Costa Rica Blog

Basically you can use any retirement funds, SEP, Simple IRA, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401k money, etc to invest any way you'd like.  The financial services companies don't make us very aware of that since they make no money from you investing your funds through self directed methods.  IRS rules are very liberal however, the few restrictions being only that you can't invest in collectibles and you MUST have a qualified intermediary handle your funds when you are investing them as well as any income distributions or other gains to put back into the fund. 

A Woman President- Today marks a historical moment.  Laura Chinchilla was elected president last night by carrying nearly 50% of the vote.  Costa Rica has the highest concentration of women in office on the planet, currently at about 40%.  The government is suggesting that the number should be 50/50 and are working to do so.  Costa Rica also has term limits of 4 years for a President.  They can run again but must sit out at least a four year term before being eligible to run again. This was Oscar Arias's second term in office. 

People ask all the time about Panama as the new Costa Rica.  Both are popular expat locations and both have pros and cons.  Panama is cheaper from a tax perspective since under the pensionado program there, property taxes are waived for at least 10 years but keep in mind that many who move there do not do so under the pensionado program, therefore they still pay property taxes.  Candidly property taxes are low in both countries, so low that to base a consideration on where to live on that aspect makes no sense.  Choose the place you like the best based on quality of life, health care, ease and cost of accessibility, activities available, infrastructure, friendliness, etc.  Cost of living is candidly about the same in either country.  Living in Panama City is similar to living in San Jose, lots of expats, more crime, like city living anywhere. 

Endangered Delicacy- It's that time of year again, when the sea turtles nest on the beaches of Costa Rica.  Actually in Costa Rica it is all the time, but more people are aware of these hatchings during high season.  Turtle eggs are believed to be an aphrodisiac and help fight erectile dysfunction.  My mouth is watering!  They are therefore often illegally poached and sold throughout much of Latin America, the forbidden egg.  I had the pleasure of seeing these amazing creatures come ashore en mass in Ostional, on the Pacific Coast years ago.  Ridley turtles arrive here in one small stretch of sandy beach to lay eggs.  It is unclear why this particular spot is chosen. 

Dreams of Highways - What was once a dream in the eyes of the administration of Rodrigo Carazo Odio, President of Costa Rica back in 1979 when the first plans for the Caldera Highway were conceived, is soon to become reality.  Over 30 years ago the Caldera Highway project was initially planned.  Work did not begin on the project for many more years, grinding to a halt about 10 years ago after it was discovered that the government had not yet expropriated all the land needed to build the road.  About three years ago, President Oscar Arias got the project back on track. 

I returned to the bank on the 4th, since the 2nd and 3rd were weekend days, only to find that the definition of procrastination starts with "Pura Vida".  It seems the nearly everyone in Alejuala failed to renew their Marchamo (vehicle registration) so the line snaked outside the bank into the Multiplaza.  You buy your new registration at the bank. Gracias a Dios (thank god) there is a guard to open and close the door as one more person squeezed in the door and hopefully one more person came out.  There were 4 cajas (teller windows) open, one reserved for old, infirm, incontinent and prolific breeders (mothers with infants), the last category seems most popular in Alejuela and it seems they breed them just to skip the line at the bank.  There were also two "Jefe" (chiefs) desks, both with Jefe's AND assistants, but no interest in opening the other darkened caja windows when they had perfectly good desks to sit behind and watch the line crawl while offering no assistance.  I was able to squeeze past the line, directly to the Jefe.  After filling out a number of "formularios" he took my order for a new card to be delivered back to the branch in Cortes four days later.  If I wanted colones now however, I would have to wait in line.

As many of you may know, I was just in Costa Rica leading two back to back property tours.  I just returned on the 14th of January and am now catching up on my blogging.

San Jose is a buzz with activity.  Everyone seems to be looking forward to 2010.  I arrived into Costa Rica yesterday on a packed A300 wide body flight from Miami.  The airport was jammed, every flight was arriving packed with families on vacation from the US as well as Costa Ricans heading home for the holidays.  I'll spend the day today meeting all our tour guests at the airport as each arrives from various places across the US and Canada on various airlines. 

Okay I admit it, I'm really busy these days.  I leave tomorrow for Costa Rica to lead our 4 day Discovery tour running December 31 - January 3rd which is immediately followed by our 10 day country and property tour running January 4th - 13th.  In the meantime, International Living did another article about our developments so I've also had to answer hundreds of emails.  I am not complaining.  So here, for the last entry into our blog for 2009, is our UPDATED slide show.  We've worked over the last week to get it finished since our new video is not yet done.  Take a moment to view the show, I think you will enjoy it.  When you are finished, please comment about it via Digg, Delicious or Twitter.  We thank you all for your loyal support this year and hope 2010 is a great one for all of you.