Reply to 2023: where will you move when your kids leave home?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're moving to Belize in October. Can't wait. The kids can't wait  to visit and we will be back a few times a year for a few weeks each time. [/quote]

Oooh! Sounds amazing! Tell us more![/quote]

We're moving to an island off the coast so not on the mainland. The mainland is cheaper but we fell in love with the island (Ambergris Caye). We're buying a small house on the lagoon side on a canal with a small swimming pool and a nice fenced in lot for under $300K. There are no private cars so you have a golf cart or bike or walk (or boat). There's about 20,000 people on the island altogether at peak season. It's around 82 degrees and usually sunny every day. English is the official language. There's no one day delivery, no chain stores or restaurants, no mass shootings, no commuting. It's a simpler, slower way of life. I've been working online/phone throughout the pandemic so I'll continue to do that. We're also starting a small, simple business that we can at least afford to run/break even on and will probably significantly contribute to our expenses.

Including my portion of my kids' college tuition, health insurance in the US just in case of a catastrophic illness (routine care down there is super cheap), and a reasonable day-to-day existence including travel to/from the US, tickets for the kids, and meals out usually at local, sometimes at tourist restaurants, we can live on under $4,000/month. Easily. Most Belizeans on the island live on under $1,000/month so that would be a very comfortable existence.

We're tired of the violence in the US, the political situation, the orange man possibly coming back, the traffic, the commute, the commercialism, the expense. Belize is absolutely not perfect, but people are happy, it's beautiful, we can work to live and have more time for outdoor activities, we will have a lighter footprint on the earth, and it's really not that much harder to get to than if my kids went to college anywhere from the Midwest to California. Around 8 hours from BWI to the island if you work it right. [/quote]

Are you as all concerned about healthcare? I loved Belize but that would be my major concern about moving there[/quote]

I’ve posted on this previously.  I have a lot of experience in that part of the Americas, including investing in property and spending lots and lots of time there and interacting frequently with expats.

The bottom line:  OP is romanticizing living there full time and will discover soon enough that it gets old real fast.  Yes, health care is a serious issue, especially for an older adult.  But beyond that, island fever is real.  OP is joining a very small expat community.  She will see the same people, attend the same small number of establishments, and engage in the same limited variety of activities constantly.  Many of the expats are, for want of a better word, “different” - often not in a good way.  Many will have very little money.  Many will take advantage of, exploit or at a minimum be entirely indifferent to and make no effort to mix with the locals.

And here’s the real kicker: a majority of expats, particularly the newer ones, won’t be aging leftist hippies, which has its charms - they will be older white Americans and Canadians, disproportionately male and divorced - and ignorant right wing Trump supporters with little formal education who embrace conspiracy theories and are anti-vaccine.

I’m not saying they ALL will be that way.  They won’t all be.  The problem is that it’s such a small community and cutting out such a large portion of it makes it truly suffocating.

Such a great place to visit.  But no more than a couple months a year and when family can tag along.  Otherwise, nope.  [/quote]

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