A lot of people ask "why Costa Rica?" The short answer:
Rick and I wanted to find a way to spend more time together, so about 2 years ago, we started seriously researching early retirement. We got all kinds of books on how to retire on a shoestring. We'd been watching our budget for years, so thankfully we knew our habits.
It became obvious pretty quickly that we couldn't do it if we stayed anywhere in the USA - entirely because of medical costs. Insurance is very expensive to buy on our own, and without it - yikes! One or two medical emergencies or a chronic illness would wipe us out. We wouldn't qualify for medicare for another 20 years.
So, we started looking outside the USA; we picked the tropics - why not - got a map out and started listing countries (that was interesting). We had a list of needs and wants, and started researching the countries - mainly via the internet and books.
Costa Rica had everything we needed, everything we wanted, and even had a few extras! So, one year ago, we took our first trip (see previous entry). Our objective: see if there was anything that would keep us from making Costa Rica our new home. We tried to keep a critical mind-set (difficult, since it is such a lovely country, with friendly people), checked prices of items on our "shopping list," and tried to get a sense of how we would live (given that we only had 3 weeks). We found out later that there is actually a name for what we did - "slow travel."
We've been several more times, each with the same result - this place is for us!
This year, we're on our way!
Tags: retire, home
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