[JSH]

Just as the COVID 19 crisis was started to heat up my wife and I spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica attending a language school. We visited Costa Rica 2 years ago on vacation and had a positive experience. It jumped to the top of the list for possible future retirement locations. (To date we have visited Costa Rica Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and all the Balkins from Slovinia to Greece) We have pretty much decided we will retire in Latin America so Spanish is a must and we thought why not use this language school to do a mini test of retired life.

So we booked the school and decided to study in Heredia instead of the beach campus in Samara. We wanted a more real experience away from the tourist towns set up for English speakers.

In general we were very pleased. The school and staff were great. Though that isn't the focus of this post.

We rented an apartment for the time, again to get a more realistic look at the country and costs. Our 2 bedroom apartment was $250 a week / $900 a month. It was very nice, downtown and close to supermarkets and the central market. As an Air BnB short term rental that is surely on the high side but it came furnished with all utilities and WiFi.

Weather was very nice. Highs of 75-80F, lows about 65 or so. Sun and a breeze every day. The air quality was great, with AQI 25 or less every day.

We cooked all of our meals, with near daily visits to the market for fresh produce. Our food bill came out to about $100 a week but about 1/3 of that was bad Costa Rican beer. (I would need to start brewing again if we moved to CR) In general local and unprepared food is cheap, imported and prepared food is very expensive. For example a loaf of bad white "wonder bread" was $4 in the Mas y Menos (Wal-Mart). Good fresh baked bread from the local bakery was $1. Fruit and veggies were very cheap at the local market.

All in all a VERY positive experience. We will heading back again this year for another 2 weeks of school and to get a sampling of "Green Season" (The wet season)

Which makes me wonder - why don't more Americans retire abroad.

The average Social Security check is $1500. That is poverty level in the USA but double the median monthly income in Costa Rica. You could live REALLY nice on the average SS check. Health insurance for a family is 7%-11% of income depending on income. (Worst case $165 of that $1500 SS check) Getting permanent residence is easy.

Option 1: Show you have SS or pension of $1,000 a month per couple
Option 2: Deposit $60,000 into a Costa Rican Bank
Option 3: Buy a business or home worth $200,000 or more