What We Learned - Part 1: Finances (or, How to Spend All Your Money in One Place)

Now that we are back in the States we have been able to put together some thoughts about life in Costa Rica and our experience there. This is Part 1 of a series of posts that should be helpful if you are thinking about moving to or retiring in Costa Rica. Enjoy!

Things I Wish I'd Known, Part 1: Finances

Cost of Living

Central American countries are not all created equal when it comes to cost of living. There are many other places you could live that are cheaper than Costa Rica. Food is surprisingly expensive here; even on the cheap we spent at least $150 per week on groceries and diapers for the baby. Utilities are approximately the same as in the States, although electricity costs more and the appliances are not “energy efficient” so using the electric oven, clothes dryer, or water heater will rack up your bill pretty quickly. Rental prices are not too bad. We rented a tiny 250 sq. foot efficiency apartment with one bedroom and one bath. But it was super cute, fully furnished, had two stories, a gas stove/oven, and at $190/month all-bills-paid the price was right. Our total budget for rent, food, utilities and transportation was about $1000/month. And that was living cheap, walking everywhere we could, and rarely going out to eat. Add that to the crazy expense of transportation and we blew through our funds pretty quickly. Our take-away from this trip was that Costa Rica is NOT a cheap place to live. Which brings me to my next point:

Employment

When we got to Costa Rica our plan was for Michael to get a job teaching English. But the place we were living was so far away from any of the schools that we couldn't walk, and there were no busses to our place in the jungle. As we moved around the country we were still looking for work and found that most of the jobs available to foreigners don't pay much. Some will help you get a work visa, but not all. Even the teaching jobs we were hoping for would not make enough to support a family of three. The average pay was $600-$800/month. So if we both worked we could have made it, but that was not the point of moving to Costa Rica.

The High Cost of Transportation

Unless you take public busses all the time you will spend a lot of money on transportation. That has been our biggest and most unexpected expense in Costa Rica. The roads here are not great, there are no interstate highways, and the speed limit tops out at 60 mph in the best conditions. There are mountains everywhere which makes getting around the country a slow process (it takes hours to get from either coast to San Jose). Renting a car costs close to $400 per week. Taxis work well for short distances in the cities, but don’t take one for long trips (our first learning experience cost us $70, the next $250). Taking the bus is great, as long as you can find the bus schedule, read it, and actually get on the correct bus. The public bus system is not very developed here, and there are not as many buses as I had hoped.

The most convenient option we found was using a shared shuttle service. Instead of renting a car we could reserve a place on a shuttle to get to and from any major city. The service we used was anywherecostarica.com which I highly recommend, especially if you are only going to be in the country for a short time.

If you are going to be here longer you should buy a car as soon as possible. A 10 year old 4-wheel drive vehicle can be had for around $5,000, and we would have saved ourselves a huge amount of money in the long run if we had done that. Vehicles keep their value almost indefinitely here, so we could have sold it again when we left for almost the same price.

To sum up: yes, Costa Rica is expensive, but not as expensive as Europe or the US (ok, maybe comparable to the Midwest). But it is beautiful, and serene, and the people are great... but you'll have to wait for Part 2 to hear about all of that.