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DW and I speak Spanish near fluently and almost moved to Mexico for retirement. Reason we didn't was mostly due to cultural concerns. We didn't want to live in an ex-pat community but were worried how well we would fit in to a middle class neighborhood. We are kid-less, Latino culture is very family oriented. We are atheist, Mexico is largely Catholic and although there are a lot of people who ignore the church, it is still a cultural center. Anyway, we thought we would be real oddballs down there so moved to Hawaii instead.
She has started a business. Not full time lounging on the beach.
For full retirement I would prefer Cabo San Lucas.
That probably increases her risk dramatically. Business extortion is common. If you're making money, the local gangs want a significant cut. You risk the ire of locals if you're doing well and they are not. You risk your status being a target if you have business disputes.
Every time I read something like this, I look around my apartment ( which is subsidized) and think, gee, I'm living on$1200 and doing just fine. I don't have the beaches but life is good.
For me, the issue arose when I read that Mazatlán is in Sinaloa. The Sinaloa Cartel is no joke. I wouldn't want to drive to Culiacan in order to travel by air.
I have a SIL that has property in Mexico. She and my bro have gone down there many times, but they go with a relative that is very familiar with the area. They drive to the place. I told her i wanted to go with her.
I have traced my family to a small town up in the hills of central Mexico. I would love to go see it, but of course am apprehensive. I lived in a border town for a few years. We would go across - no big deal, but nowadays - who knows.
I’ve motorcycled from Phoenix into Chihuahua 4 or 5 times to visit the Copper Canyon area. I’ve driven as far south as Belize crossing in Laredo, going to Monterrey and then going down the east coast to Belize cutting through Chiapas. Granted, my last trip was 2005 but it was supposedly dangerous even then. Never had a problem, was never overly worried. Always cautious though. We always travel in small groups of 2-3 when possible and tried, but failed several times to avoid travel at night. One first goal heading south is to clear the border and get away as quickly as possible. Be nice at the roadblocks, address the highest ranking man, smile and appear at ease with the soldiers.
More recently we’ve driven to Puerto Penasco aka Rocky Point. Many, many people from AZ vacation there and incidents are far and few between.
I think I mentioned this elsewhere but I’ll repeat it. I’m a retired clinical social worker who worked in a veterans hospital for over 35 years. We are located in Miami and had many many veterans who had retired overseas, mostly to Mexico, Central America, and Latin America. Everything seem to go well for many of them for several years. Unfortunately, once their healthcare needs became rather dire, they were forced to return to the United States. For some of the veterans it was a matter of needing family support/supervision. For others it was to have access to their VA medical care on a very regular basis ( some of them needed to be seen at least weekly because of the chronicity of their medical conditions).
I mention this because most of these individuals left everything in this country to go live their dream elsewhere. They sold their homes, businesses, if they had one, and most of their belongings.
One thing that served as a cautionary tale for me was that after having spent most of their funds while living overseas, upon returning, they were primarily subsisting on their Social Security check and/or veterans benefits if they were lucky enough to qualify for them. Many were shocked at the cost of living here. Most had nothing left from the sale of their homes or properties as they had spent it living out their dream years abroad . It was hard to see these individuals struggle to apply for benefits such as Food Stamps, subsidized housing, etc.
Having lived away for so many years, they have squandered a lot of their “family equity”. They have very few supports, many were estranged from their children and barely knew their grandchildren. They were surprised to see the ties that had been formed by their immediate family members and former friends in their absence, from which they were excluded.
I realized from working with the veterans and their families that it was not necessarily that their families did not care for them, but having not had interaction with them for decades, they did not feel a closeness with that individual. The veteran on the other hand, often returned expecting things to be just as they had been 20 years ago. It was quite sad. They came home out of necessity, hoping that family would take them in and provide them with care and found that family was not interested, not willing, or not able to provide that for them.
In truth this could happen to any retiree here, who expects family members to take care of them in their old age. However I saw that it was increasingly hard for these veterans as they hadn’t had a had or nurtured relationships with family members and old friends for many years.
As a native Spanish speaker, I would have no problem moving to any country where Spanish is a primary language, at times I have toyed with the idea of moving to Spain where my grandparents were from. But having seen and experienced with my former clients the reality of the situation that they experienced, I will probably remain here in this country.
I think many retirees are not aware of, or ignore how rapidly their health could decline and how much assistance they may require with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). It’s certainly gave me pause and food for thought, as well as revisiting the idealistic plans that I had for retiring overseas when I was younger.
Last edited by mercedesmarcelina158; 08-15-2019 at 09:14 PM..
Lot and lot, if not more and more millennials live like that.
They are those who are digital nomad, other are online entrepreneurs, other work remotely and some (more and more) who are young retiree (retired in their 30s "F.I.R.E movement")
They go to places like Mexico, Dominican republic, Vietnam, Thailand...
Bottom line: she's happy. Security and healthcare doesn't mean much if you're not happy. She wouldn't be able to live the same lifestyle in the US.
Frankly I would not be happy without either of those.
Definitely not for me.
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