I've been debating, bring my furniture or not to bring my furniture. I have antiques and paintings that I really love. I've spent my adult life slowly finding my personal tastes and purchasing the things I love along the way.
When I visited Costa Rica this summer, George Lundquist, took us to Sarchi as part of his tour where the local craftsmen and furniture makers have sold their products for the past 100 years. There are about 70 family owned workshops, or "talleres" with showrooms along the main road. Many were in little shack like buildings, but with the most amazing and beautiful handmade hardwood furniture I've ever seen. Most of the wood is plantation grown or sustainable tropical hardwoods like cenizaro, guanacaste, melina, and cedar.
These artisans make bedroom sets, dining room, sofas, chairs, dressers, entertainment units, desks, outdoor furniture, swings, baby furniture, and anything else you can imagine. They can recreate a family heirloom or anything you can describe or sketch out for them. You can usually get these custom made pieces for the same price as ready-made items.
Six seater dining tables ran anywhere from $300 to $700. Compare that to $1,500 at regular furniture store here that was most likely made in China.
I saw new beautiful carved queen sized beds from $400 to $600 with matching bedside tables for an additional $150. You could not touch it in the states for under $1,300. Entertainment unit with the space for a TV at $400.
Since I have personally seen the furniture I know what amazing quality is available. Plus remember, these are made with hardwoods.
I have options! I'm thinking I need to find someone else moving at the same time that I could share a moving container with. I still want to bring some of my things, but I do not need them all. To bring a full container costs anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on the size of the container. I have some thinking to do!
Showing posts with label costa rica or bust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label costa rica or bust. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Setting Goals to Get to Paradise
It is amazing what you can accomplish when your heart and soul are involved. Moving to Costa Rica is what I want most in my life. I want it because, on the practical side, I cannot afford to ever retire in the US, and I fell in love with the country. The climate, the views, the people, the vegetation, the color of Costa Rica, and the monkeys feel like they are already part of me.
Do you believe in predestination? There has always been a wanderer in me. My parents had to lock the house down and build a fence around the yard when I was only two years old because I wanted to explore all my surroundings. At three the police were involved because I took off on my tricycle to explore my neighborhood. I can remember being taken into a house by a family's maid when she saw me out in the weather just having a great 'ole time. That desire to see the world with no fear has never left me.
Costa Rica has everything. Waterfalls, mountains, volcanos, rain forests, beaches, amazing animals and birds, perfect temperatures year round, rivers, and views that go forever.
I live in a very crowded and busy city. I am in high gear everyday, but as social as I can be, I prefer solitude and harmony. I am looking so forward to living in a quite area without someone right up against me. I am looking forward to the smell of rain and sweet air rather than exhaust and pollution. I am looking forward to seeing miles and miles of beauty rather than the houses right across the street blocking the view of my world. I am looking forward to the quiet. When I was in CR outside of the city I could not believe the peace the quite brought. I did not even recognize the noise in my life until I realized the lack of it when I was there.
I've told some friends I will be moving into my 460 sq. foot garage apartment, and they cannot believe I am going to do this and live without all my beautiful things (they will be in storage). I am so happy and excited to do this because it is exactly this that will get me to CR sooner. Renting out my house will enable me to save almost every penny I make then at the end of the two years I'll sell my house and add the profit to those savings. Not only will this move take the financial stress that I live under now off me it achieves my goal. I will be one very happy little lady living there making my plans to move to paradise.
Pura Vida
Do you believe in predestination? There has always been a wanderer in me. My parents had to lock the house down and build a fence around the yard when I was only two years old because I wanted to explore all my surroundings. At three the police were involved because I took off on my tricycle to explore my neighborhood. I can remember being taken into a house by a family's maid when she saw me out in the weather just having a great 'ole time. That desire to see the world with no fear has never left me.
Costa Rica has everything. Waterfalls, mountains, volcanos, rain forests, beaches, amazing animals and birds, perfect temperatures year round, rivers, and views that go forever.
I live in a very crowded and busy city. I am in high gear everyday, but as social as I can be, I prefer solitude and harmony. I am looking so forward to living in a quite area without someone right up against me. I am looking forward to the smell of rain and sweet air rather than exhaust and pollution. I am looking forward to seeing miles and miles of beauty rather than the houses right across the street blocking the view of my world. I am looking forward to the quiet. When I was in CR outside of the city I could not believe the peace the quite brought. I did not even recognize the noise in my life until I realized the lack of it when I was there.
I've told some friends I will be moving into my 460 sq. foot garage apartment, and they cannot believe I am going to do this and live without all my beautiful things (they will be in storage). I am so happy and excited to do this because it is exactly this that will get me to CR sooner. Renting out my house will enable me to save almost every penny I make then at the end of the two years I'll sell my house and add the profit to those savings. Not only will this move take the financial stress that I live under now off me it achieves my goal. I will be one very happy little lady living there making my plans to move to paradise.
Pura Vida
Monday, July 23, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Social Security History and Today
Over 50 million Americans receive Social Security benefits. Nearly 9 out of 10 are at least 65 years of age. Those of us who fall in this range are being asked to cover the deficit passed to us by the politicians of the 1960's and find a way to fund our retirement years without becoming a burden to future generations.
According to Scott Rasmussen, our biggest challenge is to get the Political Class to follow the lead of the American people. Social Security, after 80 years, still remains the most lasting and popular legacy of FDR's New Deal. Sixty Four percent of voters nationwide still view it favorably.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt explained he set up Social Security benefits the way he did by saying, "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program." It should also be noted he envisioned a program that would grow to include a combination of "compulsory contributions," supplemented by voluntary contributions made in exchange for increased benefits.
By a three-to-one margin, American people believe that no matter how bad something is Congress can always make it worse. With that mind set, protecting an unsustainable status quo is less risky for voters than trusting congressional reform. Even if Congress crafted the perfect reform plan, and even if voters loved what they heard, popular support would be withheld because voters don't trust Congress.
Accordingly, 64 percent of Americans believe that any proposed change to Social Security should be submitted to a vote of the people before it could be implemented. For more than seventy-five years, Social Security has been presented to voters as a contract between government and individual American Workers. To change a contract lawfully requires approval from both parties. If the government wants to change the contract, it should be required to get approval from those on the other side of the bargain. With the final product being submitted to a vote of American people, the process would be protected from political gamesmanship.
When the program began only 2 percent of an employee's income was paid into the system. The figure has risen to 12.4 percent today, a total paid half by the employee and half by the employer in to what is euphemistically called "contributions" in exchange for a promise of future benefits. To pay all current promised benefits, Social Security trustees estimate the taxes will have to be raised to just over 14.6 percent.
The problem is how to achieve this. Most Democrats say all that's needed is one more Social Security tax hike and the problem can be solved. Most Republicans say that the promised benefits need to be cut either by raising the retirement age or reducing the growth of future benefits. A few on each side would like to go further. Some on the left would like to see taxes raised even more than is needed to make the system solvent. They want benefits for retirees to go up even higher. On the right, many advocate privatization of the program so that individuals can opt out of Social Security. Neither of these ideas are popular with voters. According to Rasmussen, 34 percent of voters say the retirement age should be raised for future generations, 30 percent say taxes should be raised, and 15 percent want benefits to be cut. However, just about everyone agrees that something needs to be done.
The shame of this whole problem is that it did not have to happen. During the 1960s, when economic growth was strong and the retirement program was young, politicians missed an opportunity to address the shortfall caused by the first generation of Social Security recipients. (The first recipient was Ida May Fuller who paid a total of $24.75 into the system and received a total of $22,888.92 in benefits) Deceptive accounting practices were implemented by President Lyndon Johnson making it easier for those who wanted to provide short-term benefit hikes while ignoring long-term costs. This accounting trick also helped President Richard Nixon's reelection in 1972 when he announced he had "signed legislation which constitutes a major breakthrough for older Americans, for it says at last that inflation proof Social Security benefits are theirs as a matter of right." As we now know that was not the fact. According to government documents, the Social Security trust fund has a long-term deficit of $17.9 trillion. They claim the trust fund has enough reserves to keep paying benefits in full until 2036.
Sixty-five percent of voters believe individuals should have the right to select their own retirement age. Only 23 percent disagree. Over the long term, people choosing later retirement ages could cut the cost of Social Security nearly in half. It is an acknowledgement that one-size-fits-all solutions don't make sense in a society as big and diverse as that of the United States.
Statistically, most Americans support FDR's concept of setting aside money during the working years to earn benefits during retirement years. With that said, most are not happy with the current mix of taxes and benefits. Everyone is looking for a better way to make Social Security beneficial for today's worker. Many, including 53 percent of seniors, believe by freeing people to make their own choices, the long-term cost of social security benefits will be reduced far more than anybody in Congress would dare propose. On top of that, it would be accomplished with the consent of the governed and in a manner that improves everyone's confidence in Social Security.
According to Scott Rasmussen, our biggest challenge is to get the Political Class to follow the lead of the American people. Social Security, after 80 years, still remains the most lasting and popular legacy of FDR's New Deal. Sixty Four percent of voters nationwide still view it favorably.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt explained he set up Social Security benefits the way he did by saying, "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program." It should also be noted he envisioned a program that would grow to include a combination of "compulsory contributions," supplemented by voluntary contributions made in exchange for increased benefits.
By a three-to-one margin, American people believe that no matter how bad something is Congress can always make it worse. With that mind set, protecting an unsustainable status quo is less risky for voters than trusting congressional reform. Even if Congress crafted the perfect reform plan, and even if voters loved what they heard, popular support would be withheld because voters don't trust Congress.
Accordingly, 64 percent of Americans believe that any proposed change to Social Security should be submitted to a vote of the people before it could be implemented. For more than seventy-five years, Social Security has been presented to voters as a contract between government and individual American Workers. To change a contract lawfully requires approval from both parties. If the government wants to change the contract, it should be required to get approval from those on the other side of the bargain. With the final product being submitted to a vote of American people, the process would be protected from political gamesmanship.
When the program began only 2 percent of an employee's income was paid into the system. The figure has risen to 12.4 percent today, a total paid half by the employee and half by the employer in to what is euphemistically called "contributions" in exchange for a promise of future benefits. To pay all current promised benefits, Social Security trustees estimate the taxes will have to be raised to just over 14.6 percent.
The problem is how to achieve this. Most Democrats say all that's needed is one more Social Security tax hike and the problem can be solved. Most Republicans say that the promised benefits need to be cut either by raising the retirement age or reducing the growth of future benefits. A few on each side would like to go further. Some on the left would like to see taxes raised even more than is needed to make the system solvent. They want benefits for retirees to go up even higher. On the right, many advocate privatization of the program so that individuals can opt out of Social Security. Neither of these ideas are popular with voters. According to Rasmussen, 34 percent of voters say the retirement age should be raised for future generations, 30 percent say taxes should be raised, and 15 percent want benefits to be cut. However, just about everyone agrees that something needs to be done.
The shame of this whole problem is that it did not have to happen. During the 1960s, when economic growth was strong and the retirement program was young, politicians missed an opportunity to address the shortfall caused by the first generation of Social Security recipients. (The first recipient was Ida May Fuller who paid a total of $24.75 into the system and received a total of $22,888.92 in benefits) Deceptive accounting practices were implemented by President Lyndon Johnson making it easier for those who wanted to provide short-term benefit hikes while ignoring long-term costs. This accounting trick also helped President Richard Nixon's reelection in 1972 when he announced he had "signed legislation which constitutes a major breakthrough for older Americans, for it says at last that inflation proof Social Security benefits are theirs as a matter of right." As we now know that was not the fact. According to government documents, the Social Security trust fund has a long-term deficit of $17.9 trillion. They claim the trust fund has enough reserves to keep paying benefits in full until 2036.
Sixty-five percent of voters believe individuals should have the right to select their own retirement age. Only 23 percent disagree. Over the long term, people choosing later retirement ages could cut the cost of Social Security nearly in half. It is an acknowledgement that one-size-fits-all solutions don't make sense in a society as big and diverse as that of the United States.
Statistically, most Americans support FDR's concept of setting aside money during the working years to earn benefits during retirement years. With that said, most are not happy with the current mix of taxes and benefits. Everyone is looking for a better way to make Social Security beneficial for today's worker. Many, including 53 percent of seniors, believe by freeing people to make their own choices, the long-term cost of social security benefits will be reduced far more than anybody in Congress would dare propose. On top of that, it would be accomplished with the consent of the governed and in a manner that improves everyone's confidence in Social Security.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Moving Forward
I am continuing to move forward on my plans.
Have you ever opened your savings account on line? Not as easy as it sounds. I went into my checking account and did all the paperwork on the site for my savings account. Next they say they will withdraw two small amounts and email you when it is done to first make sure it is you who is pulling the money. They did the 2 small withdrawals but never emailed. Still have not emailed me about it. I did find it by checking back on my account.
Next I OK'd the amounts. Then it took another 3 days before they actually withdrew the full amount to open the savings account. This took a total of one week to "electronically" move my money from one location to the new one! I thought doing things on line were supposed to be faster. Not so.
I am watching for a good deal on air tickets to go down in May and take George's tour.
Everyday I watch the news about what is going on in Washington, and everyday it makes me even more sure I want to get out of here while I still can. An added motivation!
Cheers,
Claudia
Have you ever opened your savings account on line? Not as easy as it sounds. I went into my checking account and did all the paperwork on the site for my savings account. Next they say they will withdraw two small amounts and email you when it is done to first make sure it is you who is pulling the money. They did the 2 small withdrawals but never emailed. Still have not emailed me about it. I did find it by checking back on my account.
Next I OK'd the amounts. Then it took another 3 days before they actually withdrew the full amount to open the savings account. This took a total of one week to "electronically" move my money from one location to the new one! I thought doing things on line were supposed to be faster. Not so.
I am watching for a good deal on air tickets to go down in May and take George's tour.
Everyday I watch the news about what is going on in Washington, and everyday it makes me even more sure I want to get out of here while I still can. An added motivation!
Cheers,
Claudia
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
WORKING MY PLAN
Keeping my eye on the mark. Make a plan and work it.
I sat down several nights ago and started my Costa Rica or bust success list. I am on a 17-24 month plan to retire in Costa Rica. Well, semi-retire. I'll have to find something to do to supplement my pitiful social security.
First step...plan an information gathering trip to Costa Rica. Done. Will be there in late spring.
Second step...Take Spanish. Almost done. When I get back from my trip and know for sure Costa Rica is for me I will be bidding on Ebay for the full Rossetta Stone Spanish Course. Ole'
Open a specific savings account. Spend money on nothing except the life giving essentials (Going cold-turkey!). Will be at the bank tomorrow.
Build my Ignite (Stream Energy) business!
It's a start! Head down and engines revved!
Cheers,
Claudia
I sat down several nights ago and started my Costa Rica or bust success list. I am on a 17-24 month plan to retire in Costa Rica. Well, semi-retire. I'll have to find something to do to supplement my pitiful social security.
First step...plan an information gathering trip to Costa Rica. Done. Will be there in late spring.
Second step...Take Spanish. Almost done. When I get back from my trip and know for sure Costa Rica is for me I will be bidding on Ebay for the full Rossetta Stone Spanish Course. Ole'
Open a specific savings account. Spend money on nothing except the life giving essentials (Going cold-turkey!). Will be at the bank tomorrow.
Build my Ignite (Stream Energy) business!
It's a start! Head down and engines revved!
Cheers,
Claudia
Monday, January 9, 2012
Retirement
It has become pretty obvious that I will not ever be able to retire in the United States. There was a little known fact to me that if you are a stay at home mom and work most of your life in that world you have no social security! There is evidently no monetary value to being a home keeper and mother. Thank God I did work outside the home a little, or I would have zero!
What to do? I have been looking for some place where I can make a little extra money plus my social security and still be able to keep a roof over my head and eat. I am very close to choosing Costa Rica.
I am going there in April or May to visit a friend of my father's who has lived there for 9 years. He loves it and would never consider leaving. He has sent me pictures that make the decision pretty easy! The picture of the birds at the top of my blog was taken from his window.
Have you ever considered something like this? Any ideas or suggestions?
Cheers,
Claudia
What to do? I have been looking for some place where I can make a little extra money plus my social security and still be able to keep a roof over my head and eat. I am very close to choosing Costa Rica.
I am going there in April or May to visit a friend of my father's who has lived there for 9 years. He loves it and would never consider leaving. He has sent me pictures that make the decision pretty easy! The picture of the birds at the top of my blog was taken from his window.
Have you ever considered something like this? Any ideas or suggestions?
Cheers,
Claudia
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