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Thank you:
you got my bait for $1,000 a week or $ 4,000 a month, still the same but not $1,400 a month which is what my son makes a MONTH.
Glad to hear you people are making a WHOLE lot more money and are complainig.
Live well and PROSPER.
warren
I dont know about bait, but when I’m in Costa Rica, my total monthly expenses never ever exceed $800 a month. It’s usually around $650, unless I’m buying stuff for the house. Of course, I don’t have housing to pay for because my house is owned free and clear, but I have the usual utilities, guard, food, entertainment, healthcare, clothing, transportation, etc. Nobody I know living on less than $2000 a month, or $1000, are complaining. They are quite happy to be out of the US and living Pura Vida. $1400 is a VERY good salary in Costa Rica. I know plenty of Ticos who would love to make that much.
Yesterday I spoke at length with the Tico who cares for my property when I am not here.He is quite poor. We sat on his front porch and a neighbor joined us. Both made note that things were tougher now and referred to the increased cost of the commodities they need to buy in order to carry on with their farming. Fertilizer, pest control agents, seed…everything is getting close to being cost prohibitive for them to continue.
If you are a multi-millionaire it is easy to live here, with good food, a nice house, a maid for $1 an hour, a shining car and a computer to write comments on this site on a sunday morning….. Inflation does not affect you, neihter does the kilo-price of rice (and beans)….. The reality for the greater part of Costa Rica -the silent majority- is totally different.
Sprite, I’ve had that same conversation with my gardener, who tells me that despite being poor, he is very happy — he loves the people he works for, his children are all getting an education he didn’t have, and he says that he has plenty to eat. He raised the price of his eggs that I buy from him because the cost of corn went up. So did the raw milk I buy from his neighbor — again because the cost of feed escalated, although most of the time the cows are grass fed. I did hear a really sad story when I was in CR this last time about how some farmers in my neighborhood had to kill their cows because they could not afford to buy hay during the dry season. That being said, you do NOT have to be a multimilllionaire to live in Costa Rica. That’s ridiculous. If you want to live like a crazy gringo, well, yes, it’s going to cost you. I’ve scaled back my life in many ways so that I could live in Costa Rica on less than a thousand dollars a month. Thankfully I had the smarts to not put all my money into the stock market but rather took it all to costa rica, bought land, and built a house, so I don’t have that expense except for maintenance and taxes, etc.. Now if the s$$$ really hits the fan, I have a place where I could grow my own food, I have plenty of fruit trees, and I could barter with my neighbors for things I couldn’t produce myself. There is an art to third world living that I learned many years ago. When I do hear gringos complaining of how much they spend on food, I pay attention to what goes into their shopping cart at the market: gringo food in boxes, cans, packages, microwavable popcorn, beer, wine, meat, expensive gringo cheeses, lots of paper and plastic products, etc. If you want to live like a gringo you have to be able to afford it. Living simply is easier and a lot less expensive, and you are actually living better in the long run.
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