Recently I had a couple of well-to-do gentleman from Malibu and Newport Beach on a private relocation/retirement tour. They represent a new breed of person with money who wants to leave the madness of United States and move to Costa Rica.

Both of the men are millionaires, live in very exclusive areas and have good incomes. However, they are tired of the upscale life they are leading and want to downsize so they can have more time to enjoy what is important instead of being caught up in the rat race.

One of my clients told me that he was having trouble living on $15,000 per month. I almost choked when I heard this. I gave him a sample budget of what he would have to spend here to maintain his current lifestyle and still meet his financial obligations in the States. Even living in an expensive area like Escazú, my client can live on less than half of what he does now. He was amazed at the numbers.

Most people who move here do not have the income that my client does but can also reduce their expenses significantly and not give up their lifestyle by moving here. In fact, they will probably have a much better lifestyle here and enjoy themselves more.

If you go to the search engines and insert “Costa Rica,” you will literally see thousands of sites listed. Many of them are for tours, real estate, general information or about anything you can think of that is related to the country.

If you are thinking of living or retiring here then you will make a more specific search and another long list of sites will pop up. I have noticed that over the last eight years hundreds of new sites and blogs have appeared on line. The majority are written by newcomers in the forms of blogs and feature a good deal of information about their lives here. Some clever expats have even made videos about their experiences here.

While a lot of this information is really helpful, potential residents should learn to distinguish between so-called webs that people do for a hobby to keep busy and those sites which contain information written by the the local experts. ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE!

I am sometimes amazed by the amount of erroneous information that is listed on the hobby sites, news groups and even sites put up by those who consider themselves experts. It takes years and years of living here and mastery of the language and culture to really understand how things work in Costa Rica. Everyone has the right to share their experiences but should be careful about the accuracy of the information they disseminate. Unfortunately, most people considered themselves authorities just because they make the move. I see people who have only lived here a few months giving out information to others who are thinking of making the move and it scares me.

The bottom line is to “consider the source” of any information your read and be sure the person who is writing it has a high level of expertise and lived here for at least ten years. Follow this advice and you are on your way to having a successful life in Costa Rica. I always make make this clear on my monthly relocation/retirement tours.

This article reports on the findings of the New Economics Foundation, which says that Costa Ricans are the happiest people in the world, and also have the second longest life expectancy in our hemisphere, after Canada.

Costa Ricans sure are a happy bunch. Don’t worry be Costa Rican. This article reports on the findings of the New Economics Foundation The “ticos” (colloquial for Costa Ricans), just topped a new list of the happiest people on the planet compiled by an independent research group in Britain.

The country scores 76.1 out of 100 on the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index (HPI), which measures life expectancy, satisfaction and a country’s environmental footprint. The index was released Saturday.

This is the second index the group has done. In the original HPI, published in 2006, Vanuatu, an archipelago in the South Pacific, was graded the happiest, Colombia came second and Costa Rica third. Now, apparently, Costa Ricans are getting some satisfaction. “As well as reporting the highest life satisfaction in the world, Costa Ricans also have the second-highest average life expectancy of the New World (second only to Canada). All this with a footprint of 2.3 global hectares,” reads the HPI.

Also, this index seems to just love Latinos. According to this year’s ranking, the world’s 10 happiest countries are all — except one — in Latin America and the Caribbean. Following Costa Rica, they are the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil and Honduras. Nicaragua came in 11th.

The index punishes bigger, wealthier nations, turning on its head the idea that a nation’s GDP brings the brightest smiles. Of the 143 countries surveyed, the United States ranked 114th, sandwiched between Madagascar and Nigeria. The researchers placed their native United Kingdom 74th, just after Slovakia and before Japan and Spain.

The research group argues on the index’s Web site, “governments have been concentrating on the wrong indicators for too long. If you have the wrong map, you are unlikely to reach your destination.”

So why, you might ask, despite decades of social, political and economic hardship, are Latin Americans racking up the happy points?

The report explains, “Survey data reveals two key features of Latin American culture. One is the presence of relatively unmaterialistic (sic) aspirations and values, compared to countries with similar economic conditions. Latin Americans report being much less concerned with material issues than, for example, they are with their friends and family. Secondly, social capital is particularly strong in the region. Civil society is very active, from religious groups to workers’ groups to environmental groups.” African countries such as Zimbabwe ranked among the least happy in the world.

Today I sit in my home in Heredia Costa Rica bathed in summer sunshine. Meanwhile the northeastern U.S. has been blasted by a historic snowfall. The roads are shut down; almost 1000 flights have been delayed and train travel is virtually paralyzed. According to weather reports almost 20 inches of snow have fallen and there is still more to come.

Fortunately here in Costa Rica we enjoy one of the most best climates i the world , especially in the country’s Central Valley. In fact, Atenas which is a small town in the area, has the best climate in the world according to National Geographic Magazine. Costa Rica’s almost perfect climate has turned the country into one of the world’s prime retirement locations and winter refuge for snowbirds.

I really feel lucky and spoiled to live in such a fantastic country with great year-round weather. I shouldn’t take anything for granted.

When people move to Costa Rica to live or retire, they have to either rent or buy a home. Recently, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Tico Times newspaper about the country’s current real estate market. As most of you probably know the downturn in the global economy affected real estate markets around the world. Costa Rica is no exception.

People interested in buying property here became more cautious than they’d ever had to be before because of recent events. A lot of people from the U.S. and Canada lost some of the funds or equity they’d saved in hopes of buying property. The crisis changed their plans and left a lot of people holding off on buying a second home or a vacation home in a foreign country.

Nevertheless they are some encouraging signs. The Costa Rican real estate market appears to be reviving after taking a hit during the recent worldwide recession. Now there a lot of good values because some prices have been slashed and a lot of people are anxious to move their properties. Costa Rica continues to be a popular warm-weather destination and tourism is one of the motors which drives the real estate market. This coupled with the country’s stellar international reputation as a nature lover’s paradise and a stable peace-loving country will continue to make Costa Rica a good investment. How often does one hear bad things about Costa Rica on nightly newscasts? Never!!! What you hear is negative news about drug wars in Mexico, Venezuela’s President Chavez and other problems in Latin America. On the other hand Costa Rica is associated with programs on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and retirement.

In addition, 70 million Baby Boomers, many of whom have their sights set on retiring abroad, will continue to fuel the country’s real estate market. Add to this the scores of people of all ages who are disgusted with the direction the U.S. is going and who will want to jump ship and move to a country like Costa Rica as a solution.

Due to all of the reasons above, Costa Rica will continue to be an excellent place to invest in real estate.

Photo Courtesy of Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties