A retired boomer who moved from the US to Costa Rica said it's 'horribly incorrect' to assume life in Central America is much cheaper
Gary Keenan moved from New Mexico to Costa Rica for retirement but finds today's living costs high.
Keenan expected lower expenses in Costa Rica but recently faced double the cost of his car and groceries.
Though many are moving to Latin America for retirement, some are finding living costs expensive.
Gary Keenan, 71, moved from New Mexico to the Central Valley of Costa Rica nine years ago for his retirement after selling his company and finalizing a divorce. However, a decade later, he said prices for some daily expenses like food and supplies would be as high as double what he has seen in the US recently.
Keenan said he loved the peace and nature of Costa Rica after spending most of his life in Albuquerque. But it's come with a cost — he said his car costs twice what it would have in the US, groceries are often 1 ½ to two times the price of comparable goods at US stores in New Mexico, and rents are skyrocketing, particularly in more touristy areas.
"I have read several articles in the last four months that actually said these are the countries to live in for less than in the US," Keenan said. "That is horribly incorrect."
Over the past few months, Business Insider has talked to Americans who recently moved to Latin America for retirement or work opportunities. Some said they got priced out of the US and had since been able to live more comfortably. Others like Keenan said life had become much more peaceful but expenses remained high.
Still, some recent movers to Costa Rica said in less touristy areas, prices are cheaper compared to recent US prices.
Deciding on Costa Rica
Keenan was born and raised in Albuquerque and practiced law for nearly a decade in the 1980s. He took over his father's insurance business, which he ran for about 25 years.
During his time with the insurance company, he attended a retreat in Playa Zancudo, in the south of Costa Rica. A few years later, he attended a wedding in Playa Grande in the country's northwestern Guanacaste region, which he adored for its accessible beaches.
After these visits, he knew he wanted to retire in Costa Rica to live what he called an "easygoing" life far from the US. He was tired of living in the same city his whole life, and though he considered moving to Europe, he wanted to explore other parts of the world. He sold his business in 2014 while filing for a divorce, and by the start of January 2015 he had packed up everything in New Mexico and moved to Costa Rica.
He decided to move after his retirement in an attempt to learn Spanish, intending to move to France a few years later and learn French.
"I discovered that neither my desire nor my aptitude was sufficient to allow me to learn Spanish in three years," he said. "In that time, I also met a woman who I am still involved with, so that nipped moving to France in the bud."
He knew San José would be less touristy than Guanacaste or other beach areas, though he was surprised by how few people spoke sufficient English for communication. For his first year or two, while learning the basics of Spanish, he struggled to buy groceries, deposit money in the bank, or get around the area.
"I started with a tutor, went to her for a year and a half, but I realized that although I was learning a lot of verbs and their conjugations, I was still not able to understand a word of Spanish spoken by the locals," Keenan said. "If you are lucky enough to understand Spanish as a general rule, you're still going to have issues because they drop syllables and speak very fast."
Even after a decade in Costa Rica, he said, he still hadn't mastered Spanish, nor has he picked up a lot of new vocabulary. Still, he says he knows enough to get around and feel comfortable in his area.
Moving across Costa Rica
When he first moved, he had not been to San José, nor did he know where the touristy areas were. He did some research before moving down, though he said there wasn't much he could tell about particular areas other than what he could find on Google Maps.
He stayed at a hotel in San Pedro, on the capital's outskirts, and then looked for an apartment nearby. A few decades ago, the area was predominantly coffee fields, meaning many developments are newer and have plenty of nature. He discovered he didn't want to live there, however, because of the intense rainy season. He recalled it once taking an hour to drive 100 yards because of the heavy traffic in the rain.
He hired a man with a van to show him around the outskirts, and he settled on Santa Ana, a small city west of San José. When he moved, the city had a large expat population, and he said the area became increasingly commercialized and expensive.
Ultimately, he relocated over seven years ago to Cariari, a town in the country's northeast home to a major golf course.
Costa Rica has gotten more expensive than he expected
Keenan said that when he first moved to Costa Rica, prices were cheaper than in the US, though not by too much. In the late 2010s, he said he was living rather comfortably financially. But when inflation hit in mid-2022, he said, prices in his area skyrocketed.
Costa Rica imposed import duties on US items, which have recently driven up prices for many of his expenses. Additionally, the US dollar has fallen by roughly 25% compared with the Costa Rican colón since peaking in summer 2022 — this means that over the last two years, he's had to be more cautious about budgeting. He said prices when he visited Panama were, on the whole, much lower.
Keenan said this was most apparent with food prices. For instance, the cheapest cuts of beef at his local grocery store are roughly $5.50 a pound. Steaks, many of which are imported from Argentina, come in at about $17 a pound. Packaged goods, as well as imported fruits and vegetables, are also higher than prices he's researched at New Mexico grocery stores.
In early 2023, he said he bought a car in Costa Rica for about $34,000, which the Kelley Blue Book listed as costing $16,000 to $18,000 in the US. Though he could have shipped a car from the US, he was worried about the transportation costs and what would happen if he needed a new car part found only in the US.
He never bought a house, as he said the process could take years in Costa Rica. His first condo was about $1,000 a month, while his current apartment is $1,500 a month — which he said was a good deal as he already knew the landlord.
He said rents in general were comparable to or cheaper than in the US but could similarly vary greatly depending on the area. He estimates that prices have jumped 50% to 100% in some touristy areas along the coasts since the pandemic hit, especially with greater investment in real estate from expats.
"Bottom line is any US resident coming here to retire should expect to pay a bit more for daily expenses," he said.
Correction: June 24, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the location of Costa Rica's Guanacaste region. It's in the country's northwest, not its northeast.
Have you recently left the United States for a new country? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
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