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In our move to CR, we will be bringing substantial amounts( $ 75,000 approx.)of jewelry we own and have inherited.
Does anyone know how CR handles these items? If you wear some of it on the trip down, will CR stop you at customes and tax what you are wearing? How do they handle it if it is in your carry-on luggage or sent via private mail sevice?
Ben Jackson
May 4, 2006
I’m now corresponding with an MS Word document because when your screen came up asking me to refresh my page at your site, I did so, and it wiped out my response that was about 15 minutes in the making.
To continue&..
My wife Carol chuckled at your question, saying, (tongue in cheek of course), Scot must not understand a woman’s attachment to jewelry.
The truth is we’re no flashy folks that wear a lot of Bo jangles. We live in a log home on 1 ½ acres in a small hamlet with a population of about 150 folks in south Texas. We grocery shop weekly in the nearest town 25 miles away which has a population of almost 15,000. I can assure you that neither of these communities are impressed with Bo jangles. They just don’t mix well with our blue jeans, boots, and denim shirts.
Carol and I were reared in Austin,TX and San Antonio,TX respectively, and we chose to leave the rat race of the city for our haven in the Texas hill country. This is why we fell in love with Atenas; it being a small rural agricultural community that has a great year round climate, cleanliness, and extremely friendly people.
We’ll never forget our visit to the beautiful church in Atenas, nor the wonderful elderly gentleman who greeted us as he was leaving the church. He’d ridden his bicycle to the church to pray and was leaving as we approached the entrance. He welcomed us to visit his church. What an awesome experience!
Your rhetorical question is right on the mark; there is absolutely no reason to take this stuff to CR, other than it is a significant asset and we are leaving the USA to retire in CR. My wife wears her wedding ring, and when the clasp isn’t broken, the tennis bracelet I gave her at our 15th year wedding anniversary. Real flashy, huh?
Although we are not affluent by any means, our families have been very successful in their careers. My
Grandfather and father had a successful practice as physicians and surgeons in San Antonio, while Carol’s family was quite successful in the grocery business in Austin. Our mothers, (who else has the jewelry) died
of cancer within a year of each other about 3 years ago and left the Bo jangles, fortunately or unfortunately to us. Probably the former rather than the later, as an asset, is an asset, is an asset. No? We don’t wear or display this stuff; and it’s somewhat hidden in a drawer in our master bath.Since we’ve read your sage advice for about 2 years now, we sincerely ask your advice in this matter.
Our human nature tells us that you keep your assets close by and under control, yet we would like your advice on whether to move these assets to CR with us when we come, or leave them in a safety deposit box at our bank in the USA.
As an aside, Carol’s youngest son is a successful attorney in Dallas, with dual undergraduate degrees in accounting and finance. We have not approached him for advice due to his lack of experience in the international arena, and will rely on your advice as usual.
Please let us know of your opinion soonest, as we hope to be arriving in CR in late June or early July.
Pura Vida, (We all know what this expression means in CR. Did you know to a Texan who has visited CR it means It doesn’t get better than this!)?
Ben & Carol Jackson
Concan, TX ( Yeah, that’s really a town in Texas)Ben & Carol,
Just a thought, but since none of the jewelry other than wedding ring and tennis bracelet are worn, why not leave them in the states, or designate them to a daughter, grandaughter since it would seem that they should be passed down through the generations. I don’t know if that even applies, but I know when the time comes for us to make the permanent move my daughters will be RAIDING my jewelry box!
Good Luck with your decision.
DebbieI’m deliberating what to do with all my jewelry, too. Inherited some nice things from my mom, and have a lot of 24 carat gold rings and necklaces, but I sure as hell ain’t gonna wear them in CR, nor am I going to stash them in my house. These things become a real liability in a place like CR. The last thing you want is the perception that you are a rich gringo. You’ll be robbed faster than you can say “help”! My bank in CR doesn’t have safety deposit boxes, so I’ll probably find another bank that does and open an account. I hate to sell the stuff, but what good is it if I can’t wear it?
Ben and Carol
Thank you for your very kind comments…
I have some sort of “understanding” about a “woman’s attachment to jewelry” and in years gone by, bought a frightening amount of jewelry, primarily at Tiffany’s New York for my wife (ex) when I was making the big bucks on Wall Street… Could buy a nice home in Costa Rica with what I spent on jewelry in those years…
I would suggest that you keep your 3-4 favourite pieces with you and store the rest ‘back home.” It’s just something else to worry about while you’re here. FREE yourself of that ‘concern’, you’ll feel a lot better and you can focus on enjoying your new lives here…
Would love to be able to give you sensible investment advice but, out of the nearly one thousands offshore hedge funds that I work with … Exactly NONE of them will do business with Americans.
Best wishes
Scott
PS. Yes! My lady wife kept the jewelry, the house in Westchester and everything else but that’s OK. I left the marriage with $400 in total to my name and it’s been great!
PPS. You gotta’ explain “jughead” to me …. Please!
Scott,
Ouch!! After reading your reply, my Carol said, It looks I was quite wrong about Scott’s appreciation for ‘a woman’s attachment to jewelry’. If he was buying for his ex at Tiffany’s, his appreciation is in direct proportion to the amount he spent there!
I had about the same experience with my ex; however, without the Tiffany’s overhead. She did get ½ half of my military retirement, and that’s my continuing ouch.
Regarding the jewelry, we’ll certainly follow your sage advice as usual.
Regarding investments, I understand and appreciate the reasons for your statement.
Didn’t want you to think we are, in anyway, the major league folks you deal with. We’re just little leaguers, but we’ve been small, successful, conservative, non-greedy investors in the commodity markets. Would have loved to have been at the beginning of the current gold run up!
I assume that, with internet access in CR, we could continue this pursuit. Is that so?
As for the name Jughead, piqued your Brit curiosity, no?
Simply a term of endearment from my wife, who’s lovingly know as peanut. She’s from Alabama and is 5′ 1 (that’s Jimmy Carter’s Alabama), get the connection?
When we married 18 years ago, folks started with the Mutt & Jeff moniker (again from the comics), as I’m over 6′ 3. We made sure that was quashed forthwith! I may look like a Mutt, but Carol certainly doesn’t look like a Jeff.
Folks here in south Texas and especially any military pilots have a habit of attaching personal monikers, some of which are not appropriate for your site.
As an instructor pilot in the military I had 2 monikers. Gentle Ben, for my patience in qualifying instrument flight students when other instructors were unable to do so, and Action Jackson, while teaching aerial gunnery in attack helicopters. Go figure!
Jughead is a personality from the Archie comics in the newspapers. He’s the guy, while very weird, is Archie’s best friend. He’s the person with the pointed nose, and wears what looks like a sailor’s hat, but cut on the top to look like a crown. He’s known for his zaniness and love for cheeseburgers.
I kind of like the Jughead moniker, because I fit the personality. In my 61 years I’ve learned to smile about the good things in life, cry about the bad things, shake my head about the ironic things, and laugh at myself for some of the goofy things I sometimes do. Carol, Peanut, would say that the goofy things are a lot more often than sometimes; ergo, the name Jughead. Hey, who’s to argue? I’m too busy wiping the laughing tears from my last goof!!!
We’ll be moving to Atenas in July. Hope, after we get settled to meet with you and your lady.
Pura Vida
(To those of us in south Texas who’ve visited CR, this means It don’t get any better than this.)
Ben & Carol Jackson
I asked a question about this earlier concerning my ivory (I called it antiques) and so forth and got a similar reply. I keep reading about all of the theft by people who are earning low incomes compared to those in the States and figured I was going to have to find some way to sell this stuff. I also keep looking at real estate ads and see so very many houses for well over $400,000 and I don’t want to spend more than about $150,000 if that much. These two seem imcompatible; people who live in half-million to million dollar homes probably have expensive items there and probably wear expensive jewelry. Can someone please make these two situations mutually complementary for me?
Signed:
Completely confused
The people in half-million dollar houses are probably guarded to the max and live behind high metal fences with a security guard. They also probably have an elaborate security system in their house The rule in San Jose is to NOT wear even a wedding ring or earrings because you risk getting robbed at knife-point. That risk is less so in the community where I live and I have routinely worn my diamond watch and wedding ring, but took them off when I went to San Jose. Having these things is problematic in a country such as CR. I’m bringing my art collection because it’s not likely to get stolen. But as for my jewelry, one whole box of which is ivory collected over the years, I will put it in a safety deposit box, so I don’t have to worry. I guess a wall safe or floor safe would suffice, but I forgot to have it added during construction.
It’s a difficult question to answer. I would say that if you cannot live without them then take them. What area are you looking to live in Costa Rica? I think befor you worry about what to do with your antiques you may want to visit the area that you are looking to purchase a home or build, to get a feel of the area. As there are certainly multi million dollar homes, there are as many if not more in the price range you listed. Take a look at the numerous articles about affordable real estate that Scott has on the website. Each week he sends out an email with NEW articles or do an archive search. There is a ton of info that is very helpful. At least it has been to me. Sorry for not a more definate answer, but as stated earlier it’s difficult to answer.
Thank you everyone who’s answering.
I’m looking to live in the mountains around San Jose — probably somewhere in the area of Heredia. My first trip will probably be this August; hopefully, we’ll be moving by Dec. of 2007.
I didn’t think of doing an archive search; thank you. 🙂 I keep reading everything, but I’m sure there’s plenty of back info. I’m also going to have to find how to receive this weekly email I seem to have missed. 🙂
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