MAKE YOUR DREAM RETIREMENT ABROAD A REALITY

Adventure, lower costs, affordable healthcare and a richer life can all be yours overseasbut you have to nail the practical details first.

- BY DIANE HARRIS You can contact the author at [e-mail].

FOR some people, the appeal of retiring abroad lies in the ability to live well for less than it would cost in the U.S. Others seek more affordable healthcare or a less divisive political climate. Still others, such as Karen Fifer Ferry, 68, and her husband, John, 74, are lured by love—not for each other (though the couple have that in abundance), but rather for the place they now call home.

For the Ferrys, that means Green Turtle Cay, a tiny island in the Bahamas boasting pristine beaches, crystal blue waters, picturesque clapboard houses and lush coral gardens. The couple started vacationing there when their three children, now in their mid thirties, were small. They kept going back, increasingly enamored of the island’s physical beauty and its warm, welcoming community of around 500 people—a place where, Cheers-style, everybody knows your name.

The couple bought a cottage there in 2012, gave up their U.S. home in Providence in 2014 and worked largely remotely. They decided to retire in the Bahamas permanently after Karen left her job as a consultant to healthcare companies in 2018 and John, a pediatrician and executive recruiter for the healthcare industry, followed suit a year later. Since they already owned property in the country, the path to become permanent residents was straightforward, additionally requiring only references who would attest to their character, documentation of sufficient financial assets to show they wouldn’t become a burden to the government, and an application fee.