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It’s possible to retire there and only live on Social Security. My brother in law was there for 10 years, married a Tica, but they are back in the US so his kid

by wil421 8y ago

It’s possible to retire there and only live on Social Security. My brother in law was there for 10 years, married a Tica, but they are back in the US so his kid gets a real education. Things like mail, road maintenance, power, and water are not always guaranteed.

taternuts 8y ago
There's some special exemptions for US citizens who are getting social security from what I remember, but it's also really really hard to legally live there if you're from a different country. I knew a Canadian woman who had lived there for over 10 years, married a Tico, and owned a successful business for 5+, and she was still on her third lawyer trying to become a citizen. First one took the money and ran, second one actually died before the process was finished, and who knows how the third lawyer worked out.
- wil421 8y ago
  Before he got married he would have to go to Nicaragua every 90 days for a few days and then come back so he would have legal status. They mentioned this changed a few years ago but he already had passport by then. Some people would have business licenses to get things like local cell phone plans. If you employed people it made things much easier. Your lawyer story is similar to theirs including trying to immigrate her to the US. Once they decided to get a US lawyer things actually started to happen and they got answers about the US process.
magduf 8y ago
If you have a young school-age child, and are worried about the quality of education, then by definition you're not "retired". Personally, I'd rather retire in someplace like Europe, where you get all those nice social services. America might have those things, but they're completely unaffordable if you're in a nice city: even if you own your house, the ever-increasing property taxes will force you to move out at some point, to some low-cost area, but that place will be full of Trumpers and generally not be a very interesting place to live; you'll just be sitting in your house waiting to die.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- xapata 8y ago
  If you're unemployed with no intention of working again, is that not retired?
  - magduf 8y ago
    So this guy has a young, school-aged child or children, and doesn't have to work to continue to bring in an income to support this family? That's an extremely rare case, if so. And even here, if you have that much money saved, why on earth would you go to the US? The public schools here are terrible, generally the worst in the developed world (some of them in extremely high-cost-of-living locales are ok). Of course, you could send your kids to private schools, but if you can afford to not work at all, live in the US, and send your kids to really nice private schools, then by definition you are extremely wealthy.
    - xapata 8y ago
      > extremely wealthy Many wealthy people don't realize how unusual they are, because all their friends are the same. It's like the story of a PhD student joyously exclaiming he was graduating and the professor replies, "That's nothing special. All my friends are PhDs." On the opposite end of things, a friend of mine refused to believe the proportion of US citizens who are millionaires. He explained that he knew about 1,000 people in his hometown and none of them were millionaires. I couldn't convince him that things were different in other places, partly because of the number of beers we'd drunk that night.

by wil421 8y ago

taternuts 8y ago

There's some special exemptions for US citizens who are getting social security from what I remember, but it's also really really hard to legally live there if you're from a different country. I knew a Canadian woman who had lived there for over 10 years, married a Tico, and owned a successful business for 5+, and she was still on her third lawyer trying to become a citizen. First one took the money and ran, second one actually died before the process was finished, and who knows how the third lawyer worked out.

wil421 8y ago
Before he got married he would have to go to Nicaragua every 90 days for a few days and then come back so he would have legal status. They mentioned this changed a few years ago but he already had passport by then. Some people would have business licenses to get things like local cell phone plans. If you employed people it made things much easier. Your lawyer story is similar to theirs including trying to immigrate her to the US. Once they decided to get a US lawyer things actually started to happen and they got answers about the US process.

magduf 8y ago

If you have a young school-age child, and are worried about the quality of education, then by definition you're not "retired". Personally, I'd rather retire in someplace like Europe, where you get all those nice social services. America might have those things, but they're completely unaffordable if you're in a nice city: even if you own your house, the ever-increasing property taxes will force you to move out at some point, to some low-cost area, but that place will be full of Trumpers and generally not be a very interesting place to live; you'll just be sitting in your house waiting to die.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
xapata 8y ago
If you're unemployed with no intention of working again, is that not retired?
- magduf 8y ago
  So this guy has a young, school-aged child or children, and doesn't have to work to continue to bring in an income to support this family? That's an extremely rare case, if so. And even here, if you have that much money saved, why on earth would you go to the US? The public schools here are terrible, generally the worst in the developed world (some of them in extremely high-cost-of-living locales are ok). Of course, you could send your kids to private schools, but if you can afford to not work at all, live in the US, and send your kids to really nice private schools, then by definition you are extremely wealthy.
  - xapata 8y ago
    > extremely wealthy Many wealthy people don't realize how unusual they are, because all their friends are the same. It's like the story of a PhD student joyously exclaiming he was graduating and the professor replies, "That's nothing special. All my friends are PhDs." On the opposite end of things, a friend of mine refused to believe the proportion of US citizens who are millionaires. He explained that he knew about 1,000 people in his hometown and none of them were millionaires. I couldn't convince him that things were different in other places, partly because of the number of beers we'd drunk that night.