Tips On Buying Property In Costa Rica

Do As I Say, Not As I Did Against all the conventional wisdom repeated ad nauseum to potential expat real estate buyers, we bought our property on our first trip to Costa Rica. It’s a lengthy story as to how that happened, but not for telling today. Knowing what we know now after having lived … Read more

Finding Professional Help In Your New Country

I have always been one to try doing things on my own, without professional help. It is a trait inherited from my father, for better or worse. The tendency is borne of frugality and the willingness to do the research and take on the challenge of learning bureaucratic processes. For instance, I have always filled … Read more

How Will You Spend Your Retirement as an Expat?

The Loaded Question Once friends and neighbors got over their shock that we were pulling up the tent stakes and moving 5,000 miles to the south, their next question was often along the lines of “So, what are you going to do down there?” They seemed sincerely mystified that someone could actually step out of … Read more

Retirement In Paradise May Be More Taxing Than You Think In Costa Rica

“Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed”Daniel Defoe, The Political History of the Devil, 1726 As certain as death, taxes cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, unlike death, they come around more often than once in a lifetime. When people considering expat retirement sit down with their calculators or spreadsheets to measure … Read more