Could retirement in Costa Rica be a superior option?
By Ivo Henfling
“You might be on the back nine of life, but it’s good to finish strong.” ― Morton Shaevitz. If you have arrived on this website, it probably means you are soon taking your retirement and Costa Rica is an option as your retirement destination. Morton Shaevitz is so right, you have an obligation to yourself to make the finish a strong one, but why should Costa Rica be on your bucket list?
Adjust to a new environment
You have probably heard about Costa Rica many years ago. We receive retirees in Costa Rica who have dreamt about retiring here since they were a teenager. Like everywhere else, there are advantages and disadvantages and Costa Rica retirement is no different. So where do you start?
You start by making very sure you are willing to adjust to a new country, another language and a different culture, apart from the food, your religion, being away from your kids and grandkids, your Super Bowl games and a long list of other things you will be missing. A handful isn’t it! But wait; there are a lot of good things too.
Once you and your partner/husband/wife agree you can live without all that, you have 90% gained and it is a piece of cake to get to that strong finish.
Cheap retirement destination
Costa Rica is not a cheap retirement destination anymore, but you will probably find that retirement living abroad is not as cheap as it used to be anywhere, if you are looking for a quality lifestyle. But don’t despair, we have thousands of tips for you on our blog http://godutchrealty.com/Costa-Rica-Real-Estate-Blog that will make it easy to know what to do and not to do, where to go for your shopping and what to shop for before you decide that retirement in Costa Rica might indeed be a superior option for you.
So what can you expect to find in Costa Rica that makes your retirement so good?
- Highest score on happy life years by the Happy Planet
- Perfect weather with many micro climates to choose from
- A real democracy with many political parties
- NO army and the funds are spent on education
- A large part of the habitants are bilingual
- The quality lifestyle you have been used to all your life
- On International Living top 10 for best places to live or retire to.
- A very stable economy
Legal Residency
Once you have decided you want to move to Costa Rica, you have to decide how to get your legal residency. If you still need to work after retiring to Costa Rica, you need to read this article http://costaricalaw.com/Working-in-Costa-Rica/can-i-legally-work-in-costa-rica.html before you take any other decisions. In any case, you would want to be completely legal when you take up residency in Costa Rica http://costaricalaw.com/Immigration-and-Residency/ and when you’re ready to do so, just contact attorney Roger Petersen and his team.
Of course you need to live somewhere and finding out where is another huge task, but a fun one. Do you want to live in a beach area? Do you like the amenities of a city environment better or do you prefer to grow your own food and live in a rural area? Is being close to a hospital important to you or do you prefer to play golf every day instead? Once you have figured out what your lifestyle should look like when retiring to Costa Rica, and you tell us your budget, we can help you find the real estate with the help of our affiliate partners on the #1 MLS in Costa Rica www.american-european.net
Ivo Henfling, a Dutch expat who has lived in Costa Rica since 1980, founded the American-European Real Estate Group back in 1999 which was the first functioning MLS with affiliate agents from coast to coast.
