Preparing for move to Mexico

[roni]

Many have written about their desire to move to Playa on a longer term basis than a vacation. Some have done it for an extended period (Ginger and family), others are there and have no plans to move anywhere else (Susie).

Others of us are planning, so I am starting this thread in the faint hope that some will write about what they are doing in terms of planning - or write about what they did in terms of planning before they moved.

A big area is planning to have/earn enough money to live on long term.

A second area is housing. Some folks (mindz, Michael and Ros, and others) have purchased houses or condos that they stay in during their visits and may use as vacation rentals when they are not there.

A third area is learning Spanish.

I'll write a little about what we are doing and then ask a couple of questions.

On the money part - we invest. Our retirement investments have been growing nicely and we seem to be in a pretty good real estate market (though not one of the red hot ones), and our house is appreciating nicely. Those two items - well, probably not the house right away - will need to fund our earliest years there - until the regular pension payments start to flow.

I can start drawing my first at age 60, as will Kathy - her age 60 will happen 3 years after mine. These are traditional, defined benefits plans. There is social security and within a few years we may have a better idea of when we can start collecting it (still under that magic 55 age that is supposed to mean the starting date of benefits won't change). Anyway, once the pension starts flowing - there should be increases every few years as mine and then Kathy's and then the same sequnce for SS.

Dunno that we want to get into specifics of investments, beyond those broad categories.

Have no definte plans for housing at this time. While prices may appreciate rapidly down there and buying sooner rather than later may be a good idea I am not leaning in that direction, preferring to keep the money in other investments.

I am interested in how folks who have bought property and used it for their visits and made it available for vacation rentals have done.

What proportion of your expenses have the vacation rental income covered?

What has your experience with property management firms been - good, bad?

That is enough for now. I realize this may not draw much interest, but thought I would put it out there.

[MoonDance]

Since I'm currently on the "Freedom 85" plan, I don't have any information that will help you, Ron. I just wanted to say that I think this thread is a good idea for those planning & for those just dreaming of things yet to come. I've still got 2 nippers at home to raise (I had to rescue the younger just now from a wedgie situation). I'll be following this thread....

[Ginger]

Originally Posted by MoonDance

Since I'm currently on the "Freedom 85" plan, I don't have any information that will help you, Ron. I just wanted to say that I think this thread is a good idea for those planning & for those just dreaming of things yet to come. I've still got 2 nippers at home to raise (I had to rescue the younger just now from a wedgie situation). I'll be following this thread....

LOL Moondance!

We are also on the freedom 85 plan..or freedom 120..or is it freedom 33? Either way, we may regret it one day but we just live our lives by the seat of our pants and don't do much lookin' to the future ('cept for our kids' edu-ma-cations). As far in the future we go is planning for our next three or four month tour of some country/region somewhere in the world. We own our home, almost completely, and that will always be there for us as our one security.

I guess we just feel like we want to enjoy ourselves and our lives now, with our children and with each other while we can have fun to the UTMOST, not when we need our walkers or to be in bed by 8. (no offense meant to ANYONE). At that point (when we have the walkers) we will be satisfied living in a small, ditchy apartment by the sea or wherever our grandchildren are...heh heh.

As for living in Playa more permanently...we had fun while we were there, but we also had fun coming home. We had a lot of fun on the road. It's all just so different in so many aspects, life here and life there, it's hard to say which we like more. I think for us it has to do with the fact that we both (and our children included) like to get moving a lot, and get bored easy, and really like and have a desire to NOT sit in one place and instead to travel around the world and see MANY places. But also, travelling around to us does not mean short visits, but spending 6 months in Europe, or a year in Australia, or 6 weeks in India, or wherever...you get the picture? I guess it's hard to explain....

When we were in Playa our children RARELY expressed a desire to come home. Since we've been home, our kids RARELY express a desire to go back to Mexico.

Instead we get..."So, when're we goin' to Europe?"

And as far as investments, I'm working on my Internet sites, and trying to write a few small books, and one larger one. I have some other larger and diverse "big ideas" that we'll try to put into action and see how they take off. Until then, I keep working on my business, and John keeps plumbing!

Cheers to everyone's diversity and everyone following their individual dreams!

[roni]

So are these "Freedom" plans Canadian retirement plans? Tell me about them, please.

[Ginger]

Ron, "freedom" plans are just retirement savings plans that plan on your "freedom" at a certain age, usually "freedom 55" or "freedom 65", so retiring happy and financially comfortable at age 55 or 65. Moondance was kidding about 85, and I just took it a step further...heh heh

[roni]

Thanks. There are similar investment plans in the USA, but I like making my own investment decisions instead of letting a brokerage firm do it

[AlmaLibre]

We are asked "how we did it" all the time in the bookstore.
Our general advice to anyone is...

1. Research, research, research
2. Eliminate debt
3. Stop buying "crap"
4. Shed excess possessions

These steps will allow you to "make the leap" if you find the right opportunity.

We are still researching and learning. We find that opportunities pop up here that we never imagined when we were up North.

[STOGEY]

I think this thread is a great idea. I would like to hear more about the title situation in Mexico. I don't like the idea of paying a lot of $$ and can't hold the title.Kind of wonder what could happen if things changed politically,in a radical way?

[roni]

Originally Posted by AlmaLibre

We find that opportunities pop up here that we never imagined when we were up North.

Is it possible to expand on that? If not, I understand, but the statement does lead logically to my question .

Ron

[roni]

Originally Posted by STOGEY

I think this thread is a great idea. I would like to hear more about the title situation in Mexico. I don't like the idea of paying a lot of $$ and can't hold the title.Kind of wonder what could happen if things changed politically,in a radical way?

Stogey, my understanding is that you can:

1) start a Mexican corporation and the corporation can hold the title

2) do a fideicomismo (spelling?) thing and your trust can hold the title.

Don't know if there are any practical differences between those and actually holding the title, from what I am told. Maybe JAH, who owns property down there, or Andy or mindz or someone with more experience wil answer. James, Anna??

[AlmaLibre]

Is it possible to expand on that? If not, I understand, but the statement does lead logically to my question

It does! Nothing specific I can point to, but suffice to say it's easier to spot "needs" and "niches" when you are here. The advice would be to stay open to ideas and realize there are many different ways to live down here. (It's also often valuable to do more than one thing)

[Becky]

Great thread Roni! Thanks for starting it.

For us the biggest factor is our kids. We have a blended family (both of us have kids from previous marriages, and we have one together), and I'm just not willing to take the kids from their other parents, or leave without them. I also prefer to give my kids the education system available here in the US until they go through high school.

That said, we are still planning to move to Mexico as soon as those things are no longer boundaries. We have some traditional investments and have recently begun investing in real estate, so we now have two rental houses in addition to the house we live in. The goal is to build enough passive income to live off of, and retire from the "regular" job, thus being able to live anywhere.

Recently, an opportunity has arisen in Mexico, and I'm seriously considering buying a place (with one or two other people). Regardless of whether it ends up being the place we retire to, I think it will be a good long term investment. Though it would definitely be a leap of faith with regards to the title issues that Stogey raises.

So while I still think it will be a long time before we make any permanent move, the dream of "having a place" there may materialize much sooner than I ever expected.

Becky

[ZAEM]

Thank you for starting this thread. A lot of good insight will come from this.

Buying a villa or condo is something my husband and I have discussed. At this point we are not ready and we know there is a lot of research to be done.

I am very interested in the issue that Stogey brought up about titles. Softy and I have been having this conversation about my interest of purchasing something in the future.

[roni]

Wow, you guys are great.

Something that I mentioned but did not write much about was learning Spanish. I get along in it all right, and when I slip into Portugues, it is usually understandable. I have difficulty keeping up with full-speed native speaking, but think that would improve pretty rapidly.

Kathy plans to start learning some soon, but I suspect we will both plan to spend some time with language school after we move.

After we move, sounds like I have made the decision for sure, doesn't it . We are looking at 4 years at the earliest - Kathy becomes vested in the Oregon retirement system then. Whether we do it then or later depends on how other investments do between now and then.

[birdman]

Like many we've talked about moving to Mex. we own our business & 2 homes that when sold would serve as our main income ( can't depend too much on Social security) with our investments ( IRA & stocks) as bask up income if needed.We would want to be on the west coast, simply because it's alot cheaper to buy property & live. The reason we haven't made the plunge---property ownership, I can't bring myself to pay for anything I don't own. Although it doesn't look like there would be any problems or change of gov. in the near future there's always that possibility.