Nothing but the shirt on my back...

high-cost of living in Costa rica; I lived there for three months in San Jose. Beautiful coasts; high gas prices also.

Keep in mind that you cannot work in any way shape or form until you achieve permanent residency (minimum of three years but probably closer to five).  You can own your own company but you cannot perform any work yourself until permanent.

Jamiebrwstr,

You could start a landscaping company and manage all the workers you want, legally. There is no point in an experienced landscaper doing the work himself when he can hire peones for about 2 bucks an hour who will work hard and long. There is plenty of work you could do like that for ex-pats.

Also, anyone here can "perform work" w/o residency. They just can't legally get a job for an employer, but believe me people do it all the time anyway. This is basically a cash-based economy, which makes that easy to do. No one is going to throw you in jail for doing free-lance landscaping on a cash basis.

Good grief, if the farmers down here had to set up corporations and pay for accounting, etc. they would starve.

Also, yes some things are expensive, gas and food, and everything is more expensive in the Central Valley. Housing and medical, which are major expenses for a lot of people are very cheap. For instance, you could rent a decent size house in my area for about $125/month, pay about $10 for electricity, and probably get your water for free. There is not heating/cooling bill to worry about.

You should plan on coming down for a few months if possible and check it all out for yourself. The people that start whining about the high cost of living couldn't adapt. Lots of people come here with the mindset that they are going to re-create what they had in their home country, just at a different lat/long. Doesn't work that way unless you have tons of money. Wherever you go you have to adjust to your surroundings. If you are a person who can then you will.

Pura vida,

Casey  -  A Dull Roar - Moving to, Retiring in, and Living with Costa Rica

Casey,

Thanks that's what I was wondering about.  I have a place to stay in Sarapiqui to start with and then explore my possibilities from there.

Jamie