Will Citizenship Add Coolness to My Already Astonishing Life in Costa Rica?

I've been arguing with myself for over a year about pursuing citizenship here in Costa Rica. I've put in the time, which is 7 years, why not get something for it?

 

There are a lot of benefits, such as drastically lower health ins. premiums (like so low they fall into my budgetary noise), a free 10-year cedula, easier banking, ability to leave CR and return at will and return of my $200 residency security deposit.

I've also been told by those who have gone this path before that many everyday transactions that involve use of ID become somehow easier because you are no longer a foreign contaminant in the eyes of Ticos, especially those that control various process gateways. Doors open that swung with difficulty before and the wheels of bureaucracy in general suddenly present less friction if you are perceived as "normal." Those benefits are rather intangible to me at the moment.

And, of course, one mustn't overly discount the "coolness" factor of having dual citizenship and that inoffensive passport when visiting certain places disagreeable to the latest U.S. meddling around the world.

One drawback that I was hung up on for a while was the name change thing.

Which Lifestyle Would Cost Our Family Less - Oregon or Costa Rica? - Part 1: Taxes

Gringo expats decide to retire in Costa Rica for a wide variety of reasons. Topping many expats' lists of desirable advantages would be maintaining their living standard at a lower cost or enjoying a higher standard of living for the same cost. That goes for adventurous, frugal younger expats as well as older expats such as myself stretching their retirement dollars.

Costa Rica can certainly offer terrific savings, especially in the areas of health care and housing. Many other daily expenses, however - automobiles being the most egregious example - are higher than what most norteamericanos are accustomed to. Depending on your financial status, lifestyle choices, goals and ability to adjust, the comparative financial equations we all go through at some point before moving here will each have their highs and lows.

Taking Stock of Expat Living Expenses

One Constant Is That Things Change

As we approach a new phase in which our own income will shift to primarily U.S. Social Security, our calculations are changing. In fact, just in terms of cost of living, we find that it may actually be cheaper for us to reside in our previous home state of Oregon. I'm not going into all the gory details of that calculation, but this two-part article does hit the high points. Hopefully, it provides additional food for thought to those considering moving to Costa Rica

Which Lifestyle Would Cost Our Family Less - Oregon or Costa Rica? - Part 2: Non-Tax Expenses

Comparing Non-Tax Expenses

In this part, I include estimates of monthly costs for food, medical, vehicles, utilities and housing. Part 1, about tax costs, is here.

Food Prices

Comparing food prices between Costa Rica and the U.S. is a complex business. Most expats experience sticker shock in part due to the included 13% sales tax and the fact that so much food in Costa Rica is imported. Want a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios? That’ll be about six bucks please. Can you get by with 1-minute oatmeal? Good, because that’s only about 75 cents for a 200g bag. If you look at food here in a 1-for-1 comparison to U.S. products, Costa Rica loses.

 

Costa Rica Farmer's Cheese, available everywhere

Dairy products are about the same or higher than in the U.S. because producers are protected by steep tariffs on imported milk, etc. from, say, Nicaragua. About the best you can do by weight is local farmer cheese at $2.15/lb. but it’s only aged 30 days. We found one store with what we consider a smoking deal on run-of-the-mill sharp cheddar at $6/lb. Many other cheeses are 50-100% more, especially artisan cheese.

Judging by a flyer from our once-local Fred Meyer store in Oregon, I’d say meat prices are on a par in each country, but canned tuna here is out of sight. You have never seen more ways to can tuna than in Costa Rica. They mix it with almost anything to reduce the actual fish content and lower the price.

Contributing Factors to Alcoholism in Business Travelers and Expats

Stress, anxiety, loneliness and homesickness coupled with the ever present bar or pub are just a few key factors which cause some business travelers and expats alike to develop alcoholism. As someone who has extensively traveled for both work and pleasure throughout the world, I can fully attest to the reality of these pressures.  

 

The Risky Side of Traveling Business Assignments

Traveling for business, be it for short or long term, is not as great as it may seem. Let’s face it, going across the continent on extended flights means achy muscles, swollen ankles and jet lag. If you’re in a new environment where the local language is completely foreign to you, you’ll encounter a real life “Lost in Translation” experience. And of course, if you have a family back home, mixed emotions of loneliness, sadness or guilt may likely occur. 

Guest Blogger: Expert Psychological Care for Expats Around the World

This guest post is written by Susan Bernstein, Co-Founder and Director of The Truman Group which provides US and western expats access to quality psychological care. I thought their services would be of special interest to many of my readers who live outside their home country and may have found it difficult to find effective therapy.

Who Is the Truman Group?

Susan Bernstein

Sean Truman and I co-founded the Truman Group about three years ago. Sean grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, the son of a UN diplomat and an international school teacher. He eventually made his way back to the States where he received a PhD in clinical psychology and was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow at Yale University’s School of Medicine, where he worked both at the Child Study Center and in the Department of Psychiatry. He found his way to St. Paul, Minnesota where he opened a psychotherapy practice.

The Difficulty for Expats Finding a Therapist They Trust

He was surprised to find, after some time that a number of patients wanted to continue working with him after having been relocated overseas for work. Despite the fact these patients were living in major cities, they said they couldn’t find a therapist they felt comfortable seeing.

Sean realized that if these patients were having difficulty finding therapists, there must be many other people who, whether due to language or cultural barriers, privacy issues in tight-knit expat communities or an actual lack of qualified therapists, might be having similar difficulty finding good care.

A Typical Visit to the Farmacia Doctor in Costa Rica

Here's a simple, real-life story about how part of Costa Rica's approach to healthcare works. It's pretty typical in our experience. It's too bad that the U.S., with its struggle to provide decent healthcare for its citizens, cannot adopt something along these lines.

Being sick is no fun but at least the doctor's free

Nearly two weeks ago, all three of us came down with the flu. The usual symptoms were present: fever, nausea, diarrhea, and so on. Two days later, the worst was over. In fact, Sean was back to normal and back in school.

Tamara and I, however, still were not quite our chipper selves. We had a lingering fatigue, a vague nausea that came and went, an upset and gaseous digestive system. We limited our diet to bland foods, drank a lot of green tea, and kept hoping for the best, but each day was about the same.

At the end of the first week, I decided it wasn't flu at all, but probably some sort of Costa Rican parasite we had all picked up from bad water or food or who knows where. I researched that topic and found it's not unusual for young people, with their strong immune system, to overcome such an infection, so that could explain why Sean recovered so quickly and we did not. Tamara took a ... ahem, ... sample into one of the local labs to get it checked out along with a small jar of our drinking water. The latter test I'd been meaning to do forever anyway.

Costa Rica's Blue Zone and How to Make Your Own

Nicoya Peninsula seen from space (false color) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently, the International Business Times posted an article about the extraordinary lifespan of residents of Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula. The Nicoya is Costa Rica's northern peninsula, a place hosting fabulous white sand beaches and the driest climate in the country. It's home to about 75,000 residents.

According to Dan Buettner, who has studied so-called "blue zones", which are areas where it's common to find people over 100 years of age, "A 60-year-old in Costa Rica has more than a four-fold better chance of making it to 90 than a 60-year-old in America".

How The Move to Costa Rica All Began and Other Topics

Bridge in MonteVerde

This blog started over five years ago. It was always my intent that our experiences would benefit others starting their own expatriate journeys as well as provide an ongoing "letter home" to friends and family.  

After the first couple of years of preparing for our move to Costa Rica, moving, building, and settling in, the posts tend toward daily life, plus coverage of the minor crises and triumphs along the way. Readers of A Dull Roar who are not in Costa Rica, and may be contemplating a move here or some other ex-pat destination, might be looking for something a bit more relevant to their own cliff-jumping experience.

Our First Costa Rican Residency Renewal – Part 1/3

 Thursday, we had an appointment to renew our residency cards (cédulas) in San José. I told Tamara that I had a “bad feeling” about the trip and I think you'll soon agree that there was good cause for that.

Whenever you attempt a new procedure, especially involving bureaucrats and lawyers, you're confidence level can't be 100% that things will go as you hope. Furthermore, when the interaction involves the government of a third-world country and a non-native language, that goes double. There were a number of other factors contributing to my dismal prognostication as well.

First of these was that as of Thursday my own cédula had officially expired nine months previously. That's not quite right, because you do get a 90 day grace period to renew, but still I was well past the deadline. Sean's cédula and Tamara's had expired about 6 months and 3 months previously, respectively. The long time between expiration and Thursday's renewal appointment wasn't due to sloth on my part since I'd started the ball rolling in August of last year. Residency renewal is supposed to be an easier process than obtaining it in the first place, so I thought I was being conscientious in beginning the task a couple of months early. The only requirements for us were to:

• join Caja, Costa Rica's national health care system (see footnote)
• obtain good conduct reports from the national police
• re-certify my lifetime annuity income (in lieu of pension or SS)

Top 10 List of What I Like Best About Living in Costa Rica

I was driving my son Sean into Pedregoso today so he could play video games with some of his friends. On the way he asked me what I missed the most from our former life in Oregon. I recalled having thought of something just a few days ago along those lines but couldn't bring it up at that moment (his was Dr Pepper). Maybe it's because there is so much to enjoy here in Costa Rica that I don't fret over comparisons to the "old life" that much. Be here now, right? 

So, I thought I'd make up a quick list of those things I enjoy about retiring here in Costa Rica. The order is not important. It's tough to say which features are better than others. It's not so much their presence individually, but the synergy of them taken together that makes me smile, relax, and want to share the goodness that we've found living here.

Is Costa Rica The Happiest Place On Earth? Maybe Not for the Reasons You Think.

In a walk across the web, I stumbled over this article about how Costa Rica is again the Happiest Place On Earth, and my stubbed virtual toe is still smarting a little.

A lot(!) is written about how Costa Rica is an undiscovered paradise (mostly by the Tourism bureau and real estate agents methinks), and this Happiness Index thing keeps popping up every year. 

This particular article, however, seemed more over-the-top than most, so I couldn't resist dissecting it a bit - tongue-in-cheek - based on my own experience in "paradise." Yes, I've cherry-picked for brevity's sake, but 80% of the article is intact below. I'm going to use my own scoring, +1, -1 and 0 for neutral. Let's see what my "happiness index" comes up with.

Having just been voted the single-most happiest place to live on the planet, Costa Rica has grabbed the attention of many. But the question burning up the Internet is, "why is Costa Rica ranked the happiest place on Earth?"

...

First off, the country is ideally located in Central America between  Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south.

I have no idea why that positioning would be considered an ideal location and the article doesn't say, either. I think a happier location would be between, say, France and Spain, or elsewhere on the Mediterranean. Will give this the benefit of the doubt, score 0.

One Gringo Family's Experience with Universal Health Care in Costa Rica, Part 2

Not the actual machine at Clinica San Lucas (sorry, could not resist!)

Part 1 is here.

Tamara was pretty happy to leave the Caja hospital after halfway through her third day there. The doctor wrote up the orders for the tests, and we were on our way after a short check-out procedure. 

Contrary to my usual procrastinating tendencies, we went right away to a nearby clinic to schedule the exams. First up was a CAT scan, then the colonoscopy within a couple of days.

Unfortunately, the gastroscopy couldn't be scheduled sooner than 8 days away, so we had some down time. The CAT scan was done at the only place in Pérez Zeledón that has the machine, Clinica San Lucas. I won't go into all the gory details, but the typical preparation for all the tests was fasting and usually a purgative besides. Believe me, she was pretty worn out by the time we finished all the tests.

One Gringo Family's Experience with Universal Health Care in Costa Rica

Logo of Costa Rica's Social Security

Everyone, Ticos and Gringos alike, love to kick the Caja, especially when it's down, which it is pretty much all the time. Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) is the Costa Rican government's universal health care system implemented after the 1948 civil war, which resulted in the abolition of the Costa Rican Army and the government refocusing its resources towards social programs.

No question about it, there is plenty to dislike about the system. In general, it's underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded, and slower than a sleeping sloth. Worse, the resources that it does have are scattered about the country unevenly. While in Cañas there is a state-of-the-art clinic, here in Pérez Zeledón the hospital is an awkward maze architecturally and in terms of process. The only thing holding up the building appears to be the umpteen layers of paint on the walls.

That said, the Caja does provide access to health care for millions here, health care that citizens could simply not afford otherwise. Monthly premiums are minuscule (update: were miniscule, now 13% of income for new residents) and cover literally everything, all clinic or hospital visits, doctor appointments, procedures, exams, surgery, and prescriptions. Though there are always horror stories, there seem to be an equal number of stories about folks who have accessed the system, gotten superb care, and walked away without a bill. Obviously, one's mileage can and does vary.

Costa Rica's Place in Medical Tourism

The term coined for traveling outside your home country to obtain health care is medical tourism. The primary motivation of such travellers is to take advantage of lower medical costs with an equal or at least acceptable level of care. In some cases, other countries may have treatments that are not offered in the home country because they are too new or don't have approval by government regulation or by one's insurance carrier. Even if they are covered in your home country, there may be an unacceptable wait time for the procedure.