Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain -

Recently I received an e-mail from a gentleman requesting information about my monthly relocation/retirement tours. At the bottom of his letter I saw the quote by Mark Twain that is above. It really struck home for me especially in these troubled times.

There are a lot of Baby Boomers and others who have had to put their retirement and life plans on hold because of the current world financial crisis.

There are a lot of Baby Boomers and others who have had to put their retirement and life plans on hold because of the current world financial crisis.  They need not despair. Many of these people think that they have to work longer or wait until the economy and real estate market come back to get on with their lives. Few realize that Costa Rica may be the solution to their problem.

Instead of waiting five, ten or fifteen years to retire they may be able to do it now if they simplify their lifestyle by moving to Costa Rica. That way they can enjoy what time they have left and not regret later on what they didn’t do. Thousands who have already moved here have blazed the trail for newcomers. There are services like the ones I offer (www.liveincostarica.com) and those which the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) provides which can make the move relatively painless and help people succeed here.

Really all anyone has to do is have a little adventure in their heart, work out the logistics and see if they can swing it with less money. Time is our greatest enemy and it is a shame not to do what life is for – living.

The Golden Door Retirement and Living in Costa Rica

The term self-help (or self-improvement) refers to self-guided improvement[—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. By all estimates the “self-improvement” market in the U.S. as worth more than $9 billion in 2006 — including infomercials, mail-order catalogs, holistic institutes, books, audio cassettes, motivation-speaker seminars, the personal coaching market, weight-loss and stress-management programs. All you have to do is wander into the local branch of your Barnes & Noble bookstore and look at the large number of books that are available in the self-help section. Obviously it is a popular subject.

Let’s face it. Everyone has some area in their lives which needs improvement. Whether it is doing exercise on a regular basis, improving one’s self-discipline or making money people want to improve some facet of their life.

As strange as it may seem moving to Costa Rica has helped 1000s of Americans improve their lives. Unplugging from their past and moving to a foreign country can make one feel rejuvenated and change your whole outlook on life. By living better with less as you can do in Costa Rica, people find their lives do change for the better. I have seen scores of people adopt a simpler and less complicated Latin lifestyle. You just get a sense by looking at many of the ex-pats here that they have experienced personal growth by immersing themselves in all that Costa Rica has to offer. You would probably have to live here for a while to understand what I mean, but the signs of renewed energy and vitality can be seen on most everyone’s face who makes the move.

However, I would be lying through my teeth if I said that everyone who moves here experiences personal growth. Too many people flee the States with a lot of  emotional baggage and expect things to  change automatically and with no effort. Everything good in life requires work and the same is true in Costa Rica. You get out of the country what you basically put into it. NO effort = no personal growth. A big effort can = a complete transformation.  I should know because moving here about 30 years ago to pursue my dreams which radically changed my life and helped me grow as a person and to find the happiness I was always been seeking.

This is one of the many subjects I discuss on my monthly relocation/retirement tours and when I give lectures about living in Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s natural beauty.

I just finished one of  my monthly Combination Central Pacific and Central Valley Relocation Retirement Tours. I had the pleasure of hosting four couples and a group of singles. There were Joe and Mary Ann from Ohio with their best friends Kathy and Steve. Richard and María and from Maryland, Audrey and Martin from Florida and Tony and Bev from California who rounded out the couples. The singles were Grafton, Debbie, Asher, Roger and Dana.

I am proud to report that all of my clients were 100% satisfied with what they saw and did on the tour plus the highly informative two-day seminar sponsored by the ARCR. I knew this because as they exited the tour bus for the last time all of them had a smile from ear to ear on their faces. I  sometimes feel sad when a tour ends because I really develop a close bond with the participants in a very short time. In fact, they bond with each other because of their common interest to move here and many become good friends.  For me it is a truly rewarding experience to be able to bring people together and to help change their lives by making their dreams come true.

Everyone on the tour fell in love with Costa Rica’s natural beauty, the people, the lifestyle and expressed a burning desire desire to relocate here. Unfortunately, most have to wait a couple of years to retire or sell their homes because of the current slow down in the U.S. real estate market. I am sure that when they do make the move they will be thoroughly prepared by what they learned on the tour.

Speaking of real estate, I offer a sampling of properties on my tour so that future residents develop a complete understanding of the local market. They only visit the most desirable areas in the path of progress. My clients see a large selection of single family homes, condominiums and gated communities at the beach and in the best locations in the popular Central Valley.

In the South Pacific we visit Dominical, Uvita, Ojochal and the future San Buenas Golf Resort. While touring the Central Pacific we stop at the increasingly popular Palo Seco area, Parrita, Esterillos Este, Hermosa,  neighboring Jacó  and the world-famous Los Sueños Resort and Marina where we have lunch.

On the first day of the Central Valley portion of the tour we travel through San José, Rohrmoser and the Sabana, Escazú, Santa Ana, Ciudad Colón, Puriscal, San Antonio de Belén, the Cariari golf course community, the city of Heredia proper, San Rafael de Heredia, Los Angeles de Heredia, San Isidro de Heredia and Moravia.

The next day we visit Atenas, Grecia and the other parts of Heredia like Santa Bábara, San Joaquín de Flores and San Francisco.

When I started my tours over ten years ago I didn’t offer real estate. However, at the insistence of my clients I changed the itineraries to include a sampling of different types of properties in different price ranges. I use the company Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties to select the properties we visit since they work everyone step of they way with tour participants many of whom eventually turn out to be buyers. It is my responsibility to put my clients in the best possible hands in order ensure their success.

On my relocation/retirement tour my guests are also introduced to a wide variety of Costa Rica’s mouth watering cuisine. They often joke that my tours are not  really for retirement but for eating their way across Costa Rica. They are amazed by the low cost of food and the high quality of the country’s restaurants. In Spanish there is a saying, “El amor entra por la cocina (love enters through the kitchen).” I think the same can be true of the great food here and the love foreigners develop for it.

1. Pensionado income will be $1,000 per month, increased from the current $600 per month. The $1,000 applies to both a single applicant and to the family unit (applicant plus spouse and/or other dependants under the age of 18). So, the one pension covers both the husband and wife – same as now.

2. Rentista income increased to $2,500 per month and applies to BOTH a single applicant and to a family unit (applicant plus spouse and/or other dependants under the age of 18). So, it does not make any difference if the applicant is single or is married and has a spouse and five kids, the applicant will have to prove exactly the same amount of unearned income: $2,500 per month.

3. No increased income requirement when renewing carnet. The second sentence of Articulo 263 – Transitorio II, which would have applied the new increased income requirements to all non-permanent residents at the time of the next renewal of the residency carnet, was deleted from the final text. So, if your residency was approved based on a pension of $600+, or $1,000 rentista income, you will have no changes in your income requirements when you renew your carnet after the new law goes into effect.

This key change in the text of the law came about as a direct result of our e-mails, which let the Asamblea know someone really cared about this issue.

4. Mandatory membership in CCSS. Residents will have to join “La Caja” and will need to present proof of membership when renewing the carnets. La Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (La Caja) is the National Health Insurance System of Costa Rica. Membership in la Caja is mandatory for all Costa Rican employees, workers, managers, etc., but membership is currently voluntary for foreign residents. Membership fees (health insurance premiums) are very low compared to health insurance rates in the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

5. Law goes into effect six (6) months after the approved law is published in La Gazeta, the official Costa Rican government newspaper. Therefore, any residency applications filed prior to the effective date of the law would be treated as filed under the “old” income requirements of $600 for pensionado and $1,000 for rentista.

6. Many changes address human rights issues. This is not the right forum to address those changes but I want to mention that the new law creates an Immigration Commission and a system to appeal the rulings of Migracion y Extranjeria.

According to an article that appeared in today’s edition of La República, Costa Rica will be one of the countries in Latin America whose economy bounces back starting in 2010. These predictions were made by Miguel Savastano, Assistant Director of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) for the Western  Hemisphere. This information is based on Costa Rica’s financial system being in sound shape and the government’s financial policy which includes protection of the most vulnerable sectors of the populations. The IMF also firmly endorses the fiscal policies of Costa Rica’s Central Bank.

In addition, “Latin America in general, will experience a quicker recovery that the larger economies” according Nicolás Eyzaguirre Director of International Monetary Funds (IMF) for the Western  Hemisphere. He goes on to say that “Latin American and the Caribbean are not confronting a bank crisis like the United States and a large part of Europe.” He goes on to state, “Many countries in the region have responded to the crisis with policies which boost production and employment. The outstanding feature being that six months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, NO Latin American financial system has experienced a banking  crisis. Liquidity is good and Latin American banks have little dependence on foreign financing.”