Seminars on Costa Rican Retirement
19 August 2006This post is part of a series on how to go about retiring to Costa Rica, a popular destination for Americans looking to stretch their retirement dollars. The first post looked at the basic reasons why a Costa Rican retirement can be cheaper. The second post looked at the first step in your research stage - buying a bunch of books on retiring to Costa Rica to read up. This post is the third one - and it focuses on the next thing you should probably do, which is to visit and attend a seminar.
I’m not talking about some kind of timeshare thing where you get a free clock and a mystery box. No, it turns out that expatriates in Costa Rica have a very helpful association called the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, or the ARCR. The ARCR has a website here, which incidentally is a useful resource in and of itself, and you should browse through it if you’re considering a move seriously.
More importantly, however, they offer a well-regarded seminar in San Jose, Costa Rica at the end of every month but December. It’s only $50 for non-members, so this isn’t some kind of scheme. They’re known for giving you a straightforward, two-day discussion of both the good and bad of living in Costa Rica. You’ll have to actually go out to Costa Rica to do it - but realistically, you are nuts if you move to a foreign country without even visiting. So if you actually get to the point of deciding you’re going to move out there, you need to schedule a trip to check the place out and talk to as many expatriates currently living there as you can. That’s another part of what makes the seminar so useful - it will give you an “in” to people who are already living there and don’t have some kind of agenda to push off onto you. So take the seminar and use the chance to chat up the people who’ve gone before you for advice.
Discuss this on the Free the Drones Retirement Forums.
One Response to “Seminars on Costa Rican Retirement”
August 20th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
[...] We’ve recently been taking a look at various practical aspects to retiring abroad in a specific country: Costa Rica. We looked at the general reasons why people decide to retire to Costa Rica. Then we took a look at the first step you should take - researching some books about retiring to Costa Rica. Last, we talked about how you need to go to Costa Rica to attend cheap retirement seminars from local expatriate associations. Now, we’ll discuss another thing you can do while you’re down there: go on a guided retirement planning tour. [...]