Low cost living in Costa Rica.

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=FormerSanDiegan]
I believe that this old thread (started in 2011) was revived by a spam post.

Any replay to a spam post (done by clicking the “reply” button directly associated with that post) will be deleted if the spam post is deleted.

So, if a thread is revived by a spammer (sometimes these result in interesting revisits of the topic, which is a funny benefit of the spam) it’s best to click the “add a comment” button associated with the original post so that content is not deleted with the spam.[/quote]

Yep, this has got to be it. Unfortunately the only way to “report” spammers to the filter (so it can learn) involves deleting them, and if a comment is deleted, all its replies are deleted too (that’s just the way the system works, I cannot control it). So if you directly replied to a spam comment which was later deleted, your comment would have been taken down too.

I think that’s what must have happened here. Sorry about that er… your post was collateral damage in the war on spammers…

Rich

[earlyretirement]

No problem at all Rich. It’s good to know. I guess I wasn’t paying attention and was just reading the post above mine which seemed legit. I just thought it was strange but I guess it’s a good lesson to read all the posts above before answering.

[UCGal]

Now that we’ve figured out how the post got deleted….
Inquiring minds want to know what you posted in your update, ER.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=UCGal]Now that we’ve figured out how the post got deleted….
Inquiring minds want to know what you posted in your update, ER.[/quote]

Ah, I can’t all remember exactly as it was kind of long. I was responding to another post and I think it too must have gotten deleted as I don’t see it.

I also mentioned that the other OP is right you simply can NOT compare the cost of living in some of the bigger cities. For example, I own an apartment in Rio. When I originally bought it over a decade ago it wasn’t too expensive relative to it’s location and size. (It’s an entire floor just one block from the beach in Copacabana). But now it is worth a small fortune! When I bought it, I also had the exchange rate going for me and now it’s much lower.

So I believe my response also mentioned that some places can rapidly change as far as cost of living. What might be “affordable” once you move there can rapidly change in some of these foreign countries. Less than a decade ago Brazil used to be affordable but now it’s more expensive vs. most major cities. Everything from real estate, to groceries to restaurants. It’s all expensive there now.

Not to mention the crime rate is very high. The problem is you have nice areas like Ipanema yet they are right next to slums (favelas). That is common in several cities. So you have the very wealthy living side by side with the VERY poor which can create some recipes for disaster.

Some of my best friends live in Rio and they have experienced several bouts of crime. In over 30+ visits there I’ve only had one attempt of a mugging. Even if you are careful and speak the language (i’m conversational in Portuguese) you can run into problems.

Also, something else I mentioned was besides street crime, you just have to worry about general people working in and around your house. I know several people in Costa Rica as well as other places where their long-time maids/cooks that have worked for their family for many years have ended up robbing them or tipping off thieves.

There is more of that general type stuff you have to worry about when you live in some of these other countries in Latin or South America. Here in the USA we have lots of controls and also for the most part the legal and judicial system work.

In many other countries it’s not like that at all and police, judges, government officials can be easily bribed.

I’m not knocking living abroad but it’s important to understand ALL the upsides as well as downsides.

Sure, quality of life can be great. I know many older senior citizens that retired in some of these countries and they live like kings. Most of them are divorced or widowed and they have 20 something year old girlfriends (or girlfriends as young as their grandkids). It’s kind of funny in some instances because some of them didn’t even take the time to learn the local language and their “girlfriends” can’t speak English. So it can be a bit comical watching them! LOL.

[quote=blahblahblah][quote=SmellsFeeshy]
Brazil is not without its problems though. The crime rate in cities like Sao Paolo and Rio is very high. While doing research on Rio as a potential vacation destination I was a little concerned by all of the security warnings even at highly populated tourist spots.[/quote]

Many of the people I hear touting Brazil as a great place to live have never been there or if they have have never ventured outside of protected enclaves. I have and let me tell you, it can get pretty rough. That’s not saying it isn’t great! I had an incredible time, the people are amazing and lots of fun. Of course I’d bet that the people in the Ivory Coast are great too but I’m in no hurry to move there.

I remember being driven through lots of areas in BR where my guide would say, “Don’t ever ever come here.” If you are white you are going to stick out like a sore thumb. If you are black, hispanic, or asian (many ethnic Japanese live in Brazil), you might go unnoticed until people realize you can’t speak Portugese and then it’s game on.

Fun place, don’t let me scare you, it’s definitely worth a visit. Living there? Not so sure. Also you would need a visa so you’d have to get married or have a job or something.[/quote]

This is also a GREAT post and spot on target. Many Americans that haven’t even visited a particular city/country or only visited a few times but read a lot about it THINK they know the city well but they don’t.

Visiting a city a few times for a week/month at a time is VERY different vs. living day in and day out for many years, especially in retirement. You simply don’t have enough time while on vacation to understand all of what goes on locally.

I’ve been to almost every country in South America and I do business in several countries in South America. And there is another side to most cities that you will never see unless you are living there.

Sure it’s different if you are retiring from the USA to maybe a 1st world developed country in Europe. But moving from the USA to a developing country is quite something different altogether.

[sdduuuude]

So, if you count girlfriends as part of “the cost of living” then yes – the cost of living is, indeed, lower ? 😉

[earlyretirement]

[quote=sdduuuude]So, if you count girlfriends as part of “the cost of living” then yes – the cost of living is, indeed, lower ? ;)[/quote]

Ha, ha. So true! Although I imagine some of these guys might be spending more on their “girlfriends” abroad than they would in the USA. Or then again, not too many hot 21 year olds are going to be hanging around too many 65+ year olds in the USA unless you paid them. And even then they would probably not hang out with you for more than a few hours at a time.

I literally know many guys that are older and have young hot girlfriends. They claim not to pay them at all but the girls do get to live rent free in their places with free room and board.

I imagine it probably started out as a provider/client type relationship but hey…who am I to judge. I don’t judge them and they are having the time of their lives. LOL. And the crazy thing is a few of them even married their young girlfriends and their relationships are going strong several years later. I have to admit I never thought that was possible but they proved me wrong.

You know, back over a decade ago my first trip to Brazil I was sitting at a table eating lunch on Avenida Atlantica. And I had never been to Rio before. A girl walks up to my table and grabs my cellphone. I heard about all the crime so naturally I think, “hey she is going to steal my phone!”. But the funny thing was she was putting her phone number in my phone! LOL.

I remember thinking man..this is too easy!

This is part of the reason lots of older gentlemen retire abroad in places like Thailand, Brazil, Costa Rica, etc. truth be told. The allure of an older, overweight, fairly unattractive guy being able to land a “9 or 10” young hottie.

[Jazzman]

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