not eligible for social security, I was only able to receive half of my pension. I will get the other half about six years from now when I turn 65, or whenever I choose to also tap into my social security. It’s kind of a mixed blessing, but it seems to be working for me.

I knew that if I was going to pull the plug, so to speak, and retire early, there was a huge gap. There is no way in heck I wanted to be teaching up until I was 65 and then immediately go on social security.

I have seen too many teachers where they’re holding on until they turn 65, and then they’re going to retire and go on social security, and six months later they’re six feet under.

I was using the FIRE method. I spent probably the better part of the last 20 years investing each time I got a pay raise. It worked out favorably for me over the last 20 or 25 years.

Around 2013, I noticed an influx of migrant students coming into my classroom from Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador, and I got to know some of these kids.

I was led to believe that Guatemala is this country with endemic poverty, crime, corruption, cartels — who on earth would want to go down there? And these kids really said, “You need to rethink that.”

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They encouraged me to travel to Guatemala, and in 2013 or 2014, I took my first trip down there. Then I ended up going down there once or twice a year.

I paid off my Guatemala condo in under 10 years

In 2018, I purchased a small condominium in the working-class area of Guatemala City, knowing that if I needed to, I could migrate out of the United States and be able to live down there.

So I had already purchased the property as an investment before I retired, and then I was able to make payments on it. My goal was to have it all paid off by the time I retired. And sure enough, I was able to pay it all off, so I have no mortgage on that unit.

I was making payments on it every month, and then I also expedited that by making extra payments on the principal, and I was able to pay it off within eight years. In order to do that, I took out a HELOC loan against the value of the house that I have in Federal Way, which is a suburb just south of Seattle. When you purchase property, in most places around the world, it’s all cash. You cannot go to the bank of that country and ask for a loan. You have to take care of your financing with whatever bank you have in the United States or your home country.

The property that I purchased down there is a two-bedroom, one-bath with underground parking, concierge services, security, et cetera, and that was for about $125,000. The mortgage was for 10 years, just under $1,500.

There was no renting — it was vacant for years. It was just a matter of time for me to begin furnishing, purchasing things like the couches, and the chairs, and the dining room tables, and the beds, and stuff like that.

I had to do that little by little over the eight years. At the time, I was living in Washington State, and you have to factor in airplane tickets to get down there, and how much money you’re going to spend on not only purchasing these items, but also having them delivered and being there and so forth. It took me about two or three years to build it all up.

I started being down there full-time in August 2024. I’m in the process of securing a temporary and a permanent residency card. That’s about a three- to five-year long process.

I would be getting a visa that would allow me to live in Guatemala for extended periods of time — greater than six months.

Right now, as it is, I’m only allowed to stay in Guatemala up to six months at a time.

The healthcare in Guatemala is significantly less expensive than in the US

I have a private health insurance plan in Guatemala that runs me about $315 a month; no deductibles and no copay. That’s a private hospital that also covers medicines, X-rays, MRIs, and hospital stays, and you do not get a bill at the end of any of that.

And there is such a contrast for superior services: they have better bedside manners in Central America. You’re not surrounded by a certified nursing assistant or an intake specialist or a finance and operations person determining how are you going to make these payments and everything. You go into an office, the reception is right there, and the second person you see is the doctor.

Glasses, optometry, and dental I am not insured on. When I’m down there I get my teeth cleaned every six months, just like I do up here, and my teeth cleaning on average is about $65 per visit. To contrast that, when I was going to get my teeth cleaned at my local dentist up here in Washington, that would be close to $800 or $900. What the insurance carrier for dental is not covering of that is forced onto me. So each time I went to get my teeth cleaned in the States, it was slightly over $200 for my portion of the bill.

If you think about the concept of snowbirds, at least out here on the West Coast, we have a huge influx of people in their fifties who decide to retire early and they immediately relocate to Southern California, Southern Arizona, Southern New Mexico, in border towns all along the Texas border, so they can have immediate access — to drive to the border or walk across the border — to purchase their prescriptions, get their teeth done, get their X-rays done, or go into the local hospital.

If there is an emergency, they’re going to run over to that border before they dial 911 in the United States.

I’ve just taken that concept one extra country over, which is the next country after Mexico, and that’s Guatemala.