You might not be able to retire for another few years. For sure you have the picture of your dream retirement home tucked away in a corner of your mind. Maybe it looks pretty much like the home in this photo? Did you know you use a self-directed IRA to buy a vacation rental? Retirement…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Did you know that you can retire for less in Costa Rica? Until now you thought you can’t afford to retire abroad? You’ve probably been reading on forums and news sites that Costa Rica has become more expensive than it was before. So now you’re afraid you will not be…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Do you have any drinking habits like this? “Hon, grab me another cold beer from the fridge, will you? God, it’s hot today and it’s making me thirsty”. It is only 10:00 am and John is ready for his 2nd beer of the day. What else is there to do…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Moving to Costa Rica? Be smart and first take Christopher Howard’s famous Live in Costa Rica tours. Too many property buyers end up running all over the country without having a clue where to purchase or rent a vacation home or retirement home in Costa Rica. You have heard friends…
We decided to use our home as a Costa Rica vacation rental property. It has been some time since I reported on my experience with buying property in Costa Rica and living there. I thought it would be useful to give you an update. My wife and I are not yet at the point of…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Did you know there are two tennis outfits Grecia? When showing property with clients a while ago, I saw a couple of tennis rackets and a basket full of tennis balls in the garage of the Grecia home for sale. We were way up in the mountains of Grecia and…
Estimated Reading Time: 9 Minutes There are four lessons I learned when we moved to Costa Rica. If I would have known these facts, we would have had a much easier start. I’d like to share those four lessons with those with an interest to learn from other’s mistakes. My good friend Ivo has asked…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Assisted living is now available in Costa Rica. Florida became famous for its retirement communities and Costa Rica will be the next. The first REAL retirement community in Costa Rica is Verdeza is under construction and located in Escazu. This beautiful community will be fully operational on the 11th of…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes What to do with your free time when living in Costa Rica? Have you arrived without a job, without a mission, or without a business to found? Then that probably makes you a retiree of whatever age. Also, those who do have a job, or run a business, will have…
How easy do you think it is getting your belongings to Costa Rica? Moving everything you own after all of the garage sales and donations are completed can still be tricky. Especially, if you: 1) Plan to rent in Costa Rica before you decide to make it permanent your home; and 2) Live on the…
by guest blogger TicoNuevo Back home, before I tackled the financial flowchart, we were dealing with a number of banks, and credit card and financial institutions; some of whom we felt either we would not need, whose fees would be too expensive to use when moving to Costa Rica or would not be easy to…
Have you heard of Blooms Ladies Club Costa Rica? I love following Irina and Jim Just’s blog, called “Just Costa Rica, living la Pura Vida” because they both always have interesting things to say in their blog. In all my years selling property in Costa Rica, I rarely saw a couple retire in Costa Rica…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes How much help can you get from a database that you should build before moving to Costa Rica? Once you are committed to moving to Costa Rica, there is a huge amount of information to read and absorb. So, my advice again: be detailed, be methodical (even if it’s hard…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes How important is the spousal compromise when moving to Costa Rica? My purpose in this blog is to show that there will be surprises and unknowns harbored by all parties when making the decision to move. The success of your move to Costa Rica will be measured by how well…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Here’s something to think about: a significant number of all of the expats fail. This mostly happens within their first year in Costa Rica, then they return home. I have some ideas about why this happens, and how to avoid becoming a statistic. I’ll discuss the most prominent reasons that…
Have you heard the story about the gringo and the fisherman? I’ve seen several versions, now that I Googled it. But it’s an interesting story, that I heard back in the ’80s. It shows the mindset of the average gringo and the mindset of the average Tico. Understanding both, is a fantastic assistance to anyone…