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.

Mouthwatering Free Fruit in Costa Rica

One of the things most people savor about summertime anywhere in the world is gleaning wild fruit whether it be wild blackberries, salmonberries, apples, pears, cherries or nuts. I loved gathering tart apples, plums and cherries in Oregon from roadside trees. They were rarely hybridized, grafted, fertilizer-fattened specimens, but they were just as delicious as those in the supermarket bins if not more so.

This morning's juice fruit selection

Most of our roadside fruit here in Costa Rica is of the citrus variety, though there are varieties of vine berries and occasionally other tropical tree fruits to be had. Most of the latter, such as water apples or guanabana, come from neighbors' trees, which they readily share with us.

The past week, Tamara and I have been collecting various citrus fruits on our neighborhood walks and this morning I clambered down the steep hillside below our balcony, thick with six-foot tall coffee plants to add some sour mandarines  to the growing collection.

Despite a similar appearance, these are not the same as the Mandarin oranges one finds on store shelves in the States. These possess a bit thicker peel and are very sour (or ácido in local parlance). Locals claim these provide more health benefits than other citrus fruits such lowering cholesterol and cleaning your liver of toxins.

In the picture upper right, starting from the left side are these fruits: sweet lemons, mandarines, sweet oranges, grapefruit and a few sour lemons.