Gringo Retirement in Central America

Typical developer wants to sell lots and houses here. High capital investment, quirky laws, odd titles, difficulty selling, fear of government activity, uncertainty about the future. Basically, limited to the well off and a big turn-off to the middle classes in the US.

As you say so correctly, the middle class elderly move around, miss the kids, get bored or die. What better solution than a low entry cost lease system. No titles, no sales issues, property owner worries about the maintenance and government actions. Rental but with a long term commitment from the owners.

My vision is a turn key all inclusive solution. One monthly TCO bill, fixed price, predictable expense to the resident or care finance providor. TCO = Total Cost of Occupancy.

It may well not be the resident paying the bill.

Story time.

Suppose your father remarried 3 times, lives in Denver with stepmother you don't really like, he dies and leaves you 3 million BUT stipulates you have to care for her. You are living in a small NYC apartment working 60 hours a week as a law partner. Weekends you play golf and do pool parties and suddenly JoAnne with the big hair is on your doorstep. Suddenly what JoAnne wants and can afford with social security has just dropped right down the priority list!

"JoAnne, you can live in a nursing home in Alabama like a pauper or live like a minor deity in Nicaragua. Heres the plane ticket" "Hey Tony, JoAnne is coming. Send me one bill a month, TCO, no extras, fixed price for first 3 years ... and dont call me!"

OK, maybe thats not an exact script but this scene will play out millions of times. The market definitely exists.

100,000 X 12 months X 5 years X 800 a month = 2,400,000,000

Are you SURE 2.4 billion will not change this country? Thats 60 years of USaid at current levels.

Tony X Robins, Jinotega

A lot of gringo baby boomer retirees have maxed out credit cards, refinanced homes and time payments on the car. They have no meaningful cushion or viable pension plan.

So when corporate america throws them out the door and their COBRA runs out, the rubber meets the road. Many will take the Arkansas or Alabama option; millions will move in with some family member; trailer homes will be very healthy.

But even in Alabama, the health insurance premiums will drain their money. Relatives will sometimes get mad and toss them out. Trailer homes are cheap to buy but they get old quick.

There will be a thousand reasons why the unacceptable will become acceptable and people will seek other countries.

My favorite solution is to help them by building an affordable community dedicated to this market. Near a town but not in the town. High density - 8 to 12 small homes an acre. Fairly basic by gringo standards but very good by Nicaraguan standards. Because they are at a distance from the local town, they can talk English with the neighbors and be, effectively, permanent tourists.

These will not be the Rancho Santana clients or anywhere even close. But they'll be clients and customers, and friends, and fellow humans.

It worked in Monte Verde Costa Rica, it'll work again, here.

Tony X Robins, Jinotega

Some Floridians I know are moving to Tennessee. Property taxes in Florida are expensive $5000.00 per year for a $300,000 house or $10,000 for every $500,000 of assessed value. Home prices are falling due to supply and demand issues and foreclosures, yet assessed value for taxation purposes remain high. Typical utility bills run over $300 per month with air conditioning and increased fuel adjustment charges and kilowatt hour rate increases. Florida has a 6 percent sales tax.

Tennessee has a 10 percent sales tax, but the property tax on a $225,000 home is less than $1000 per year. Many Florida retirees are moving there. Utility cost and demand is much lower especially in the summer.

Whether ex-Floridians will enjoy the winters in Tennessee is a mystery.

I would prefer Nicaragua. The medicare issue is a big concern for American retirees as is the language barrier and the inherent ethnocentrism of the average American (which inhibits the learning of any foreign language).

Talk it over with your wife first. In my case, I had that awesome idea too, and when I broached the topic with her, she said, and I quote "I've spent years trying to leave Nicaragua and to have a better life, and you want me to move back?" "Better" is highly subjective, so what you think is ideal might not sit well with her - but this is assuming you haven't talked to her yet. Have you? If she's in, I'd say go for it, if you can stand the back and forth travel.

Good luck!

Fellow coonass,

Thunderdial

Ask your compadres (or manager or tax accountant) at work if you qualify for the foreign earned income exemption. It is currently 84,000 per year and there are two ways to qualify. It matters less where you live than where you actually work... Is it considered US soil in the Gulf? Im working for Aramco and qualify because it is truly foreign earned income but you may qualify. Trust me, it's worth looking into. Doesn't really matter if you are a Nica resident or not. Any bonafide foreign residency coinciding with the right income source will qualify.

First, a Nicaraguan wife only helps in decreasing the time to get permanent residency and then citizenship. Other than that, the game is the same and, well, you are welcome here anyway.

If you leave every 14 days, residency isn't a legal issue, just a choice. On each entry you get to stay for 90 days with a 90 day renewal available.

In Nicaragua, there is not tax on external income so that is a non-problem on this end. However, the US government taxes you on your world income--no matter where it comes from or where you live. The exception is that if you are out of the US all the time (I think you can be in the us something like 30 days a year, actually) and you are being paid by a non-US company, your income up to some maximum that is close to $100,000 these days is tax free. But, if that is US-based income, no dice.

But...it might end up a lot mores like 12,000 people living mostly off $800 a month, or whatever SSN checks are then at for the "average" person and 500 living off a lot more.

There is also the problem or possibility of peoples beings double counted. Depends who keeps the stats. It is conceivable for someone like Fyl to be counted as both an expat in CR and also as an expat in NI and whiles he was once the former he was never really both at the same time. Most the expats I know are on at least their 2nd country if not their third. If someone goes that does not really mean they will stay forever nor spend their total income in country.

You sound like a Pre Castro Mafia pipe dream...... Who knows with a cash infusion of 30 billion you might even make a profit at your Internet Cafe someday.