New Mexico
A boomer who moved to Panama after years as a bartender in the Hamptons and New Mexico outlines the pros and cons of living in Central America
- George Stumpp, a retired bartender, lives comfortably in Panama after moving from New Mexico.
- Stumpp rents two properties as Airbnbs, supplementing his income in a country with good healthcare.
- He said Panama has robust infrastructure, a lower cost of living, and many of the same stores as the US.
George Stumpp, 65, worked as a bartender and bar supervisor in Long Island and New Mexico for decades. Realizing his retirement savings could go further in a different country, he settled in Panama.
In 2006, he and his wife bought a property on the outskirts of Panama City for $37,000 in cash, traveling back and forth until his retirement. After 15 years of going back and forth, he settled there permanently in 2021, renting out two casitas as Airbnbs to supplement his income. He’s enjoying retirement in a country with a lower cost of living and high-quality healthcare, and he said he’s enjoyed adapting to Panamanian culture.
“One of the reasons I chose Panama over other Central American countries is because we’ve got better infrastructure than anyplace else,” Stumpp told Business Insider. “It’s a thriving country, and a lot of that is based on income that they get from the Panama Canal.”
George Stumpp
As the cost of living continues to increase, driven by elevated housing costs and still-high grocery bills, many American retirees are looking abroad for retirement. Some recent retirees previously told BI they’re living much more comfortably in places like Colombia, Thailand, and St. Maarten.
Leaving the US
Stumpp grew up in the Hamptons on Long Island and eventually worked as a bartender for 15 years. He worked at rock ‘n’ roll clubs in the 1970s then found work at more upscale bars and restaurants.
As Long Island got more expensive, he decided to relocate to Sante Fe, where he had a cousin at the time. In 1993, he moved to Santa Fe with his then-girlfriend and her two kids.
He got a job at a luxury hotel downtown, working his way up the ranks to bar supervisor. For years, he managed the bar, from creating schedules to ordering inventory. As his kids got older, he started to vacation in Central America, traveling to Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama.
His parents had retired to a lakefront cottage in Ontario, Canada, so he knew he wanted to retire abroad. In the mid-2000s, he started looking into purchasing a property in Belize, a predominantly English-speaking nation, although he and his wife ended up passing on it after noticing it wasn’t as peaceful as they wanted it to be.
After reading more about Panama and seeing more Americans moving there, they took a lengthy trip searching for potential properties. He noticed he could get cheaper prices by calling the number on hand-painted signs outside homes instead of going through real estate websites, which would upcharge nonlocals.
Buying a home in Panama
He settled on a nearly half-acre property for $37,000 back in 2006 located three minutes from the beach, giving his Sante Fe home to his stepdaughter. The property had an old home that was falling apart, and he and his wife built a smaller house toward the back of the property with a bedroom, small kitchen, bathroom, and front porch. They split the old house in two as rental units. He owns his property outright with no mortgage, and his annual property tax is less than $100.
George Stumpp
“We literally just took it apart — it was wired with extension chords, and it was in sad shape,” Stumpp said. “We took it apart, put it back together again, and turned it into these two cute little Airbnb rentals. I’m not making a million dollars, but it’s supplemental income.”
After moving back and forth between Panama and the US for work for several years, he finally decided to retire and put his Santa Fe house on the market in 2021, noticing his home increased over $100,000 in value from the year before. He sold his convertible and bought an SUV, drove around the US for four months visiting friends and seeing national parks, and then flew back to Panama with his dog.
Moving to Panama permanently
He said over the last two decades, Panama’s infrastructure has become much more robust than many other Central American countries. He said the city has good healthcare, a thriving financial scene, and plenty of big-box retailers and large chains.
Within 15 minutes of his house, he said there are four grocery stores, a Home Depot-like retailer, and many restaurant chains similar to those in the US.
George Stumpp
“Anything I can buy in the States I can buy here. You might pay a little bit more for certain things, but then again, there’s always alternatives,” Stumpp said. “I can buy Kellogg’s cornflakes and pay a lot of money, or I can buy the local cornflakes for a lot less.”
Because he’s over 60, he gets discounts on his utilities, doctor visits, public transportation, flights, and even movie theaters.
He’s seen many large condominium complexes built along the beach that sell for about $300,000 with monthly maintenance fees of between $150 and $250. In his area, which has fewer tourists and expats, home prices are much lower, though he said sometimes houses can stay on the market for years without buyers.
His electricity fees are about $50 a month, while WiFi is $40 a month. His water bill is a miniscule $5 a month, and he rarely uses air conditioning, which keeps costs down. Still, he estimates his grocery bills are comparable to what he spent in the US, though going out to eat is slightly less.
“As more and more North Americans come down, prices on certain things like services have gone up,” Stumpp said. “When I first got here, a hand carwash was $2, but now it’s $10.”
He loves the weather and living by water, and he’s enjoyed becoming integrated into Panamanian culture over the past few years. Still, he said he’s noticed a lot of Americans moving down to Panama who don’t adapt to the culture, noting that some have left recently citing cultural differences. He said Americans should understand that they’re guests in Panama and respect their neighbors, even if it means having to listen to loud music during a party.
“If you come down here to retire, it’s not going to be like back home, and you’re going to have to be flexible,” Stumpp said. “There’s some other old-timers here, and those are the ones that can adapt to life here, but there’s those that can’t.”
Have you recently left the United States for a new country? Have you recently moved to a new state? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — A leader in the New Mexico Republican Party was arrested Wednesday, accused of a deadly hit-and-run in Las Cruces.
Former Treasurer of the Republican Party in New Mexico, Kimberly Ann Skaggs, 54, was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaving the scene and tampering with evidence, jail records show.
Police documents show the charges stem from a deadly hit-and-run crash that happened Monday afternoon, which killed 40-year-old bicyclist, Andrew Brown.
Investigators believed Skaggs was involved after an investigation revealed that Skaggs allegedly was driving fast in the area, fled the scene after the crash and then tried to hide the vehicle from authorities.
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The investigation
According to police documents, a witness at the scene of the crash– 850 N. Fairacres Rd.– described seeing a dark blonde-haired woman flee in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV.
Afterwards, investigators said they saw on Flock cameras– A.I. powered license plate readers– a black Cadillac Escalade traveling near the site of the crash minutes before the incident.
READ MORE: Dona Ana County expands Flock license plate cameras as officials cite crime-solving gains
The license plates showed that the vehicle belonged to Skaggs and that, in September 2025, the Las Cruces Police Department had given her a citation for “racing on streets-exhibition driving.”
Investigators stated that a business on Picacho Ave. captured what they alleged was the same black Cadillac Escalade driving fast.
Then, the documents described how investigators tracked down the Escalade using OnStar’s live GPS tracking, discovering the SUV was at a property on the 5000 block of Northwind Road, which investigators said the Dona Ana County Assessors Office confirmed is a property owned by Skaggs.
On Tuesday, at around 6:41 p.m.– over 24 hours after the deadly hit-and-run– investigators executed a search warrant on the property and described finding the black Cadillac Escalade behind a home, under a red metal carport.
Investigators noted damage on the SUV consistent with the crash, highlighting that there was blood splatter near one of the front tires, markings on the front bumper consistent with hitting a bicycle and parts missing, which investigators said were the same parts found at the scene.
Dona Ana County jail records show Skaggs was booked on Wednesday afternoon and remains jailed without a bond.
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About Skaggs
On the official website of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Skaggs was listed as the treasurer before she was removed.
KFOX14/CBS4 has reached out to the Republican Party to learn more and are waiting for a comment regarding the arrest.
Also, according to election statistics, Skaggs ran for State Representative in District 36 in 2022 and 2024, losing both times to Democrat Nathan P. Small.
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SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether any Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law when pills reached New Mexico streets.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said, “make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities.”
The governor also shared a timeline from 2022 to 2025 that she said shows when she asked federal officials for help with New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis and violent crime.
Lujan Grisham said the first request came on June 21, 2022, when she wrote to then-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and asked for 50 additional federal agents.
She said she wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Sept. 15, 2022, asking for more agents, resources and support for New Mexico law enforcement.
Lujan Grisham said she wrote Garland a second time on Aug. 8, 2023, with the same request.
What came next?
About a month later, Lujan Grisham said she sent Garland a third letter and said New Mexico needed more federal law enforcement to curb violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
She said her most recent request came on Sept. 4, 2025, when she wrote to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and again asked for additional agents and resources.
The governor’s statement says those requests span several years as she pressed the federal government for more help in New Mexico.
Full statement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction.
Let me say that again: the Drug Enforcement Administration watched as 74,000 fentanyl pills were delivered to a mobile home park in Albuquerque, and they did nothing. And that’s just one transaction. Shockingly, the federal government stood by while monitoring shipments, tallying exact pill counts, and watching as these deadly drugs hit the streets.
There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway. The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.
If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise. New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.
Today, I wrote to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked him to investigate whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.
I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis.
- On June 21, 2022, I wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, imploring the FBI to assign no less than 50 additional agents to New Mexico to stem escalating drug trafficking and violent crime.
- On September 15, 2022, I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that the Department of Justice provide additional federal agents, resources and support to New Mexico law enforcement. We asked the department to match the level of investigative, analytical, and technical resources the FBI had deployed in its Buffalo, NY surge.
- On August 8, 2023, I wrote again to Attorney General Garland, renewing my request that the DOJ expeditiously assign more federal agents to New Mexico.
- On September 7, 2023, I wrote to Attorney General Garland for a third time, reiterating my request once more federal law enforcement support to curb violent crime, drug and human trafficking.
- On September 4, 2025, I wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, once again requesting additional agents and resources.
I have declared the surge of drugs like fentanyl to be a public health emergency. I have deployed the National Guard to both Albuquerque and Española. While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in.
New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business.
I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”
The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
CLINES CORNERS, N.M. – The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
The fire is burning just east of Clines Corners, south of Interstate 40.
It forced the closure of eastbound Interstate 40 at Clines Corners on Tuesday night. I-40 reopened Tuesday night. I-40 is back open but smoke still affects visibility.
“We’re on the side of I-40 so drivers have to be pretty cautious. As far as our establishment itself we’re pretty isolated by the freeway itself as a nice fire break,” said Lincoln Tarantino, Clines Corner general manager.
The fire has burned around 852 acres, up from just 20 at this time Monday.
Crews say the fire is not contained and wind farms in the area are threatened.
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