[davidd]

sweikert925

what exactly are you looking for??? :shock::shock::shock:

you already have an idea of costs related to living here as per your research

what you spend will eventually come down to personal choices. Whether you shop at the feria or go to the supermarket for example

again this over analyzing paralysis does not help you any further aside from a feeling of false confidence

why don’t you spend some time in costa rica instead worrying what prices will be in the next few years.

all this pre information may be all moot

when you come down and after a year or so you wind up hating it for all the different reasons you were initially researching

does not make any sense

stop mentally masturbating and take some action dude.

:wink::wink::wink::wink::wink::wink::wink::wink::wink

[quote=”sweikert925″]I’ve read many of the comments and download library documents on welovecostarica.com to get a sense of what it may cost me to live here but it’s a little hard to quantify it so I was hoping we could broaden the topic under discussion here to the general cost of living in Costa Rica.

I downloaded the document by Lair Davis that detailed his costs for a 5 year period (2007-2011) but it’s hard to put that in context. I take it he is (was?) a single man so his expenses are for one person but without knowing more about what his housing arrangements are it’s hard to know whether the household expense related expenses translate to my situation and in any case the figures are now between 2 and 7 years old.

I also visit an excellent website called retireforlessincostarica.com where the proprietors have helpfully detailed their monthly expenses every month for the past several years. (I’ve asked them permission to post those detailed figures here but haven’t heard back from them yet). However their expenses for food and utilities are currently about $350/month and $262/month respectively. Their food budget doesn’t seem to have changed much for the past 3 years but their utility expenses are up about $100/month since 2011. Is that in line with what the rest of you are seeing in your cost of living?

It seems that the official inflation rate for Costa Rica has dropped dramatically since the 80s and since the cost of living is the #1 reason for my tentative decision to emigrate there, this is a figure I intend to keep close watch on for the next few years. Here is the World Bank’s compilation of Costa Rican inflation sicne 1980:

http://www.indexmundi.com/costa_rica/inflation_rate_(consumer_prices).html

(I know posting this will probably get me in trouble with the self-appointed welovecostarica.com message board moderators, but what the hell, you only live once).

update: Actualy here’s a better website to get CR inflation figures as it allows you to change the dates from month to month.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/costa-rica/inflation-cpi%5B/quote%5D

[davidd]

The whole thing is pathetic and is disgusting.

but there is really nothing one can do

EXCEPT and this is the big one

pull up the pants sleeve and relocate somewhere else.

For all the expats that took the challenge and traveled the path least taken.

I salute you. 8)8)8)

[davidd]

[quote=”kwhite1″]

Get used to it, the US influence will continue to grow in places like Costa Rica. As more and more US citizens “flee” the country or retire, they bring with them the bad habits of the US.[/quote]

Kwhite

how do you like Belieze so far????

please share your continuing experiences because I am now 5 years ahead in my mind eye and need to start doing some diligence. Costa Rica is hanging on a thread and if what you say is true which I believe the trends show this

your right more and more Americans like Sweikert LOL only kidding dude you know I love you 🙂

will be flocking to costa rica with thier cultural habits and of course there will always be a supply to meet that demand.

I may have to find another spot to find.

how are the people..?? are they all dark skinned??? meaning do you stick out like a sore thumb

thanks

David

[davidd]

Sweikert

whether or not you will actually take that bold step and move to costa rica is yet to be seen :D:D

personally I don’t think so

why?

because you remind me of being part of the group of the populace that will talk a good talk but never take any action. Like most of Americans.

And if by chance you do take a risk out of your comfort zone chances are you will be selling all your newly purchased items in 12 to 18 months from the time you move on [b]craigslist [/b]

and I will be one of the people paying 30 cents on the dollar for your stuff. 😀

If you read thru all your posts you seem to constantly engage in conversations that try to [b]”like you say educate people”[/b]

Educate who?? people that live here???:roll::roll::roll::

do you even speak spanish??

instead of probing and asking discovery type questions about individual experiences of people that actually live here and work towards coming to your own conclusions as we all have subjective thresholds of what we will tolerate.

you pretty much position yourself as if you know or have some sort of inside knowledge of living in costa rica.

this is a by product of the internet. The internet is a wonderful tool but it’s not a diagnostic tool.

recent example of the conversation regarding the fattening of ticos. The past 10 to 15 years has shown a dramatic increase in american fast places and the love affair that ticos are having with McDonald, wendys etc

People that live here on a day to day basis see this themselves.

yet your comments are such that based on your online reading research you don’t see the correlation.:oops::oops::oops::oops::oops:

Again all this talk is really mental masturbation :wink::wink::wink:

anyway

Life is good

david

PS. I don’t know but I remember when I first started researching costa rica as a possible destination I did all the reading I could and I visited forums such as this one

because I know for a fact that there is topical side of how things should be and how they really are

and the goal was to find that balance of truth but even though I’ve invested hundreds of hours I knew this was just the tip of the iceburg

so I never bought here until almost 8 years later

after renting in various places

I must have moved at least 7 times in 10 years until i found my sweet spot for lack of a better word.

But I had an advantage of being latin and speaking fluent spanish.

I could not imagine the trials and tribulations of learning another langauge AND living in a foreign country.

btw I also had 2 semi successful brick and morter business here for 8 years.. one I sold and the other went bust. this however is another conversation.

b

quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”imxploring”]
The big difference my friend is that only one of us (to my knowledge) has made the investment, financially or personally in Costa Rica. There is the big difference in the perspective and knowledge that defines the value and experience in our personal postings.
[/quote]

So you believe that your admittedly more intimate knowledge of Costa Rica makes you more of an expert on all the non-Costa Rican topics we’ve discussed? Well, I don’t understand that logic.

[quote=”imxploring”]
The US is a wonderful country with no problems headed down the right path if the same applies in your mind.
[/quote]
I have never written anything here or anywhere else that would lead to the conclusion that I believe that. Maybe you’d be so kind as to explain how you arrived at that.

[quote=”imxploring”]
Do you every really intend to call Costa Rica your home even part-time or is this entire conversation just an exercise in “educating” the rest of us?[/quote]

Yes, and I thought my posts made that clear. My projected arrival as a full-time resident in CR isn’t until 2019 and I still have a lot to learn before I make that final decision which is why I have become a member here. Unlike you, I enjoy being educated on topics where my knowledge is insufficient.

While I am here I do intend to challenge any incorrect information I see posted here on subjects I have knowledge of. I have a compulsion to do that, it’s just part of my nature. If you consider that “educating” others then so be it, but what do you have against education? None of us knows everything there is to know about everything so we can all benefit from a little more education.

I do take the trouble to back up my facts and this seems to annoy you for reasons I truly don’t understand. Perhaps you could explain.[/quote]

[davidd]

imxploring

:D:D:D great post

and come to think about it.. your right

in a sense it all boils down to personal choices because in the end it does not really matter what people say or do

the most important thing is what is done personally.

belief is something that is individual

but the challenge is that everything is intertwined or interwoven.

Issues regarding the U.S. is so interwoven with Costa Rica and the world that its difficult to have any kind of real conversation without discussing different points of views.

would you not agree??

can you imagine how topical this forum would be if all we had was pura vida this and pura vida that??

It’s not real.. almost delusional

I do see an influx of people that speak as if they are speaking from experience and they have never even visited costa rica.

and I think we can all agree that there are differences between reading about Costa Rica

and Actually living in Costa Rica.

don’t you think???

ok lets talk about why my electric bill went up 22% :x:x:x:x

[quote=”imxploring”]Here’s an idea…..

We get Scott to create two new forums….

1….. WehatetheUs.com
And
2….. WelovetheUS.com

This way everyone has somewhere to make their case pro or con against their chosen abode, post endless meaningless internet sources and statistics without having to express there own opinion, experience, and motivation in doing so, and vent their anger without having to distract the rest of us from openly exchanging information and ideas about navigating and living life in Costa Rica!

So how about it? I already have two moderators in mind for the task? 😀

[/quote]

[davidd]

Sweikert

excellent points!!! I guess that means your staying put..:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: since your general comments overall always seem to contradict someones opinion about things in general in the U.S.

according to you

things are pretty darn good back in the States.

crime is lower in chicago :roll::roll::roll:

yep.. things are looking mighty darn good

glad to hear it.

David

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”sprite”]
“Useless eaters” is not my assessment. It is the assessment of the power structure, the money.
[/quote]
Aside from Mitt Romney I can’t think of too many who hold that opinion. If you look at how the US government treats older citizens, you can hardly accuse them of that type of contempt. The over 65 age group is catered to more than any other group of society. And its not just the government – how many businesses offer senior discounts? I happen to think they deserve a little extra consideration and its not just because I am within a few years of benefiting from some of those benefits. Most of us will have contributed plenty over our working lives and most people recognize and honor that.

[quote=”sprite”]
My point is that social security spending is such a small amount that it hardly seems worth worrying about and anyway, since the stated goal is a world economy, does it matter where it is spent?
[/quote]
Um, I believe that was actually MY point, not yours.

[quote=”sprite”]
…unless you agree with the banksters who really do consider retirees as “useless eaters”.[/quote]
Who are these banksters who consider retirees as “useless eaters”? The people who run banks will cater to any group of people who have money and the age group that collectively has the most money saved up are the elderly. Seems to me that bankers look at the elderly as favored customers.[/quote]

[davidd]

Sweikert

This may interest you.

http://qcostarica.com/edition/2013/05/20/a-global-phenom-being-gay/

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”VictoriaLST”]Really? SS dollars spent in the US prop up the US economy. SS dollars spent in CR do not. Someone is going to notice at some point.[/quote]

Really.

$4 billion is a lot of money to you or me but in the larger context it’s not very much at all.

$4 billion is about what is spent annually in the US on perfume. It’s one quarter of what is spent annually in the US on chocolate, about 40% what is spent annually in the US on romance novels, about twice what is spent annually in the US on tattoos. It is .00025 of the total annual gross domestic product (which was about $16 trillion as of last year).

Worrying that the government would risk the wrath of millions of voters (the half million expats plus many of their relatives and friends) just to add .00025 more to annual GDP seems misplaced to me. Particularly when there’s nothing to be gained by any politician directly. If the calculation is “I may lose votes and will gain nothing I can brag about come the next election by doing X” then X is very unlikely to get done. “Hey voters! I just voted to throw your Aunt Flo off Social Security bacause it just MIGHT add .00025 to the GDP next year!”

Here’s where got those numbers about what gets spent annually:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31222/numbers-how-americans-spend-their-money%5B/quote%5D

[davidd]

Sweikert

This is a perfect example of topical research.

your asking the wrong questions

the questions you should be asking would allow you to go a bit deeper and then start asking [b]why [/b][size=][/size]

costa rica has been scrambling to artificially PROP up the dollar for the last few years now

so now we have to deal with artificially supporting a fiat currency’s worth as opposed to the free market.

Does this make any sense???

in fact the federal reserve has been doing this for years.. printing more and more dollars into the U.S. economy.

Doomsday predictions 🙂

I don’t know the answers all I can say is I can see clear actions that go contrary to what these idiots in Washington say.

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”DavidCMurray”]
The dollar has been very consistent against the colon (my primary concern) for a couple of years or longer.
[/quote]

Absolutely correct. Since 1996 (the earliest I could get data for) the USD gained against the CRC steadily until 2006 but since then except for 2009-2010 (no doubt due to the financial collapse here in the US) the colon has stayed almost constant against the dollar. See these figures for the exchange rate on January 1st from 1996-2012:

1996-01-01 $1.00=191.76 CRC
1997-01-01 $1.00=219.88 CRC
1998-01-01 $1.00=243.65 CRC
1999-01-01 $1.00=271.42 CRC
2000-01-01 $1.00=297.7 CRC
2001-01-01 $1.00=317.45 CRC
2002-01-01 $1.00=328.07 CRC
2003-01-01 $1.00=367.08 CRC
2004-01-01 $1.00=409.07 CRC
2005-01-01 $1.00=449.29 CRC
2006-01-01 $1.00=495.8 CRC
2007-01-01 $1.00=498.35 CRC
2008-01-01 $1.00=487 CRC
2009-01-01 $1.00=539.88 CRC
2010-01-01 $1.00=546.48 CRC
2011-01-01 $1.00=497.24 CRC
2012-01-01 $1.00=490.47 CRC

The rate fluctuated quite a bit in 2011 and there was a spike on January 1 (what happened on New Years Day?) but since January 2nd of this year the rate has been almost flat:

[i]https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/viewimage.cfm?ImgID=915[/i]

http://www.exchangerates.org.uk/USD-CRC-exchange-rate-history.html

[quote=”DavidCMurray”]
I’ll mark my calendar for January of 2016 and we’ll see if your doomsday scenario pays out.
[/quote]

Me too. The frequency of doomsday predictions has been so high that I wonder why anyone pays the slightest attention to them. Apparently there are a lot of people who either never read the story of the boy who cried wolf or don’t get the moral of the story.
[/quote]

[davidd]

Sweikert

my man

you hit it right on the money

interesting list and you can tell alot of the the persons importance by a list this specific

and keep in mind this is fluid

one of my very initial tops was costa rica women

now that I have a family and have found my life’s companion

that is not on my list.

since cost of living is your number one

this is something that is indeed changing here. and right off the bat if your not willing to adjust your favorite items that are imported it is much more expensive here than back in the states

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”VictoriaLST”]It seems to me, looking at IL’s top 10, that there is something wrong. The mag tends to ‘push’ certain countries but what are the criteria.
[/quote]

The IL article that accompanies the list makes this caveat at the outset:

[i]”This a highly subjective list. There are doubtless cheaper places to retire, and perhaps more beautiful. The choices on this list reflect those of a hypothetical person/couple with: low to medium ability in a foreign language, preference for Europe to Latin America or Asia, low to medium amount of adventure and flexibility, limited desire to live in a gated compound, low tolerance for bureaucracies where bribes and capriciousness rule.”[/i]

That, I think, explains why 5 European countries made the top 10.

[quote=”VictoriaLST”]
What are the criteria for any of the recommendations? Stable government and low cost of living would seem to be (to me anyway) required for a haven which makes me wonder why Thailand is Forbes #2. CR doesn’t even make the Forbes list.
[/quote]

I couldn’t find anything on the Forbes article that indicated what criteria they used and how they ranked those criteria. But with any list like this you have to take the results with a large boulder of salt because of the comments that IL included and which I quoted above.

What is important to me when deciding where to retire are these considerations, in order of importance:

Cost of living
Quality and availability of health care
Climate
Taxes
High speed internet
Natural beauty
Interesting stuff to do
Crime rate
Stable government
Transporation system
Ease of attaining legal residency status
Proximity to the US
Ability to communicate (which includes ease of learning the language as well as prevalence of English speakers)
A sizeable expat community

I’m sure others would have a different order of importance and probably other considerations entirely, so no matter how these lists are arrived at they can’t in any way be taken as anything other than a starting point for deciding on a place to live.
[/quote]

[davidd]

[quote=”sweikert925″]I can’t speak to how the average Costa Rican’s diet has changed over the past generation or 2, but it is a general rule that as average wealth increases, so does obesity.

While the number of American style fast food outlets has apparently increased in CR in recent years, the number is still pretty low so I can’t see how it would affect to any great degree the level of obesity there.[/quote]

[b]that’s because your not from costa rica so you have no REAL world experience of anything costa rica related besides your browsing internet forums.[/b]

YOu don’t see what is actually going on here with the impact of American Companies infiltrating this culture with consumerism.

I have seen this movie before so i am more aware. poor ticos never see it coming.

not only will ticos be an obese country but also also in debt buying the LED flat screens, Ipads, and all on credit.

my wifes nephew is now a young 23 years old. he got his first job working at Gallo

so what does he do

he buys a motorcycle

and he buys a PlayStation 3

a galaxy phone

a 32 inch LED

all on credit LOL what a way to begin your work life.

see years ago.. the general populace did not own much and were happy

now the realize that in order to be happy they need these material things..

anyway

glad to see your staying home 🙂

[davidd]

it’s funny how people regurgitate statistics and lists as if they actually mean anything.

for $10 you can buy a domain

put up some content and drive traffic to it

and soon you will have people that read the article and pass this along as if this is anything more than an opinion.

soon you will position yourself as an expert

then you will have people that will read something like this and make a move to costa rica because they read a report that its one of the best places to live

personally I love costa rica with all its flaws

but things are moving in the direction that I do NOT like

can you imagine what this country will look like in another 10 years from now

how about 20 to 30 years

the young generation here are now growing up on mcdonalds and burger king and pizza hut, wendys, subways, starbuks.

and soon the casada will be a thing of the past.. and will be manufactured for tourist locations

I get asked alot about moving here and my canned response is always

DONT DO IT.. Stay where you are. 😀

[quote=”Scott”]Interesting that we are the first country listed outside of Europe…

I know which climate I prefer…

1. Ireland
2. France
3. Coast of Spain
4. Italy
[b]5. Costa Rica[/b]
6. Croatia
7. New Zealand
8. Panama
9. Mexico
10. Ecuador
[/quote]

[davidd]

sweikert925

how can you compare a trip to Hawaii with a trip to a foreign country??

they had at least 50 secret service personal for 2 weeks before just doing all the prep work.

and all the extra military helicopters, etc

so I would think its going to cost a heck of alot more than 4 million.

sweikert925 you sure are a bit naive my friend. do you get out of the country much??

EDIT: I wanted to point out that when ever the gov spends your Tax money Sweikert like you stated it is many times multiple highers than lets say a private firm that was truly rooted in fiscal responsibility like profit/loss

these guys spend money like its water because its not their money its Sweikerts money LOL

[quote=”sweikert925″]OK, I should have done some additional research before posting the above. Apparently Air Force One costs about $180,000 per hour to operate according to some new sources such as this: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obamas-hawaii-vacation-costing-taxpayers-4-million/

(I should have known that anything the Pentagon is in charge of was going to be 20 times as expensive as it would otherwise be).

However that article calculates the cost of a 20 day trip to Hawaii at $4 million. Mexico/Costa Rica is closer to Washington and this trip was only 3 days so I’m assuming this trip was less than half the cost of the Hawaii trip detailed above.[/quote]

[davidd]

sweikert925

would you mind if I asked you a personal question???

David

[davidd]

sweikert925

hmmm… I don’t think imexploring is trying to insist on anything he is making an observation based on his experience.

I have had a brick and mortar business in costa rica for 8 years in the san jose area.

I can tell you in my experience I have known a few hundred over the years that are off the radar because of various reasons. this is very common occurrence.

have you ever visited costa rica yet???

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this under the radar is not only with Americans but all other Foreign nationals as well

I also found interesting where the types of people doing this.. they were not poor people but rather semi affluent.

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”imxploring”]
They published the information they had without acknowledging the fact that the numbers presented were ONLY from folks that are fully documented and have been processed through the CR immigration office and completely ignoring people living full time in CR that have not been. Hence the information presented is not correct or complete.
[/quote]
Seems to me that if the immigration authorities don’t know about people living in CR – because they have not fulfilled the legal requirement to submit residency paperwork – they can hardly be blamed for not including them in their official figures.

[quote=”imxploring”]
The numbers are very low and do not include folks that we all know live in CR but who can’t or chose not to process a residency application. I’m sure a quick poll of members here will show you that we each know at least 3 or 4 people each that fall into that category. I know at least 5! More that have come and gone over the years.[/quote]

In other words you know 5 people living in CR illegally, who have not made themselves known to the authorities. Why do you insist that the immigration report should include them when the CR immigration bureau has no way to count them?[/quote]

[davidd]

[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”kwhite1″]Coming to a computer near you……..INTERNET TAX. Just saw this one and heard it on the radio thing.[/quote]

And god knows everything you hear on the radio must be true, just like everything you read on the internet is. :wink:[/quote]

Sweikert

that is great news my friend.. so that means your staying 🙂

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