Great article. We experienced a few of these in moving to Costa Rica.
Re furnishing an apartment — really better to rent a furnished place & ship or buy the minimum possible until you’re sure you’re staying. Our first rental included dishes, towels, sheets, everything. It’s actually very liberating to let go of all your old stuff! Or store it, though that’s a money trap of a different sort.
Re bank accounts — CR banks offer accounts in US dollars (our home currency) as well as in colones. Many sales transactions, including real estate, are pegged to the dollar as well. Helps with the currency exchange issue. But your solution to hold target currencies in Wise is a good one too.
Re health insurance, as senior citizens we found the premiums for international policies completely unaffordable at $1100-1200 per month for both of us even with a high deductible. Plus no coverage for pre-existing conditions — & let’s face it, at our age almost everything is pre-existing 😂. We pay cash for private care as needed or use the very good public health system here which costs us $118 per month as residents.
Those are great additions! When it comes to paying cash for private care, I think many ppl would be surprised that this is actually an option in some countries. Many exceptions apply of course. But even at my age (38) I'm choosing the cash option every now and then, since it's so much quicker this way. But healthcare abroad is a whole universe, I'll drop an article on that at some stage, but not sure if it will fit within the Substack post length limit ;)
Great article. We experienced a few of these in moving to Costa Rica.
Re furnishing an apartment — really better to rent a furnished place & ship or buy the minimum possible until you’re sure you’re staying. Our first rental included dishes, towels, sheets, everything. It’s actually very liberating to let go of all your old stuff! Or store it, though that’s a money trap of a different sort.
Re bank accounts — CR banks offer accounts in US dollars (our home currency) as well as in colones. Many sales transactions, including real estate, are pegged to the dollar as well. Helps with the currency exchange issue. But your solution to hold target currencies in Wise is a good one too.
Re health insurance, as senior citizens we found the premiums for international policies completely unaffordable at $1100-1200 per month for both of us even with a high deductible. Plus no coverage for pre-existing conditions — & let’s face it, at our age almost everything is pre-existing 😂. We pay cash for private care as needed or use the very good public health system here which costs us $118 per month as residents.
Those are great additions! When it comes to paying cash for private care, I think many ppl would be surprised that this is actually an option in some countries. Many exceptions apply of course. But even at my age (38) I'm choosing the cash option every now and then, since it's so much quicker this way. But healthcare abroad is a whole universe, I'll drop an article on that at some stage, but not sure if it will fit within the Substack post length limit ;)
RETIRE And this is so helpful! I had already downloaded Wise but haven’t set it up yet.
Glad this helped! And good job getting started with Wise!
RETIRE
Noted Lori ;)
"RETIRE". Also - great article!
Thanks Julie, really appreciate it!
Benjamin this was a very helpful article - thank you! I've started a folder just for your articles at this point! :)
Haha thanks Rhetta! ;) I guess I should do a 365 things I learned from 6 residencies and 15 years abroad post, to make your folder even larger ;)
Works for me!
RETIRE. This is a great article! All your articles have been incredibly helpful!