The best age to move to Mexico

Cheryl wrote:

Hello everybody,

No two people experience expatriation in Mexico in the same way, depending on their age and personal situation. We would like to know more about you and ask you to share with us when you decided to move to Mexico.

How old were you when you moved to Mexico? Did you go alone or with your family?

In your opinion, was it the right time to move there?

Do you find this country welcoming for your age group or for certain categories in particular? Why or why not?

Are there any incentives (financial aid, lower taxes, etc.) and for which category of expats?

In your opinion, is there an ideal age to move to Mexico?

Thank you for your contribution!

Cheryl,
Expat.com team

My experience with Mexico goes back to trips as a teenager. I am a traveler so my plan was to go to many places. Mexico like Peru has pleasant agreeable people with one major exception. The majority are wonderful people but those who function in a criminal manner are the exception and they are very dangerous.. The people have lived with that their whole lives so they are careful and adjust.

The attitude of the people is one of the benefits of living here. The cost of living here is a major benefit.
You can only live here if you can demonstrate that you have the income to do so. So that impacts what age you might live here, I, fortunately, moved here long before the global agenda. I feel that turned out to be a fortunate situation. Living here is hard work but safer than other places I lived or visited in the past.

For most of us, I think the best age to move to Mexico is at whatever age you can afford to buy a home for yourself in the country and have sufficient income. 
I know many expats who rent and that can work too but for much greater financial security it would be best to own your own home.  This however, can vary with your intention.  A couple of former neighbors have sold their homes and chosen to rent until they decide what location in Mexico is best suited to them.  I wish them well. 
That approach is not one I would take.  I own two homes in opposite corners of Mexico but before buying either, I did my research and visited the area thoroughly.  Moving to a foreign country is more adventurous than the average American would seriously consider.  I’m adventurous but, I like to have an researched idea of what I’m stepping into before moving somewhere.   It is important to me to I put down roots (quite literally, as Gardening is my passion) and make a go of it despite inconvenience, trials and whatever comes.

Me and my wife are both 48.  We retired 2 years ago but only moved to mexico last Oct.

Most boomers are very welcoming.  Then there are the ones with attitude becuase we are retired   at such a young age.  Just have to ignore them. No matter how nice you treat them they always give you the sour lime face back. 

Any age is good if you are retired.

We are renting while we look for that perfect house we want.  We love the life of the single house with nice tall walls around it. Well not taller then our 3rd story roof so we can just enjoy the views all the time.  We moved a TV up there and my wife has made it look like the garden of Evan with all the stuff growing.

If you want all the story just read my previous posts.  We are both vets (us army) of desert shield/storm.  And after that I worked for the dept of justice as a senior officer.  But the USA the land we both fought for is not the same place we grew up in.  Being a criminal is better then a law abiding (ie victim) in the USA right now.  So we feel safer down here.  And we drove across half of mexico to get where we live.

This was the best choice we ever made.  Get a bike as soon as you can best way to get around. Get a electric trike if you have problems because of physical issues like me and you will be in heaven.

I think the question(s) should be
1. What age were you when you moved to MX
2. How long have you lived in MX
3. Do you have a Residente Permanente / Residente Temporal / FMM and reside in MX in six month increments
4. Rent or own residence.

I worked/moved to MX when I was 68. After I retired I remained. For two years I was utilizing the 180 day FMM. I later transitioned from RT to RP. I have lived in my current city and same rental property for almost 11 years. Personally I would be very reluctant to purchase a home because of the vagaries of the MX real estate market. Plus, I always want the warm and fuzzy feeling I can efficiently "walk away".

Half the fun of retirement is bring footloose and fancy free.  No way will I tie myself to a home purchase.  In addition, I’ve always seen in my travels that renting is cheaper than buying anyway.

wgregg12354 wrote:

Half the fun of retirement is bring footloose and fancy free.  No way will I tie myself to a home purchase.  In addition, I’ve always seen in my travels that renting is cheaper than buying anyway.

Renting is almost always cheaper than buying, if you don't think equity is important

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

wgregg12354 wrote:

Half the fun of retirement is bring footloose and fancy free.  No way will I tie myself to a home purchase.  In addition, I’ve always seen in my travels that renting is cheaper than buying anyway.

Renting is almost always cheaper than buying, if you don't think equity is important

I've always thought of paying rent as investing my money in someone elses retirement fund not mine. My money would then be gone when I could enjoy it later on when I have less income after when being retired.

It is also very important to know your area before buying.  Learning the ins and outs of each part of town is important.

We are looking at land too.  Far to many of the houses we look at are just to large for a retired couple. Well the ones with good views.  What the heck do we need 3 or 4 bedrooms for?  So we are looking at land (around a acre) but the home we would build would be 1 bedroom 1.5 bath large kitchen for cooking smaller living and dining and the entire roof will be covwred Mirador. Outside will all be walled in with at least 12' walls small pool and rest a garden orchard area.

We have the money for the house with a view that is to big but really don't want it.  Soooo much wasted space.  I don't know how these couples live in a house so huge.  I guess we spent to long living in our 40' class A and don't see a use for unused space.

There is no age to be an expat. Valid for MX as well. But the problem is the expat are not comunicating with other expat. They just colect information. I am talking about east cost of MX. There are few groups, 2 or 3 max but the real comunication is not there. You must be carefull because mostly are bringing with them experience and life style that is even worst that locals.
In case the system will delete this message, it will confirm again this reality. On FB we try to participate to reunion, but there are none. And nothing to do with COVID. Mexico is free.

Unless you paid cash for your home,  you are renting from the holder of the mortgage. Run the numbers for the cost of borrowing. The annual increase of the value of your property is ultimately what you sell it for. Yes, particularly in the US,  easy to flip with due diligence. One metric of home sales in US, the amount of time a property goes on the market before it sells; usually expressed in days. In MX it is not unusual to express in YEARS.  To get full value, own and habitat "forever" and hope market forces have increased the value.

First Last wrote:

Unless you paid cash for your home,  you are renting from the holder of the mortgage. Run the numbers for the cost of borrowing. The annual increase of the value of your property is ultimately what you sell it for. Yes, particularly in the US,  easy to flip with due diligence. One metric of home sales in US, the amount of time a property goes on the market before it sells; usually expressed in days. In MX it is not unusual to express in YEARS.  To get full value, own and habitat "forever" and hope market forces have increased the value.

Offering overlooked, in the USA on a common 30-year mortgage, you can compare the total monthly payment including taxes to the comparable rental price when you purchase the home.

Then make the same comparison 30 years later.

If you haven't refinanced, your monthly payment remains almost exactly the same, except for changes in taxes.

But a comparable monthly rental payment could have (almost certainly would) increased exponentially.

I don't believe there is a best age, Different strokes for different folks i would say. Perhaps what ever your financial situation is. For us, it was it was to be after retirement.We went down several years on vacation and decided this was where we wanted to be. We went 15 yrs ago.The people are wonderful and looking back i would not change a thing. No matter where i go in Mexico i feel at home. I think the culture has a lot to do with it.