For an Affordable Retirement What About Costa Rica?

Sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua, the dramatically beautiful nation of Costa Rica lies in the Caribbean Sea soaking up the sun – it’s a country lesser explored by British and European retirees, but one becoming increasingly popular with North American baby boomers in search of a place where they can retire for less.

Lying just a 3-hour flight time from Miami, the nation feels comfortably close for many Americans, and when they arrive to explore Costa Rica they find an incredible paradise of a place where the pace of life is so laid back and the cost of living attractively low.

For Britons well aware that economically speaking the UK is well and truly damned, at least for the short to medium term, and who want to find a cheaper, more attractive place to live – why not follow our American cousins?  In other words, for an affordable retirement what about Costa Rica, it has so many benefits that it really is worth a closer look.

Costa Rica has over 1,200 km of coastline on both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean and it is an incredibly green, lush and fertile nation blessed with an excellent climate, stunning natural scenery and a wealth of history and culture.  It is also a country that is much misunderstood!  Because Costa Rica borders Nicaragua it has long been tarred with the same generic ‘drugs and crime’ brush – but that’s unfair because Costa Rica is not only a safe country, it’s one that witnesses very little in the way of serious crime.

Costa Rica is also one of the most politically and economically stable nations in the region, and it doesn’t have need for an army – meaning that you can live in Costa Rica safe in the knowledge that it’s never going to declare war on anyone and suffer the inevitable backlashes of terrorism.  So, the negative assumptions and misconceptions about Costa Rica are invariably unfounded – but then so are some of the more idealistic misconceptions that people have. 

We have used the term ‘paradise’ to describe the country and are therefore as guilty as many who attempt to write about it.  It is not truly a paradise, it may look like one on the surface with its pristine beaches, azure seas, cloudless blue skies and dramatic backdrop of volcanic mountains and tropical foliage, but to actually live your life in Costa Rica requires a great deal of patience and understanding of the country’s constraints and the ways of its people.  If you want to move to Costa Rica and make it just like ‘home’ then you will probably be advised to go home!  It’s not a nation for dreamers or softies, but it’s a country in which adventure lovers and open-minded people will do very well.

As stated earlier in this article, many more North American baby boomers are exploring Costa Rica as a retirement destination nowadays as it offers them an accessible and affordable alternative to retiring in an over priced and almost bankrupt country.  Well, the same can now be said for Britons seeking a cheaper place to live abroad in retirement.  Costa Rica welcomes foreigners, it is currently learning to embrace tourism for example, and has long been used to the odd few foreign faces who decide that a vacation was not long enough and instead made a permanent home in Costa Rica.  These people have paved the way for you if you want to go and live there!  You won’t be made to feel unwelcome or openly stared at when you arrive – in fact, you’ll probably find that quite the opposite is true and you’ll be taken under the wing of your local neighbours and made to feel a part of the community.

So, not only will you be able to buy a house for less, a car for less, shop for less and live day to day for less in Costa Rica, you will find that it is a country where foreigners are welcome, where the local people are world-renowned for their friendliness and where the natural scenery is a wonder.  But you will have to work hard to make a comfortable life for yourself in Costa Rica and learn to do without certain everyday comforts if you are to adapt.  If this sounds like a nation you could potentially retire to then why not take an extended vacation in this Central American country and try it on for size.