Costa Rica Interest Rate

My friends, Paul and Gloria, are the authors of www.retireforlessincostarica.com .  This is from their last post.  It certainly caught my attention.  I only wish I could take advantage of it! 

From 11.75% to 12.5% Interest on a 12-Month Certificate of Deposit!
We wanted to inform all of our interested readers that our bank, Coopenae, has just raised interest rates to 12.5% on a 12 month Certificate of Deposit. As luck would have it, our initial 12-month CD at 11.75% came to maturity in late June, just after the rate was increased, and we were able to roll it over at 12.5%. Boy are we happy!  

Just so you know, this is a colones account. The dollar accounts pay 3% on a 12 month CD. We got our CD last June 25th and we converted our dollars to colones at 502 colones/dollar. Presently, the dollar is 497 colones, so our earnings are even more significant, though we don’t pay much attention to the exchange rate since we live in colones.  

The sad news is that one must be a legal resident to be a CD investor in Costa Rica. All legal residents also now have DIMEX on their residency cards (cedulas). Click here to read our article that explains DIMEX.  

They posted this update today... Earlier in the week, the Costa Rican government decided to delay the implementation of DIMEX until October 1, 2012. After we published our newsletter, Coopenae contacted us with some good news. There is a window of opportunity until October 1st for people in the process of getting their legal Residency to invest in CDs at Coopenae.  

For me, just another reason to retire in Costa Rica!  

Pura Vida

Better Idea

All righty then....After all that thought and figuring I've come up with another way.

My goal is to cut down on my living expenses so I can save money to be able to go to Costa Rica with as much of an emergency fund as I can.  After looking at things from right side up I decided to look from upside down. 

I have a full one bedroom apartment over my garage.  I've come to the conclusion that it will benefit me more to move into the apartment and rent my house out.  This gives the real estate market a little more time to go back up, so when I sell I can get more for my home.  I will still have to put the bulk of my furniture etc in storage, but it gives me a FREE place to live while my renters will be paying my mortgage and most likely the storage, so I will be able to save the amount I normally pay each month!

I have plumbers coming out tomorrow morning to fix the toilet in the apartment and put a new faucet on the kitchen sink.  A tiny few more touches and it's ready for me to move in.  On my house I still need to have the trim outside painted, and may have to paint some of the walls inside to help rent it faster.  I love bright colors, but a renter might not like my yellow walls.

I am in an artsy part of Dallas right across the river from Downtown.   The houses I've seen go up for rent in my neighborhood have rented quickly.

I have my eyes on the prize, and I think this is the best answer to get me there.

Pura Vida...

Back To Working My Plan

I've run the numbers and run the numbers, and I still come up with the same answer.  For the same reason I will never be able to retire in the US, I now must sell my house in order to save for retirement.

I do love my house, but I do not mind selling it with the end game in my sights.  The plan I must work is to sell my house, either move in with my parents or an efficiency apartment, put my furniture in storage and save every thing I have left after the smallest of living expenses.  With any profit from the sale of my home and savings, I should be able to move to Costa Rica by the time I retire.

I am actively working towards listing my house.  Two weekends ago I cleaned out all my closets and cabinets and put every thing in the garage (for a garage sale) that I have not touched in the last year.  I have listed several things on Ebay that I will never use again but are too nice to sell in a garage sale.

This past weekend I washed all 20 windows in my house inside and out and the 4 doors and storm doors.    Now I have  items at my house that will need to be repaired and painted.  There are 2 painters coming out this week to give me quotes.  I will have to do some of the repairs a little slower as money permits.  My goal is to have it on the market in 2-3 months tops.

I put this quote at the top of my blog last week.  It inspired me to move steadily towards my future.  "Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action." Napoleon Hill

Pura Vida...